Jackie Serrano, Jonathan Oyervides & Irvin Godina

RWS 1301
July 6, 2015

Rhetorical Analysis - Lightbourne Letter to President Bush

1. How does the author support his argument?

The author supports his arguments by using his knowledge of the bible and law to
show how gay marriage is not bad and how gays are being discriminated.
2. Identify the points that the author makes and describe whether or not they
are argued reasonably/logically.
One point he makes is if there is one constant in the American traditions of
marriage it is what marital laws have repeatedly changed. He argues how many
things like age requirements and how whites and blacks could not marry before
can now as everything has changed.
3. If the author has incorporated any logical fallacies, identify and explain
them.
The author incorporates a logical fallacies using the example of President Lincoln
as he brings up how he did the right thing if bringing the country together and so
should Bush.
4. How does the author establish credibility?
The author establishes credibility by stating I have spent most of my adult life,
including my teen years, in church and being a student of the Bible.

5. Explain how and to what degree the authors appeal to ethos is or is not
effective?

The authors appeal to ethos is effective as what he writes makes the reader believe
that he has knowledge of the topic.
6. Identify and explain where the author attempts to make emotional appeals.
The author uses emotional appeal like Homosexuals in our country, many feel
pressured to repress and hide their homosexuality; and under the duress of facing
a lifetime alone and/or being negatively stigmatized as gay. Making the reader
feel sorry for the gay people.
7. How did this article make you feel?
This article makes the reader feel pity as gay people are being discriminated from
their rights.
8. Explain how and to what degree the authors appeal to pathos is or not
effective?
The authors appeal to pathos is effective to a good degree as you feel bad for the
gay people because of how they era being treated.
9. Comment on the tone of the article. Does it change or is it consistent? What is
the impact, especially in terms of audience?
The tone of the article starts very professional and respectful then later it becomes
more reflective towards the topic which makes the reader support the author in the
topic as he seems knowledgeable in the topic.
10. Does the author include counterargument(s) in the article? Does he
effectively refute the counterargument(s)?
The author does include counterarguments and he effectively refutes them by
stating facts about the argument.
11. Do you think this article is persuasive? Why or why not?
I think this article in fact is persuasive, because Lighbourne provided many points
that could change the way you think.
12. What do you think is the strongest aspect of this article? Weakest?
The strongest aspect, is when Lightbourne said that when a person hides their
homosexuality, leads to a devastating results on a family. The weakest aspect, is
when he said that they made gay people sit in the back of the bus.
13. What unfamiliar words did you look up?

Futility, Societal miasma, Stigmatized, Marginalized, Heinous.

1. Read through your chosen article. After reading it once, read it again and
annotate strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths: Provided major points, Provided details back in time. When he refers to
man was not a slave to the law
Weaknesses: He estates that gay couples would not be able to naturally produce
child of their own, which I feel that is why we are here in this world to reproduce.
2. List the major points that your analysis will make.
*How it might affect the population in the future by not being able to reproduce.
*Religion conflicts with this issue, which makes it hard to legalize.
*How Paul writes in The New Testament that man was not created for the law
3. Develop and justify a logical order for these points.
* The New Testament, because it is something that was written a long time ago
relating with religion.
* The conflicts that are involved that make it hard to legalize, according to The
New Testament.
* How it affects the reproduction of humans in the future, by having to people of
the same sex it is impossible to have a natural child.
4. Explain how you will transition from one point to another.
The transition is simple. It will first start from past, present and the near future.
5. How will you introduce your analysis?
Legalizing gay marriage, is it going to help or make matters worse?
6. Describe how you will conclude your analysis.
We will conclude our analysis by briefly discussing what we talked about and
discus what could happen in the near future.

1. What did you find most difficult about this assignment? What could you do
to make it less difficult?
The most difficult thing about this assignment was getting all the facts and not
letting our opinion take over. To make this less difficult we could write the most
important facts and keep that throughout the whole assignment so we could refer
back to it.
2. What do you think you did especially well? Explain.

One thing we think we did especially well would identifying the ethos, pathos and
logos. We as a group could strongly pin point all the emotions and facts and the
credibility we did this well because we worked as a group and asked each other
questions and game to the same conclusion.
3. What do you think is the strongest aspect of your work?
The strongest aspect of our work would be our thesis statement because we
explain very clearly what we will be discussing.
4. What do you think can be improved? How?
Our vocabulary can be improved because we tend to take the simple way our and
use the simple words rather than taking our time to find the challenging ones.
5. What grade would you asses for your work? Explain.
We could give our work a strong B because we believe it is well put and
organized.
6. What did you learn that made an impact on you? It could relate to the
assignment in general, the analysis, the topic, your writing, communication,
etc.
We learned that gay marriage is not only important for homosexuals but it is also
extremely important to heterosexuals as well. Just like Alex both homosexuals and
heterosexuals have been fighting for the right to get married in every state.

7. Describe the attitude with which you approached this assignment? What
impact did this have on your work?
As we approached this assignment our attitude was neutral but once we read the
letter we begin to go on Alexs side. I believe this impacted our work by trying to

feel what Alex was feeling because he does not have equal rights like the rest of
us.