Activity 3: Analysis of Letter by chua zong wei (06)

ethos-appealing:
In the first paragraph, the writer starts with appealing to the emotions of the lawyer by writing a complimenting him, using phrases like ‘you will continue to make excellent decisions on behalf of your state’ and ‘impressed with your past voting record’. This makes the letter much more appealing to the lawyer and increases the chances of the lawyer accepting the writer’s request of supporting the gun control legislation.

An second example of the use of ethos would be located in the second paragraph, where the writer provides the many types of misfortunes that could befall a firearm user. The use of this is to make the lawyer believe that he is fighting on the ‘good’ side of the law and that in supporting the gun control legislation, he would help to save many lives.

logos-logic:
An example of the use of logos can be found in the second, third and fourth paragraph, showing many clear and alarming statistics like “60 percent of all murder victims in the United States in 1994 (about 16,000 people) were killed with firearms.”, “Only 2 of the 743 gunshot deaths occurring in the home involved an intruder killed during an attempted entry.” and “In 1993, there were 24,526 people murdered, 13,980 with handguns, yet only 251 justifiable homicides by civilians using handguns.” This appeals to the lawyer’s sense of logic, convincing him that firearms will only bring hurt and more casualties to the public instead of benefitting them, and the support of gun control legislation would only benefit the public and prevent more accidents from happening.

Another example of logos can be found in the final paragraph, where he states that “I believe in our rights as citizens of the United States, especially the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” this convinces the lawyer that in order to achieve happiness, one must first start with banning the sale of firearms to the public.

Pathos-emotional appeal:
The author further convinces that the banning of guns would bring about happiness by further elaborating that he is a father who lost his son in an accidental gunshot “As a concerned parent who lost a child to a gun accident, I am writing to urge you to support the gun control legislation that will be on the November ballot.” This makes the lawyer take pity on him and help to support his cause.