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Retorical Device Redo
Retorical Device Redo
Ap Language Composition
Tatum 4th
5 May 2020
Brent Staples Captivates His Audience with His use of Rhetorical Devices
Brent Staples, a black journalist takes a daring position when publishing his article, “Just
article in regards to white, middle-to-upper class women, who believe stereotypes of black men.
His reasoning behind this is to nullify preconceptions they are accustomed to. Staples has high
hopes that his article will open the eyes of his audience while also sharing his personal story. The
author uses anecdotes to convey his story and also ones of others, concession to show his
understanding of the way situations appear, and demonstrative rhetoric to disassociate blame
Anecdotes allow the speaker to introduce the audience to view a scenario from a different
point of view. Brent Staples opens with an anecdote that alters his perspective to those of the
women who hold a fear of being threatened, especially to black men. With his word choice “my
first victim” he appeals to the fear felt by the women he would unintentionally walk behind
(Staples 1). He also shares the anecdote of another black journalist who had once been mistaken
as the murderer of the case he once worked on, and continued to be threatened and “hauled out
from his car at gunpoint” (Staples 11). He shares these stories in a bit of a humorous tone, but
still achieves his intention to share that stereotypes have the ability to easily blind the mind to
facts.
The journalist does a remarkable job pertaining to both sides, but he does this to
encourage the audience to react with more vulnerability on his behalf. In a sentence describing
how things are depicted in the real world, he commences with “I understand”(Staples 6). By
showing agreement he wins the audience over and grasps their attention so they choose to listen
further. The authors who succeed in achieving their intended purpose often use this tactic so their
What makes this articles’ reception so unpredictable is the decision of writing it with the
intention to be read by women that hold the strongest perceptions of stereotypes. In order for his
purpose to remain holding true he has to approach the topic with caution. In doing so one must
not assign blame, because they can tend to turn the ear off, or make the reader inflamed with
anger. Staples succeeds in addressing this challenge by using demonstrative rhetoric through
present tense to show the reality between those who assault and those who are assaulted. He does
this by gently stating, “the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly
vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically over presented among the
perpetrators” (Staples 6). This contributes to the author's credibility by building trust in showing
he understands his audience’s fear as rational, contributing to the trust between the sender and
receiver.
Staples’ use of rhetorical devices allowed his precarious move to conclude in a respective
manner. His choice of these devices also contributed to the relationships built between the