Week 12 Discussion — Which Appeal Carries the Speech? — Traditional alternative (no AI)
Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.
Hook
A friend talks you into a road trip, an ad talks you into a gym membership, and a speaker at a meeting talks a room into signing a letter. Some of those moves respected your judgment and some went around it. This week you learned the three appeals, the three persuasive questions, Monroe's Motivated Sequence, and the line between persuasion and manipulation.
Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.
Option A: Which appeal does the most work in persuading an audience: ethos, pathos, or logos? Some people say evidence is what finally moves a careful listener; others say nobody listens to evidence from a speaker they do not trust, or acts on a reason they do not feel. Take a position, support it with a real speech, pitch, ad, or request you have seen or given on a non-partisan subject, and use this week's terms, such as ethos, pathos, logos, and the target audience, accurately.
Option B: Where does persuasion cross into manipulation? Some people say any appeal that stirs strong emotion or sets a deadline is already manipulation; others say emotion and urgency are fair when they are in proportion to the evidence and the deadline is real. Take a position, support it with a real fundraising appeal, ad, sales pitch, or request you have seen, and use this week's terms, such as the four manipulation moves, proportionate emotion, and the honest ask, accurately.
There is no single right answer. A fundraiser, a job pitch, a club meeting, or a public address can each be argued well in more than one direction. Keep your example on a campus, community, workplace, or everyday subject. If your example is a speech by a public figure, discuss how it persuades, never whether you agree with the speaker, and never take a side on a live political question. Pick a speech, ad, pitch, or request you actually remember, and tell us about it.
Expectations
Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.
Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):
- Say which option you chose.
- For Option A, describe the real speech, pitch, ad, or request, name the appeal you think carried it and where its proof lived, and take a position on which appeal does the most work. For Option B, describe the real appeal, ad, or pitch, name any emotion or deadline it used, and take a position on whether it stayed persuasion or crossed into manipulation.
- Use at least two of this week's terms (persuasion, manipulation, question of fact, question of value, question of policy, ethos, pathos, logos, Monroe's Motivated Sequence, the visualization step, target audience, honest ask, and the four manipulation moves) correctly.
- If you mention a statistic, say who produced it, where, and when, or leave it out.
- Say what you would change about an appeal or an ask in your own persuasive speech, and why.
- Describe speeches, ads, and situations only; never name or describe a real classmate, coworker, or family member, and never take a side on a live political question.
- Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.
Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):
- Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
- A substantive reply does more than agree: name where the proof lived in a classmate's example, point out a manipulation move the poster missed, or name a target audience for whom the poster's position would not hold. "Nice point!" on its own does not count.
What a strong post looks like (an illustrative example, attributed to no one):
I chose Option B. A food bank's holiday flyer showed one empty pantry shelf and said donations were due by the end of the month, when its delivery truck comes. I think that stayed persuasion. The feeling was in proportion to a real need, and the deadline was real, not invented, so it was an honest ask. The strongest objection is that any picture of an empty shelf is designed to make people feel guilty. I would answer that pathos is fair when it is relevant and proportionate, and it would turn into disproportionate fear only if the flyer blamed hunger in the whole city on one missed donation.
Notice how it names a real appeal, says where its proof lived, uses the week's terms accurately, and answers an objection. That is the bar.
Participation rubric
This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.
| Criterion | Full credit | Partial credit | No credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of the initial post (4 pts) | A real, specific speech, ad, pitch, or request, a clear position on the chosen option, and at least one reason tied to what the appeal did for that audience | An example is described, but the position is vague or asserted without a reason | Missing, off-topic, or no reasoning about the example |
| Use of course concepts (3 pts) | Names at least two course terms (such as ethos, logos, the target audience, or false urgency) and uses them accurately | Uses a term loosely or with a small error, such as calling a speaker's own experience logos or calling every emotional appeal manipulation | No course terms, or used incorrectly |
| Engagement with peers (3 pts) | Two or more substantive replies that extend or challenge a classmate's reasoning | One substantive reply, or replies that only agree | No replies, or "I agree" with nothing added |
Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.
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