Week 3

After reading the three articles I have to say the one I am most familiar with is the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln gave this speech with the intent to start something new. In his attempt he starts off by using facts, facts about the civil war and men who died for the country. This is the start of his argumentative speech and what our English book calls factual arguments. Like the book says, “factual arguments tend to be driven by perceptions and evidence” and that is exactly true in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln’s statement, “our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. Well yes that is what most people would like to think, but did these facts hold true through out the rest of history? I don’t think so! Even though Abraham Lincoln tried to stop things like slavery, there was still prejudice all over against black people. It was something the people had an extremely hard time accepting after they had been using slaves for all these years past.
The other article by Booker T. Washington uses a few devices to try and capture the reader’s sympathy while also using persuasive devices to try and influence the people around him. One of Washington’s big ways he presents his idea is through a metaphor and a quote about a ship lost at sea that finally spots a friendly vessel. Washington uses this to try and help the reader understand in a more dubbed down version why racism basically needs to end and why the blacks and whites need to be able to be friendly with one another. He also uses a certain quote through out his speech, “cast down your bucket where you are” which is also the title of the speech. This is one of Washington’s ways to tell the people to stop and be who you really are, and help to make a change in society.
The article about woman’s rights was an article that presented its evidence very well. It gave reasons for why woman are important in society and what they do that makes a change. This article is also organized very well into the different sections and topics that dealt with woman’s rights and why the woman should be given them.
All three of these articles deal with equality and facts that are used to prove the arguments in a persuasive manner.