Grammar Assignment 1. Identify your most serious grammar issue(s) based on the feedback provided on your essay and other writing assignments. Some major issues include sentence structure, run-ons, co
“Letter From Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail is significant for strong argumentation to underpin social positioning concerning the problems of racism, segregation, and inequality. Rhetorical elements are the central tool for reasoning in the letter. Martin Luther King emphasizes the problem of racism as the most severe problem of American society and provides persuasive argumentation to underpin this assumption. Therefore, the implementation of ethos, logos, and pathos is the central technique that reinforces the argumentation in the letter.
Pathos is one of the rhetorical devices that implies the emotional framework that aims to develop a connection with the reader. Thus, pathos is also an effective method based upon the emotional constituent of the text. The passage about the impact of segregation and racism is the most significant example of pathos in the letter. The author tells about the disappointment of a child because “Funtown is closed to colored children,” moral suffering of young people due to disrespect of their relatives based upon the racial prejudice, and “living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next” (King). These examples evoke certain feelings that create the “connection” between the author and the targeted audience. Consequently, pathos is a vital element of the letter that helps to grab the attention of society to the topic of segregation and social injustice.
Ethos and logos are the next vital constituents that underpin the argument with logical reasoning. At first sight, these two devices are quite similar due to the purpose they have in the text. Although both ethos and logos are essential for increasing credibility and underpinning the argumentation, they also have different features. For reason, rhetorical devices are necessary means to persuade the target audience through reasoning and logical argumentation. Unlike logos, the national spirit implies the special nature involved in reasoning as the basis of argument. Hence, logos and ethos are rhetorical elements essential to underpin the central points of the text.
The author applies logos to make the assumptions logical and persuasive for readers. Thus, reason and logic are the main features of the logos aimed to persuade the reader. King implements this technique to underpin his assumptions concerning the problem of social injustice. For instance, the author provides logical arguments to describe the difference between “just” and “unjust” laws. There is the passage that refers to logical reasoning: “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (King). Hence, logos make the arguments, listed in the letter, sound logical and credible.
As is mentioned above, the author applied all three rhetorical elements to provide an effective argumentation for his letter. The ethos plays a central role in reasoning the significance of nonviolent direct action. King involves claims of several famous figures, such as Socrates, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich to confirm the credibility of his assumption (“Letter from the Birmingham Jail”). Given the message and language of the letter, King mainly addressed an elite audience with good education and generally the minority groups that were oppressed at this time. Thus, all of the listed personalities are famous philosophers; this fact verifies the validity of the author’s reasoning. Therefore, the main ain of the ethos is to persuade the reader with credible reasoning.
To sum up, rhetorical devices are the primary tools applied by King to provide persuasive reasoning. The listed examples of ethos, logos, and pathos demonstrate the effective usage of rhetoric to underpin the argumentation in the text. Letter from Birmingham Jail is an example of a successful interaction of rhetorical techniques to persuade the readers and provide logical and credible argumentation.
Works Cited
King, Martin Luther. Letter from the Birmingham Jail. AFERICAN STUDIES CENTER – UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 16 April 1963
