Project 1

Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis

            What is something we all look forward to? What age is so important to teenagers? What legally gives us the “adult title”? We can all anticipate that turning 18 can answer all these questions? So, Why is this important to many of us? What makes a multitude of us rush life? In listening to Trace Adkins song “You’re Gonna Miss This”, I began analyzing the meaning of this song; it sums up a great amount of detail about wanting to growing up, and the reality of it.

            Growing up to fast is the exact focus of “You’re Gonna Miss This” by Trace Adkins. In his song he states, “ You’re gonna miss this you’re gonna want this back, you’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast, these are some good times, so take a good look around, you may not know this now, but your gonna miss this”. Who would better know this than an adult and father that has lived/living this? These lyrics are put together this way to emphasis the ideas of how the perspectives of young adolescence changes when they realize what all life has in store. These lyrics also emphasis the words “you’re gonna”, this definitely brings the audience to relate to themselves. Well Trace Adkins is father to 5 girls; he definitely has credibility in this song. Also when researching a survey about kids growing up fast, 82% or people agree that kids grow up to fast, leaving 18% disagreeing (www.debate.org). This is tremendous example exemplifying what Trace Adkins is saying in “You’re Gonna Miss This”. This survey involves adults and adolescences themselves, with no limitations on who can vote.

            Adkins also portrays his expertise; in the way he sings the songs, the flowing of the diction. This song is chronologically in order and the events are able to get the audience’s attention/focus because it is what we live. We are raised, and then become “crazy teenagers”, then want/try to do things by ourselves. By doing this it grabs the attention of the audience. For

Example his first verse says, “She was staring out that window, of the SUV, Complaining, saying I can’t wait to turn 18, she said I’ll make my own money, and I’ll make my own rules, mamma put the car in park out there in front of the school, then she kissed her head and said I was just like you” This identifies with teenagers rebelling against parents and making life sound quite easy and unreal. Meaning that kids sometimes do not see the true reality of growing up and becoming an adult with responsibilities.

            Readers or listeners of this song automatically relate this song to their life unintentionally. This song brings memories, good or bad about life through the adolescence and emerging life stages. Through this the audience emotionally appeals to the song lyrics. Through all this Trace Adkins builds up a good amount of credibility. Where many people are focused and involving themselves in the song lyrics.

           

Works Cited

"Do Kids Today Grow up Too Fast?" The Premier Online Debate Website. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

“You’re Gonna Miss This” Adkins, Trace Jan. 2008.

Week 5: Rhetorical Strategies: Breif Sketch

In Trace Adkins song “You’re Gonna Miss This”, he is very clear on his purpose as well as his appeal to pathos and ethos. He is very soft and creative with the wording he uses and he is very thoughtful on who is audience is. His song is about a girl wanting to grow up to fast, and he being an adult realizes how fast time flies as your kid, as well as from his perspective in the song as being a dad. Adkin definitely knows how to grab the attention of his audience by making the lyrics from adults and teens.  Many, many people can relate to this song with out a doubt. So I hope to frame my essay just the way Adkins formed his song chronologically with a clear point. I am shooting for a clear thesis paragraph that informs my readers of what I will be discussing and what the song means.  Although Adkins is telling a story within a song I will be relating the analysis to every verse and the chorus to get a full all around grasp of what he means. I know in his third verse there is a little confusion in how he starts talking about how there is a plumber working on the water heater and how one kids running and on kids crying….so I hope I am able to explain how that came about.

Project 1 blog- Rhetorical Situation

I am doing my project 1 paper on song lyrics in regards to analyzing the rhetorical situation in the lyrics. What exactly is a rhetorical situation? It is essentially, how author addresses audience and the strategies they use to appeal to the audience.

The name of the song is You’re gonna miss this by Trace Adkins. This song has a lot of meaning to it where many young adults are capable of relating to it. It also in a way elaborates on life situations. It entails a story all in a short song.

The audience for these song lyrics would be young adults, more or so those going through there adolescence years.

The purpose of this song would be to inform, and to explain. Nonetheless, meanings can vary depending on the life of the individual.

The message this song is portraying is that most kids want to grow up really fast, move out of mom and dad’s house, without realizing the realism of what the outcomes are. As parents know life isn’t easy being independent.

The social context would be that many of us have a common misconception about what the adult life consists of.

Author’s ethos would be he is an adult and is a father himself. This gives him credibility on speaking on this specific subject.

Fallacies: Post Hoc (false cause)

What is a fallacy? A fallacy is a statement in your writing that do not help you to make a claim, but rather weakens it and gives you less credibility. 

I came across an article in, In Touch magazine at the store. It was about the famous Jennifer Aniston being pregnant. 

I flipped inside the magazine to read the article. As I was reading it caught my attention that she stated, "Maybe I was not able to conceive before because it was not meant to be" (Intouch Sept. 2014). 

This brought to my attention the fallacy of false cause. What is false cause? "Assuming that because B comes after A, A cause B. 

Therefore concluding because Jennifer Aniston was not able to get pregnant and trying for a long time, it was not meant to be, because she is now pregnant at age 45. This shows how the fallacy is exemplified using the magazine article I came across. 

This argument gives her no credibility because it is an assumption of why it happened.  Although, the idea sounds very reasonable to a person with the belief in why things happen, it is still an assumption. The article is speaking about her being pregnant and she "distorts the issue" by going off and speaking about why it didn't initially happen sooner.

Logos: Thoreau's: Civil Disobedience

What is logos? Logos is the author’s persuasive appeal to a logical argument. It is a way they obtain some type of credibility in there works.

In analyzing Henry Thoreau’s: Civil Disobedience, it is concluded that there are a few examples in this document.

For one he definitely felt the need that a government that is unjust cannot be a government. He goes on long-winded about how a person should not have to follow  a “law” if it is unjust.

He himself actually, explains to us in his writing that he was arrested for not paying his taxes. Why? Well because he stood up against a law he thought was unjust. He did this because slavery was not being abolished.  This exemplifies his reasoning. It also shows why his argument is logical.  He states in his opening paragraph “also I believe—‘That government is best which governs not at all’" he puts meaning to this saying. He is not saying that no government is needed, but better yet that if a government is not governing “just” laws, then it is not governing at all.

Another argument Thoreau writes upon is how The United States is in such an aggressive war. A reason behind him not being for the government. This was the Mexican-American war. So why might this war be so aggressive? Well for one Thoreau felt as though this war was rather forced then accepted. He feels as though “the people” did not have a voice. This also is a logical reason in which he does not feel the need to obey an unjust law.

Through out his paper he gives reasoning behind each action.

Pathos: Letter From Birmingham Jail

In reading Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he exemplified a few examples of pathos.

So what exactly is pathos? Pathos is emotional appeals to audience.

One great example of this would be when Dr. King, Jr. is explaining that he has to explain to his daughter that she is not allowed to go to the amusement park because of her color. I find this quite disturbing to hear that this young girl’s heart is broken and there is no reason for this.

Another example where he states, “… if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on two occasions, refusing to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together” (King 5). Here Dr. King Jr. is explaining to us the cruel punishment and this has pathos written all over it. Just being able to imagine, or even without trying to imagine, imagery floats across our minds as how this happened.

In his letter Dr. King Jr. cannot help but to write about these cruel events. Without any of this cruelty his letter alone cannot create the amount of immoral events that are going on.

Pathos is a great way to persuade people to see things in a more vivid image. Although, I don’t think it should always be used to persuade. I feel in his letter he is not using these things to persuade his writing, but rather the events persuade people to see for themselves. If that even makes sense.

Ethos: "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

In reviewing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" I came to realize the ethos he has in his letter.

For one he is an educated man with a PhD. This gives him credibility to write because he is very knowledgeable. He also has reason to speak on this matter because of his involvement as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His writing also exemplifies formal word choice. He uses a lot of metaphors. For example, “This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never’…only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration…. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the sting darts of segregation to say ‘wait’” (King 1963).  His tone is very calm, just as the attitude I perceived from reading this text.

His quality of information is very organized and well picked out. He sets up his letter into a multitude of paragraphs to in depth describe what happen, why it happened, how he comes to conclusions and why he is writing. Everything is very clear.

One example where he is gaining credibility is paragraph 14. He is explain the difference between determining how a law is just or unjust, showing his knowledge on this subject he is speaking on. As such, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

Overall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gained his credibility and ethos with providing us with vivid examples of his knowledge on the subject, his word choice, and his using of formal word correctly.

Rhetorical Situation: Letter from Birmingham Jail

In reading Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he compiled elements of a rhetorical situation. A rhetorical situation consists of three elements, being audience, purpose, and aim.

He was well aware of whom his audience was and he took that into consideration. He for one dedicated each and every paragraph to importance with much credit and explanation. He did this to thoroughly explain the reason he got arrested is unjust and what he did was nonviolent and his right.

Another component he addressed was his purpose. He fully in depth explained how everything was planned and how his planning was completely just. In his letter he writes, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification and direct action” (Martin Luther King Jr. 1963). He goes on to explain how he did just this and how they made a peaceful protest for a law that was already implemented but not being practiced. This was the first amendment.

His aim was to explain, persuade, and express.

He is responding to a public statement of concern essentially making the claim that he did nothing unjust and that he has gathered all his details to prove this to e true. His audience is the public and eight white religious leaders.