Assessment

Your task asks you to assess whether Michelle Obama is successful in communicating her message in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2020.

Michelle Obama is most likely successful in communicating her message. She persuades the audience of the importance of voting for Joe Biden as the next President of the United States by building ethos for herself as a speaker and Joe Biden as a future president. For instance, she describes Biden as a person capable of empathy and politically successful: “I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country” (ll. 97-98). 

She combines her appeal to ethos with pathos when talking about Biden’s personal tragedies, which...