Joey Trakansuebkul

16/7/15
ENGW1111
Reflection For Rhetorical Analysis
In this essay, I chose to analyze an opinion-editorial written by
Peter Wehner about why Donald Trump is not the right candidate to
be running for the President of the United State of America. First, I
have tried to make an outline and organized my thought in a logical
order. I talked about the rhetorical situation in the first body
paragraph so that the audience would be able to understand what
the main purpose of this document is about. This is then followed by
a paragraph about rhetorical devices to illustrate how the author
uses all these devices to convey people to believe him. By planning
this out, I think it helps a lot for the readers to understand and
follow this document as I received some positive comments about
my paragraph structure.

However, there were problems about some of my points. I was

able to make my statement clear, but it was not supported by
strong evidence. I have noticed that I sometimes forgot to think that
readers of this essay might not have a lot of background information
about Donald Trump. I would not have spotted this if it were not
because of the peer review, which was very helpful to me.

In the future, I would try to have my friends go over my essay

to make sure that its clear to them and that I have not missed any
detail out. This is because things that might be clear to me might
not be clear to others.
Words: 259

Peter Wehner Opinions On An Arrogant Candidate

In a few more months, there would be a new President of the

United State of America. However, there have been a lot of
controversies going on about who should be running for the
position. This is because if the power falls into the wrong hand, it
could cause a significant effect to the global economy. One of the
main candidates, Donald Trump, is believed to be second in the poll
after Jeb Bush. If Trump actually wins, he would be one of the most
powerful people in the world. But a lot of sparks have been going on
after Trump came up and talks about his campaign, which was racist
and arrogant. Some people do not believe that Trump has what it
takes to be in such a position that is this vital. Peter Wehner strongly
suggests in his opinion-editorial article, President Donald Trump?
Just Say NO published by New York Time, that Trump has no
potential of being the President of the United State of America.

As the election is coming closer, there have been a lot of

arguments about Donald Trump. At this moment, Trump is starting

to gain support from people all over the country. He even appears
on two polls that show that he is running second to Jeb Bush
nationally (Wehner). Even Rush Limbaugh, a famous talk show
host, also agrees that Trump will be able to resonate American and
gain its trust. However, the author of this article states that people
may be persuaded by Trumps amazing skill, but they shouldnt.
Trump is know to be Vehement protectionist and in favored drug
legalization (Wehner). He even goes further by describing that
Mexico is bring drug dealers and rapists into the country. All these
aspect of Trump clearly shows that he is not the right candidate to
be running for something that is this significant, which can affect
billion of lives. The author is trying to warn people by telling facts
that they might not know and give the audience, especially those
who in favor of voting for Trump, valid reasons.
To achieve his goal for writing this article, Wehner is using a
lot of rhetorical devices to inform his audience to believe in the
information that he thinks they should. He suggests in his article
that Trump is nothing of the sort for being a conservative and that
Trump has no coherent governing philosophy (Wehner). Even
though every human should have at least one govern philosophy
and somewhat a characteristic of being a conservative, but to grab
his audiences attention, he decides to use hyperbole. Another
device that is essential to this article is pathos. The author chooses
quotes from Trump that would cause readers to have a negative
emotion about Trumps actions. In one of the interview, Trump

mentioned that President Obama might be a psycho! and maybe a

Muslim. He even goes further by assuming that Mexicans crossing
our southern border are drug dealers and rapists, but he can only
assume there are some good people crossing border (Wehner).
As racism is a very enormous topic in todays society, all these
things that Trump said would provoke peoples emotion and cause
them to go insane, especially those groups of people that he
mentioned about. These two quotes can also be considered as logos
because people who have such thought about racism, like Trump,
can be related to having a negative mindset, which is not a great
characteristic of being a President. These two main devices play a
very important role in linking Trump with negative emotions, which
is the purpose of trying to make voters to change their perspective
about voting for Trump.
Due to the fact that the author wants to convey people to
believe that Trump is not the right candidate, this article was written
in the form of opinion-editorial. Opinion-editorial is a form of writing
that expresses the writers position on a particular topic. As it is an
op-ed, Wehner might have to use a language that would persuade
readers to believe in his idea. It would not be effective if this kind of
topic were written in the form of a news report because there is a
limitation of a personal bias. Here, the author embraces his personal
voice and states, all he [Trump] has is an attitude and These
kinds of taunts are usually found in schoolyard rather than
presidential campaigns. All of these statements that are mentioned

have no strong evidence to back his point, it is mostly on his

personal feeling about the way Trump acts. As it is an op-ed, there is
also a recommendation here for what the audience should do as the
purpose of this document is to convey people to believe in the same
idea. Wehner mentions, Were the ones who have the most to lose
from a successful Trump candidacy, which primary suggests the
audience to start taking action and do the right thing by not voting
for Trump. As a result, choosing this type of genre would allow the
author to express his ideas and feeling, even though there is no
strong evidence to support.
The target of this work would be American, especially those
that will be voting in 2016 but are not familiar with Donald Trumps
behavior. Wehner does not want people to vote for Trump without
knowing all the bad reputation that Trump made. This is because
those people that have the power to vote could make a difference
and turn Trump, a guy that is not suitable to be running a country, to
a President. From the headline, President Donald Trump? Just Say
no, it could attract those people that are not sure if they want to
vote for Trump to read about this page. This is because people
would want to know why Donald Trump is not the right candidate
and the author is so certain about it. Most of the information here is
also easy to follow, even for people who are not familiar with the
politic. The author simply suggests this at the beginning of
paragraph four that For starters, Mr. Trump is nothing of the sort.
Whener also talks more about the significant tragedies that Trump

caused, which most people that follow politic are supposed to be

familiar with it, but he tries to repeat it again for those starters
too.
As the main group of audience is American citizen from the
working age to the late fifties, the style that Wehner uses is
somewhat formal to a small extent. Without having some sort of
formality, the audience would think that this piece is all about
personal bias from a five-years-old and might not be persuaded by
it. As a result to this, there are a lot of evidence that is used by the
author to prove how terrible Trump is. For most of the critics, the
author would mostly use them in the form of quotes. Wehner
suggests that His [Trumps] critics are loser, jerks and
dummies. By using quotes, it means that the author did not come
up with all the negative information, but from someone else. There
are even some positive compliments for Trump in the first couple of
paragraphs to somewhat balance the author argument and give
some credit to Trump. This would make the paper to be more trust
worthy, as it is not all about the author personal bias, and people
would take the issue seriously.

Overall, Wehner suggests valid points to the reason that

American should not vote for Trump as he has no potential to handle
something that is this significant. If he actually wins, American
might suffer from his lack of government policy and bring inequality
to those with a different race. This might sounds similar to the fall of

Roman Empire, where there was a lack of government stability and

eventually led to the downfall of the entire empire. Not only this
problem would affect American, it may even cause a problem for the
entire world because Americans economy contributes a significant
amount in the worlds economy. By supporting the wrong side could
bring tremendous consequences to the entire world, so Wehner is
suggesting people to evaluate the choice first.

Words: 1,371

Citation
Wehner, Peter. "President Donald Trump? Just Say No." The New York Times.
The New
York Times, 07 July 2015. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.