Transcript MLK ’s “ Letter from Birmingham Jail ” Background

MLK Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Background April 16, 1963
• During non-violent demonstrations for racial
equality in Birmingham, Alabama, MLK was
arrested and jailed for eight days.
• He wrote this letter to white clergymen to
explain his actions and to answer those people
who urged him to call off the demonstrations.
• He responds to his critics who claim that he and
other African-Americans should wait for the
federal, state, and local governments to make
changes
Emotional Appeal: Pathos
• An emotional appeal is an appeal to “pathos,”
which in Greek loosely translates to “pain”
• Writers use this appeal because most people
respond to emotion
• Wise for writers to only through emotions that
appeal to needs that we all have in common
– Physical (life and health)
– Psychological (person’s need for love and respect)
– Social (need for freedom, for respect, for
acceptance)
Emotion
Don’t overdo emotion or people won’t take you seriously, but a little bit of emotion will
probably help if carefully reasoned and honestly presented.
Illustrate or dramatize an idea
For example, if stiffer measures are needed against drunk drivers, find a place to include a
description of the face of a child who was injured in a drunk driving accident. OR tell the story
of a driver who caused several accidents because the individual’s license was never revoked.
Careful word choice
Drunk or intoxicated drivers a menace or a concern
Thrown into jail or incarcerated
Teach them a lesson or make them aware of the consequences of their actions
Ethics
The best way to put ethical appeal in your writing is to “build a strong, healthy
relationship with your readers. Convince them that they can trust you to be fair,
honest, well-informed, and well-intentioned. Then having established that trust,
don’t betray it.”
http://www.powa.org/argument/appeals.html
1. Gain your audience’s trust.
Activity
Letting 10 represent the highest and 1 the lowest, rate the
following public figures for their appeal to character.
Of course, you’ll be considering more that just writing,
but the activity should still give you some insight into
what ethos is and how it affects credibility. When
you’ve finished, compare your ratings with those of a
partner. Discuss the reasons for your scoring.
a.
c.
e.
g.
i.
Abraham Lincoln
Michael Jackson
George W. Bush
Ann Landers
Sandra Day O’Connor
b. Adolf Hitler
d. Madonna
f. Bill Gates
h. Jay Leno
j. Bill Clinton
Deductive reasoning
Thinking begins with general and moves toward specifics by taking a general
principle that you know to be true and use it to understand a specific situation.
For example, bad weather reduces business for outdoor restaurants. Today is
cold and rainy. From this knowledge, you can say Business will be slow today at
the outdoor restaurants. This is deductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning
Thinking begins with specifics and moves toward a generalization.
If you were to taste several green, plump grapes and then draw the conclusion
that all green, plump grapes are sour, this is inductive reasoning.
In writing
have you examined the evidence carefully?
does the evidence justify your conclusion?
have you given enough specific evidence to make readers
believe your thinking is sound and conclusion is true?
Activity
Read the following statements and comment on their use
of informal reasoning. What details would you need
to see in order to be convinced? Can you find any
unstated assumptions that need to be examined?
a. Coach Ratcliffe should be fired because a coach’s job is
to win ballgames.
b. I know he’s popular because he drives a Corvette.
c. The President hasn’t done anything about welfare
reform, so he has no sympathy for the poor.
d. Too much smoking ruins a person’s health, so you
know Louisa’s in bad shape.
e. Today’s prisons are practically like country clubs.
f. Imported cars are higher in quality than American
cars.
g. Mr. Price got the contract, so you know he paid a few
people off.
Activity 2
Look over the following examples, fill in any missing links
in the reasoning chain, and comment on the uses of
informal logic:
Claim: Coach Ratcliffe should be fired.
Link: A coach’s job is to win ballgames.
Data: The team had a 4 and 6 record this year.
They had a 3 and 7 record last year.
They had a 1 and 9 record the previous year.
Claim: Omaha has an outstanding school system.
Link:
Data: The buildings are well-maintained.
Most schools have computers.
Several new schools have been built in the past few
years.