http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/13300-will-vote-fraud-win-the-election-for-obama
Selwyn Duke, a journalist for the website thenewamerican.com, thinks that Obama will win the election because of widespread voter fraud. He uses elements of rhetoric: diction, details, and syntax to prove his point.
Duke's use of diction emphasizes the point he tries to make in his editorial. His use of diction is used to poke fun at the Democrats. When Duke says, "extra-curricular voting" (para. 13 ln. 1) he is saying that the Democrats commit voter fraud. The word extra-curricular implies that the Democrats go the extra mile to win the election, outside of legal ways. Duke also paints the media in a bad light by calling them "socialist-yearning" (para. 7 ln. 4). By calling the media this, it shows that they do not have America's best interest at heart and are controlled by the leftest leaning. Duke uses diction to show that Democrats are law-breakers and the media aspire to be socialists.
Duke provides many details to make his argument seem valid. He gives good background information to show that he knows what he is talking about and to convince the reader that he does. Duke states, "The Democrats have captured an average of almost 70 percent of these states during the last 20 years, with their high being 100 percent and their low 40; in contrast, the GOP's low is 0 percent their high only 60" (para. 6 ln. 2-4). Duke uses this valid information to prove his point that Obama will win most of the swing states, thus winning the election. The use of details shows that Duke knows what he is talking about.
Duke uses Syntax for shock and to keep his point relevant. Duke says, "Barack Obama will likely win re-election" (para. 2 ln. 1). He has this in its own separate paragraph to emphasize it. He says this right after saying that Romney has surged in polls. By saying this it provides shock, which makes his argument seem more serious and important. Amidst all of Duke's joking, he says, "So her is my prediction: Romney will the popular vote but lose the Electoral College, with vote fraud putting Obama over the top" (para. 15 ln. 1-2). This keeps his what he is talking about serious and actually makes it seem like its a problem. Duke's use of syntax is reminds the reader of his point and keeps the reader interested.
The use of the rhetorical elements of Duke makes his editorial a substance of truth. His points make it an interesting read.
This article is really interesting and normally I hear about it the other way around. I like that you talked about this unique topic especially with the election almost here! I thought you did an okay job analyizing the text, but I feel that you can go even further with your examples. In your diction paragraph I felt that you didn't give as much examples as you could. In your last sentence of this paragraph you leave us hanging with the idea of Democrats being law-breakers, but I don't see any examples that really back up this idea. I think you should add more for that and maybe adding in just regular words that you find in sentences? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteYour syntax paragraph is also a little confusing like when you say, "This keeps his what he is talking." I think you might've added an extra word in this sentence, but it made the paragraph a little confusing.
Mohan,
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job picking an article with a strong opinion and strong voice. You picked good examples of diction to support your point of view, but I would have also talked about how Duke used the word fraud throughout the piece. By using this strong diction he is essentially saying that Obama isn't going to win the election legitimately , which is a very strong claim. I also agree with Mackenzie that the syntax paragraph is a little confusing. I liked the evidence you used for the details paragraph, but it was a really long quote and often it is more effective when you use two shorter quotes instead of one really long one. You could have shortened the quote by removing the part where it talked about the high and low percentages because the overall percentage is the detail that you really needed to make your point.