Week 8

During the speeches I learned that the most important thing is to be passionate about what you believe. Even though people, most of the time, weren’t presenting a side that was in accordance to their own beliefs, it was important that they made the audience believe that they were truly on that side. It is what made the speeches overall really good in my opinion, because people were pretty committed to making sure that they had enough evidence and support to argue their point. I think the whole point of the speeches, which were all more like debates, was to get all of us to understand that as long as you don’t stray from your point of view or what you are trying to get across then your argument is already effective. Also, I believed that anytime a person used pathos, or told an emotional story, especially in the debate about abortion, the audience would be more sympathetic or willing to agree with their side. Also, I think these speeches helped me realize when that is happening in other places, for example if I were to see a story on the news that is supposed to appeal to my emotions, I would more easily realize that the point of this story is for me to have an emotional reaction. Most people, no matter their side on the particular issue, were very good at getting the audience to feel sympathy towards them whenever they told an emotional story or showed something that made the audience think.