In his article “Stick and Stones and Sports Team Names”, Richard Estrada discusses the logic behind giving sports team names in the United States. He argues that some of the titles appear inadmissible due to the ideas incorporated in them. Richard Estrada was a prominent publicist and a contributor to a number of leading American newspapers including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
He was known for his independent thinking, creativity, wide scope of observation, ability to appeal to readers’ judgment and emotions, and the sharp mind. These outstanding qualities are well-demonstrated in the article addressed here. Overall, the article “Stick and Stones and Sports Team Names” by Estrada features strong pathos and logos, needs some enhancement in ethos, and demonstrates four major fallacies.
Speaking about pathos in Estrada’s article, it should be stated that it is the most powerful characteristic of this work. The author constantly relies on the emotional appeal to the readers throughout the development of the whole argument. To induce the audience to adopt his point of view, the author uses illustrations from the real life of common American citizens that are able to make any individual feel solidarity with the speaker.
Further, Estrada offers many questions to his audience to direct their reception. As a result, readers begin to think the way the author intended. A yet another technique the journalist applies to convince his audience is manipulating the most popular sport team names such as the New York Yankees or Washington Redskins. When Estrada changes these favorite titles to the New York Jews and Washington Blackskins to emphasize their paradox, readers’ feelings become inevitably affected.
Addressing ethos in the article under consideration, it should be stated that it is solid and weighty. Particularly, the author appeals to the credibility of a respected educational establishment, Stanford University. Similarly, he often resorts to mentioning historical facts, which adds weight to his statements. In addition, he utilizes the postulates of fundamental believes and shows his solidarity with the American people in general to build a bridge between himself and his audience.
Next, he demonstrates his sympathy with the position of the opposite side. Also, he pays attention to different members of society to demonstrate his balanced approach to the choice of evidence. As a result, a reader sees the argument of the article as strong and convincing. However, ethos in Estrada’s article is not fully developed since he could utilize more references to the solid materials.
Next, the logos in Estrada’s article is excellent, which can be proved by the abundance of examples, evidence, reasons, grounds, and proofs in his argument. The writer artfully develops his theme addressing each important point in a separate paragraph and making smooth transitions from one idea to another. Thus, his argument is highly conclusive. Moreover, the argument incorporates two examples of well-weighted conclusions based on justly made premises. For example, the conclusion regarding the absurd of ethnic implications in the team names appears very strong. Also, the conclusion that it is a bad idea to title teams consisting of Latin-Americans “banditos” is another successful case of logos implementation.
With regards to the fallacies in Estrada’s argument, hasty generalizations are the most eloquent of them. During the whole course of the argument development, the readers may see a number of ungrounded conclusions having no solid support. This feature enfeebles the impact of the article. Also, Estrada makes an appeal to the authority of an average citizen, the father of a boy, who does not like arrangements in his school. Such choice of credentials is highly unsure because it is impossible to prove the legitimacy of this person’s authority in the argument concerning sports team names. In addition, using pathos is often characterized as a common fallacy, and in Estrada’s argument, appeal to the emotions of the audience is the major technique of persuasion.
These fallacies weaken Estrada’s argument by leaving doubts in the readers’ minds of whether the writer’s speculations are trustworthy or he simply manipulates the facts. There is one more defect of how Estrada uses his arguments in the article. It is the harm that some of his statements regarding Indians and other minorities can cause. In particular, some readers may find such arguments dangerous because of their discriminatory implications.
Judging from the above-mentioned, Richard Estrada’s article “Stick and Stones and Sports Team Names” can be evaluated as having powerful pathos and logos, requiring some follow-up revisions on ethos, and having four main fallacies in its argument. Despite the fact that some improvements are still needed for this work, Estrada demonstrated excellent persuasive, imaginative, and argument organizing skills. His credibility is confirmed by the use of excellent logic, thought-provoking illustrations, and, appeal to fundamental truths. In addition, the writer’s creativity when working with popular sports team names is outstanding. Estrada’s article is well-written and can be appraised for the strong argument, solid overview of the matters related to the topic, and the well-seasoned assessment of opponents’ positions.