Welfare Refrom

Demetrius Bennett
Professor Martens
English 103
March 19, 2014

Analysis of an argument: Stem cell research
In the transcript that contained information from Ron Reagan Jr’s speech, I found many techniques which were successfully used in his argument to support stem cell research. To begin, I liked how the author provided a good background of the topic. Doing this allowed anyone to be able to understand the topic, which would overall influence their understanding of the speech. He states in the second paragraph,   “the use of embryonic stem cells — cells created using the material of our own bodies — to cure a wide range of fatal and debilitating illnesses:” , this effectively introduces the topic and opens the mind of the reader so he or she can process the authors information concisely. The thesis of this speech is that we should support the funding of stem cell research, as it possess many unique characteristics which can be used to cure many serious illnesses. The author utilizes ethos and logos in his explanation. He first appeals to his audience in paragraph two, where he states, “every-year, every day, tragedy is visited upon families across the country, around the world”. This does two important things. First, it sets the tone of the paper, and allows the author to incorporate a poster child example. He uses his poster child example of a 13 year old girl in paragraph 11 effectively because he uses emotionally driven statements like “she has memories. She has hopes. And she has juvenile diabetes”. These types of statements appeal to the reader and revisit the original point that the author made. He is essentially questioning why some find fault with the conducting of this type of research, but allow people to suffer from these diseases which could be cured from conducting stem cell research. Another statement that supported his claim was “she has learned to sleep through blood drawings in the wee hours of the morning. She’s very brave”. By doing this,...