Unit 5 Final paper google docs.docx.docx

Gutierrez, Preciado, Mitchell, Lopez 1

Javier Gutierrez Alberto PreciadoVenecia MitchellVictoria LopezProfesor DonoyanEnglish 102May 26, 2014September 11, 2001The infamous September 11, 2001 Speech, Given by The president of the United States of America at the time Mr. George W. Bush, the speech that was given by Mr. Bush was to address the nation of alleged terrorist attacks that happened in the soil of The United States of America. Although it was not the first time that Americans have been under attack in the United States of America, it was the second and final attempt to bring down the Twin Towers of New York City, New York. After the aftermath the two giants went down, not only did they go down, as they went down they took American lives, memories, friends, fathers, mothers and most importantly, a part of our freedom. The events took our freedom of security, freedom of oppression from the United Stated Government looking to use this as an occasion to spy on the United States citizens to find the so called terrorist networks operating in the United States soil. Looking back at this emotional time the speech given by the president Mr. Bush there are a few fallacies found throughout Bushs speech. Some of which include dogmatism, scare tactics, overly emotional, and either or. After breaking the speech down to each word, noun and verb we were able to find the stigmatized fallacious arguments.The target audience in the speech given by Mr. Bush was every American citizen and the world. The reason it was addressed to such a large population was because the United States were known as the leaders of the free world, and as such in that time there had to be a massive response to the events that happened on September 11, 2001. The political, social and economic landscape during that time can be seen as the beginning of a new era. Politically, Mr. George W. Bush was sworn in as, the 43rd president along with Colin Powell as secretary of State and Donald Rumsfeld as the new Secretary of Defense. Socially, amazingly the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees of the Major League Baseball team to win their first championship. Sadly, Singer Aaliyah died in a plane accident in the Bahamas. Economically the Bush tax cuts where signed into law by the president at the time George W. Bush. The economy was going through low employment rates because of the market crash in March of year 2000 as the economic recession gave its way. The speech that George W. Bush gave post September 11, 2001 definitely was influenced by the turmoil going on pre-September 11, 2001. Its as if when the bad times were coming the storm had just begun and the people of the United States of America were going to burn with pain and tears. In the speech George W. Bush attempted to give hope to those who were hopeless using his fallacious arguments.An example of dogmatism is seen a minute into the speech when Ex-President Bush states, Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done (par. 5). This is a clear example of dogmatism because one thing that could and will be done under all circumstances. In this case, justice will be done no matter what. Another fallacy used was scare tactics and this is seen in Bushs speech when he states, The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children (par. 12). This is clearly an example of scare tactics because it puts fear into the audience and it may cause people to feel prejudice. Bush uses this to his advantage to scare the Americans and to make them hate terrorist simply because they have directive commands to kill all Americans. Another fallacy that we see a little later into the speech is the use of being overly emotional. This is seen immediately after the scare tactics mentioned earlier when Bush states, The leadership of Al Qaida has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see Al Qaida's vision for the world. Afghanistan's people have been brutalized. Many are starving, and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough (par. 14). This is an example of the fallacy of being overly emotional because it uses emotion to distract the readers from the facts. When Bush says that people could be jailed or brutalized, the people focus their attention to the heart wrenching situations and ignore the facts given. Later in the speech, we see the fallacy of either or when Bush states, Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime (par. 25). This is a clear example of either or because either you are with us, referring to the United States, or against them, in which you would be regarded as a terrorist. This fallacy is used to strengthen the speech. Fallacious arguments are created unintentionally or sometimes intentionally in order to deceive others. In the book Everythings an Argument, it states that fallacious arguments are powerful and if frequently used emotionally, ethically, and logically can make your speech ineffective. Having to be very careful on what fallacious arguments you are using based on the topic you deciding to talk about has a big effect on if fallacious arguments are successful or not. For example, President Bush mainly used fallacies of emotion and ethical argument. Whether purposely used or unintended they were needed to gather the audiences attention and their emotional support by using fallacies like overly sentimental appeals, scare tactics, and either-or choices. These fallacies strengthen speeches by attacking the audiences feelings and worst fears. If not used appropriately they should be avoided because they can easily mislead an audience from what your point is. Fallacious arguments are used in writing to focus the reader on the topic without using any kind of logic and persuade individuals to join your point of view. My personal opinion based on the speech I used for this project it was easier to find the fallacies Bush used when reading the written script versus just listening to speech. As the basic audience who doesn't know much about scare tactics or dogmatism you wouldn't be able to catch on to the fact that the speaker is using fallacious arguments to persuade you within his speech. I do think when using fallacies they seem to have a bigger effect on the speaker or writer to use them in your speeches rather than your writing because as I mentioned earlier they are easier for a reader to catch on to them. With fallacies you have to be careful on how you use them or when to use them. In conclusion to the speech given by George W. Bush the president of the United States on September 11, 2001. We were able to identify the target audience for the speech, the political, social and economical landscape during which the speech was given. We were clearly able to identify the fallacies found throughout the oration. Also we were able to induce on whether the speeches fallacious arguments strengthened the speech. Also gave our opinion on when is the best time to use fallacious arguments, whether in text or oral form. Works Cited"Fallacies." The Writing Center. College of earth and sciences , n.d. Web. 27 May 2014. .