"Letter From Birmingham Jail" - Discussion

Question 1

SOAPSTONE

Answer 1

• S: King Jr, minister, logical, in control
• O: upon his arrest in Birmingham
• A: fellow clergymen, critical of his actions
• P: argue his protest is warranted + needed
• S: ethos, pathos, logos (syllogism), allusions, syntactic parallelism, cataloguing, questioning
• TONE: instructive, scholarly, dismissive yet polite

Question 2

focus: rhetorical devices - syllogism

Answer 2

• watch for syllogism in this essay: an argumentative structure based on two premises
• be sure to make arguments as long as they need to be to get your point across – which is part of being clear, concise, and consistent

Question 3

step 1

Answer 3

King

Question 4

step 2

Answer 4

amplifies

Question 5

step 3

Answer 5

his appeal to ethos

Question 6

step 4

Answer 6

by alluding to and paralleling his circumstances and actions with other respected figures of history

Question 7

note

Answer 7

• offers, establishes, develops
• parallel structure, impassioned tone, idioms
• “the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice;”
• that the lack of action by moderate Americans passively supports segregation
• offers