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English Comp. 101
Sep. 15th
The article Ban the Burqa, written by Claire Berlinski, brings forth the claim that the burqa must be banned. Berlinski takes use of various means to introduce and argue for her claims, such as the three major rhetorical strategies: pathos, ethos and logos. However, Berlinski fails to do so efficiently. The article is strong in its structure; however, it relies too heavily on pathos, which makes the article too emotional and therefore less credible.
The type of audience that she is writing to is conservative Americans. There are many clues in the article that supports this claim. One of the most obvious ones being that she published her article in the National Review, which has primarily a conservative viewpoint on most topics. A first look at the their website and the first thing we can see is criticism of President Barack Obama as well as other liberal points of view.
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English: Barack Obama delivering his electoral vic...Clearly this magazine is for conservatives. Another reason would be when she states, "It would to any American; politically, we all descend from men and women persecuted for their faith"(Berlinski par. 4). The fact that she brings in a well founded American value, religious freedom, which is also an extremely well founded conservative value, not only shows us that this is how she intends to connect with her reader, but also how she plays on the conservatives good side to gain trust and make her claim more acceptable. Thirdly to read the article Ban the Burqa, one would need to be conservative. If one were not a conservative, the article would only end in disagreement if the claim were not strong enough. Therefore, Berlinski supports the views of a conservative and uses that to herself and her...