Emotional Appeal Activity 3

Emotions obviously play a huge role within writing style. Playing to a certain emotion can be useful whether one is simply trying to motivate or grab the intention of an individual, or it could be used to muster up the courage of many. Either way, being able to accurately use the right emotion within a piece of work can help your cause immensely. A situation that would call for anger appeal could be some sort of protest. If you were to write a speech with disgust towards the side that everyone is protesting against then everyone struggling against that side will most likely back you and your writing up.

For example: A Protest Against Big Tobacco Companies
"My friends, family, and those of you who simply fall on the side of that which is good. We all know why we are here today and that reason to make ourselves known. We will no longer stand by helplessly as we watch friends and family and other Americans suffer from the harmful effects of those wretched big tobacco companies and their ever-present evil products. We know the statistics, we know the facts, so all that is left to do is to act!"

So as the speech continues, you will only play more and more to the anger of those around you, using motivational and stirring words of kindness when adressing the audience, but words of scorn and hatred toward the common evil; in this case the tobacco companies. At the end of such a speech you could even throw in an almost completely different cause and possibly convince your audience to follow you on that subject as well, simply because of the common goal you all currently share.

Other emotions are equally powerful, the main thing to remember is to always keep in mind what your objective is, whether it is persuasion, selling a product, making a point, etc. An appeal to shame could be effective when trying to convince an audience of something they have done wrong and should either be punished for or made to apologize. Compassion could be helpful in trying to obtain fundraising or donations for a particular organization. For instance, the commercials which are trying to get the audience to donate money to 3rd world countries, specifically children, by playing to your emotional appeal of compassion. The ones that have an American adult amongst children in a poor village saying things like, "You too can make a difference in Khalil's life by donating only 20 cents a day so that we will be able to provide for his 5 brothers and 6 sisters and still be able to attend the local schoolhouse." Lastly, even an emotion such as hopelessness can be used within a peice of work to help your stance. One could include hopelessness in the previous example just given, but it could also work in a multitude of other cases such as trying to get an audience to give aid to the homeless, or any other group of people that most would label as having very little to depend on.
In short, playing to a group of people or even an individuals emotions can make a complete difference in a piece of writing, and I would go so far as to even conclude that almost every document or piece or work includes some sort of emotional appeal.