Week 4: Block 2 Rhetorical Strategies

The issue is that Ann Romney is trying to show everyone that her husband Mitt Romney is the best candidate.  She is also trying to show people that they are not so different from everyone else.  That he was not handed success that he had to work for everything he has.  She is trying to appeal to the nation’s economic situation, where everyone is having to work harder and long to achieve the things that were easier to get in the past.  She is making a big appeal to the women voters by saying that they are the hardest working class.  She is also trying to make the appeal that she and Mitt grew up in families that are similar to the normal, average American family.  That even though they are wealthy now they both came from working class families.  Some of the rhetorical strategies she uses are describing things that have happened.  Like her meeting Mitt at a high school dance and how he was kind of nervous.  Or about their first apartment and how they used an ironing board as a dining table.  And how they ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish.  Another strategy she uses is a cause and effect, that Mitt was not handed success, he had to work long and hard to achieve the success he has today.  She also uses narration where she describes specific event, like when she described Mitt going to two schools at once and how she had a baby and no family around.  She uses this to kind of pull you into her story.  She also uses argumentation, like how Mitt Romney goes out of his way to help his fellow man but he doesn’t like to talk about it because he thought it was the right thing to do.  I thought it was very ineffective when she tried to bridge over her love with her and Mitt and their family to their love for their country.  I also thought it was ineffective when she tried to prove that women were harder working than men.  I think that the speech by Ann Romney was more effective simply for the reason that she does bring a lot of good evidence that disproves the claims against her husband.