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Gustavo Araiza- Avila

Ms. Saravia

English 11- Period 1

6 October 16

Persuasive Speech Essay

How would a world leader respond to a devastating terrorist attack that would affect

millions of people's emotions? In this case, George W. Bush, the president of the United States

of America, wrote a persuasive speech to calm the minds of the average american citizen and to

convince them that they are a strong nation and they will fight back. To accomplish his goal to

persuade others, his speech 9/11 address to the Nation, consisted of three persuasive

techniques in literature, Pathos, Logos, and Ethos. All of these elements helped raise adrenaline

and catch peoples attention.

To begin with, Bush's speech consisted a lot of pathos. This would make sense because

the terrorist attack yielded strong emotional feelings not only for the people that died and the

injured, but also for their own personal safety. For example, one of the quotes state's Terrorist

attacks can smoke the foundations of our buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of

America. This quote means that enemies can destroy anything they like, but they cannot destroy

our pride stability in America. This would work because it would motivate americans to unite as

one and help bring down the evil that caused 9/11.

Continuing on forward, this speech also consisted of a limited amount of logos. To show

the devastating results of 9/11, Bush added logos with minimal facts. For example, in one of the

quotes he states Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror
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and America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. These quotes were

added so that people can visualize how cold hearted the terrorist were and the good reputation

that the U.S. has in wars.

Finally, an Ethos element was alo included in the speech. The quote states Our military

is powerful and it's prepared. No one really knows how powerful our military actually, but since

it's coming from the president himself, people are assured that were truly ready and prepared.

This again, is trying to raise the average U.S. citizen's moral so that we look like a strong

country, but it's not just for us but also for the world to hear.

In conclusion, George W. Bush's speech 9/11 address to the Nation was solely built

upon pathos and logos, with a little bit of ethos. This speech helped raise people's moral to

convince them that were a strong nation and we can't be beaten.