Persuasive writing and speaking advances the progress towards social justice and

equality by using rhetoric to convince them to believe what they are saying is right. The purpose
of MLK’s letter is to get equal rights for everyone. I believe that his speech was the most
successful in using rhetoric because he brings his point across using ethos, pathos and logos to
get the clergymen to understand and act upon what he is saying. In Alvarez’s story of justice the
purpose is to get others to speak up for what they believe is right. Alvarez does an okay job in
advancing her purpose because she focuses mostly on pathos describing what her family went
through and how she can use that to convince others to speak up. The purpose of Yousafzai’s
speech is to get equal rights for women. Yousafzai did well in bringing her point across but I felt
that she was lacking when it came down to using logos.
The purpose of MLK’s letter as stated before is to get equal rights for everyone and
prove the clergymen wrong. One piece of evidence I used was, “I too am compelled to carry the
gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.”MLK is using pathos or emotion by using
the fact that since the clergymen are supposed to be religious, they would be going against
what they are spreading the word about. Another piece of evidence that I used was when the
text says, “My dear fellow clergymen”. This clearly shows that MLK is also a clergyman and is
using his authority to express his friendship with the others. After reading this letter I felt that
MLK’s use of rhetoric is successful in all aspects to the point where everyone has to believe
what he is saying must be the right thing to do and as a result we have had equal rights till this
day.
The purpose in Alvarez’s text was to get people to stand up and speak up for equal
rights and justice. One piece if evidence I used from the text was when it stated, “I was a thorn
on my mom’s side”. This uses pathos to express what her mother had to to go through on a
daily basis. Another piece of evidence used at the end of the text when her mom says, “ I am
glad you wrote the book.” This also uses pathos because it shows that Alvarez was successful
and everything she went through had reason and resulted in not only her mother’s praise but
everyone else’s. Alvarez was slightly successful because she focuses mostly on emotion to get
her point across instead of using more authority and logic.
The purpose of Yousafzai’s speech is to get equal rights for women. One piece of
evidence I used was when it said, “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be
heard”. This shows a good use of pathos because she wants to express the fact that she is not
doing all this for herself but for others. Another piece of evidence was when it states at the
beginning of the text, “In the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful”. This is using
ethos which shows the authority that God has and how she is doing this in his name. Yousafzai
is mostly successful in bringing her point across because she is lacking the use of logos or logic
when expressing what should be done about the situation.
In conclusion I feel that MLK’s letter was the most successful in using rhetoric in bringing
his point across. All the texts are successful in advancing the progress towards social justice
and equality because we are all here today with equal rights due to how they how they brought
the situation up and expressed what they all believed in.