Emotional Arguments

Arguments should, first and foremost, be rational. But to be completely effective, arguments must often appeal to more than just reason. Two emotional arguments involve irony and affect.

Irony

Irony is a contrast between two or more levels of meaning

• Dramatic irony: reader/listener realizes something which character/narrator does not
• Situational irony: what happens isn’t what readers/listeners expect will happen
• Cosmic irony: person/character is blocked by fate
• Verbal irony: what is said is contrasted to what is meant
• Understatement: downplaying significance of what is said
• Hyperbole: intentional overstatement
• Satire: humorous ridicule of things considered foolish or vain
• Sarcasm: mocking, cutting ridicule

Affect

Emotional appeals focus on the human side of arguments asking the reader to identify with the writer or the situation (Barnet and Bedau 73-5). Emotional appeals attempt to emphasize the significance, importance, relevance, or value of facts by exploring their effect on human life and experience.

To be effective, emotional appeals

• must be true and accurate (not an oversimplification)
• must support the facts not obscure them

Works Cited

Barnet, Sylvia and Hugo Bedau. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Critical Guide to Argument. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin's, 1999.

ENGL1010 Composition I