Rhetorical Listening Blogs

              Franklin Raff’s article “American Multilingual: A National Tragedy” to inform and convince you that the multilingualism of this country is a tragedy and it’s leaving many immigrants ‘lost in translation’. It explained that the language barrier was immense for immigrants and it halted their financial progress. The audience are American citizens of any age or ethnicity, to make citizens feel empathy. The author is a Spanish-speaking Hispanic that has had some experiences with multi-linguistic dilemmas.               This writing uses rhetorical devices such as an appeal to emotions and logic, like when he starts to share statistics about the educational rate of Hispanics and then he proceeds to say “How does that feel?” to try and convince you emotionally and show you how misfortune Hispanics are. The statistics he provided for his appeal to logic show how Hispanics are not being educated enough, ...

The speech “They took a knee” which was written by Megan Garber. The purpose of this text was to inform, explain, and justify to the audience about the kneeling at football games and how the kneeling is to protest the injustices the police and government officials have done to minorities. The target audience is Americans between teenagers and the elderly that preferably agrees with her position. The author supports the movement mentioned in the text.             The author builds her credibility by quoting accurately and stating when and where the phrases were said. The rhetorical device, repetition, is used again and again throughout the article, especially the use of “…took a knee” at the beginning as an attempt to create a tense atmosphere for the reader, to make the following text more impactful. The author uses appeals to emotions and ethic by explaining that this movement is to protests injustices that have taken place ag...

Jamila Lyiscott has a four-minute ted talk and titles it “3 ways to speak English”. She is a renowned speaker and youth activist from New York who is trying to show not that articulating is good Eurocentric English but that in reality articulate is whatever English you do speak. Furthermore, that by speaking English that is different from “articulate” it doesn’t mean they are ignorant.   She’s persuading the audience to not judge anyone who talks different than normal articulate. Her audience is the people attending and Americans in general.   Lyiscott uses rhetoric by using different accents to differentiate the people she is talking about. She uses those forms of different English to also demonstrate how they talk. She uses rhetoric by using those accents without having to say who she is talking to or how she talks to that person because she demonstrates it. She uses that rhetoric to show that those three different ways of speaking English are as articulate and equal to ...

“The case against 'Latinx'” is an article written by Daniel Hernandez trying to convince the audience that the term 'Latinx' simply doesn’t work. Latinx is a word that is more inclusive than Latino and Latina and it was created to make the LGBTQ community feel more welcomed because it is a neutral word. The audience is mainly for the people that believe that Latinx is a doable alternative to Latino and Latina. It debates about a word that defines a whole race and educates people why “Latinx “doesn’t work. In the article he even presents a possible replacement that can make everyone happy. The author seems like a Spanish speaker and activist for the Hispanic community. The author uses rhetoric to make his points by analyzing the word Latinx. He uses logic to try and show the audience that Latinx does not function with Spanish Language’s rules. He provided an example of how in Spanish, some nouns are male, and some nouns are female. His style of writing provides a lot...

Gioncarlo Valentine wrote an article titled “P.C Language Changed My Life”, in which he explains how the expansion and inclusion in the language we speak is necessary for those who feel away from the world. The audience is people who are strangling to find peace in their body as a male or female. He also explained how the addition of new pronouns could really help everybody find a place of their own, and how he feels that he has missed that bus because he feels at home with his male body.             This is an informative and personal essay that is intended not only for the transgender community, but for everybody who is trying to understand and identify who they truly are. The author is a person a kind and understanding person who has gone through great struggles to find a home in himself.             The author used emotional appeals in order to persuade the audience by...

              France François’ article “How Learning New Languages Has Shaped My Identity” explains how moving to the United States and assimilating to a new language, as well as learning new languages and experiencing different cultures first-hand has shaped the way she sees the world. This personal essay audience’s is people who might be learning a new language or that have learned a new language and can relate to her experiences, but of course, since it’s on the internet making it accessible to everybody. France François is from Haiti and worked on several social issues regarding policymaking.               Her tone is objective yet personal because she incorporates examples of phrases in her native language, English, and Spanish in order to help the audience understand how knowing different languages has affected her life. For example, on her first job in DC, when asked about her opinion on a project she answe...