Question

Critique the impact of a speaker's use of diction, syntax, and rhetorical strategies.

"Wilberforce 1789 abolition speech"
by William Wilberforce

The number of deaths speaks for itself, and makes all such enquiry superfluous. As soon as ever I had
arrived thus far in my investigation of the slave trade, I confess to you sir, so enormous so dreadful, so irremediable did its wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for the abolition.


Use the speech excerpt to answer the question.

How does the word choice in this paragraph impact readers?


(1 point)
Responses

It engages their sense of ethics.
It engages their sense of ethics.

It gives them something to consider logically.
It gives them something to consider logically.

It appeals to their emotions.
It appeals to their emotions.

It uses a fallacious statement to persuade them.

Answer 1

It appeals to their emotions.

The adjectives ("enormous," "dreadful," "irremediable," "wickedness") and the emphatic phrasing ("speaks for itself," "my own mind was completely made up") use loaded, emotive diction to provoke an emotional response (pathos).