Rational and Emotional Appeal
To begin with, debates are part and parcel of the day to day life in the contemporary world. In light of this, rational debates are basically determined by rationales that are reachable to and testable by all people.
In other words, rational debates are governed by justifications alone and should not be associated with any violence by any chance. However, all statements made in a rational debate must be consistent and coherent as well. In addition to this, the honesty code demands that anyone involved in a rational debate must be in a position to tell the truth (Peczenik, 2009). On the other hand, emotional debates are mainly driven by feelings and expressions which are meant to convince people that what the party involved is claiming is the truth. Contrarily to rational debates, emotional appeals are not necessarily depended on reasoning.
Actually, emotional debates excite people’s emotions so that they can act out of their feelings without basing the arguments on any factual basis. Nevertheless, emotional appeals in debates mostly prompt violence unlike rational debates which gives people a chance to make critical and measurable decisions. Apart from this, emotional appeals also tend to be manipulative in nature and that is why the parties involved cannot be in a position to make an informed decision (Peczenik, 2009). Many writers use propaganda techniques in emotional writing so as to use people’s feelings and emotions to convince them. Following this, writers tend to use loaded words, testimonies and can even call out names that are influential so as to win the readers attention and favour.
To be specific, the writers use these techniques to arouse strong feelings in the readers’ minds so as to make sure they agree with their ideas (Elbow, 1998). On the other hand, a writer can use descriptive and exposition techniques while addressing rational appeals. This enables the reader to understand in depth what the writer is saying and for this reason the reader is expected to make an informed decision without any manipulation.
