Respond in two paragraphs. Think about what you now know about solid, well-presented arguments. Now, reflect on how many arguments you encounter a day. What do you find is missing from the arguments you see, hear, read? Focus on the most glaring missing piece and give examples of where you see this. What will you do as a critical thinker now that you know more about strong arguments?
Read DetailsRead the following passage from MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” What rhetorical device is he using here the most? Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. Butwhen you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters andbrothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill yourblack brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your 20 millionNegro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; whenyou suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to yoursix-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertisedon television, and see the tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closedto colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mentalsky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitternesstoward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking inagonizing pathos: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?” when you take across country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners ofyour automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out bynagging signs reading “white” men and “colored” when your first name becomes “nigger” and yourmiddle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and whenyour wife and mother are never given the respected title of “Mrs.” when you are harried by day andhaunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance, never quiteknowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you areforever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will understand why we find itdifficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longerwilling to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corrodingdespair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
Read DetailsRead the following introduction from MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” What rhetorical strategy is King using? My Dear Fellow Clergymen,While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your recent statement calling ourpresent activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my workand ideas … But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerelyset forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonableterms.
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