Exercise 5.2 Martin Luther King, Jr Letter

1. I think it can be explained as Rogerian because as he wrote he was finding common ground by talking about the common beliefs of Christians and the same beliefs as Americans.
2.  He made and effort to establish common ground when he quoted from the Bible and from the former Presidents and from the Declaration of independence. He did succeed in establishing common ground because most Americans have the same beliefs as well as Christians.
3. The moments that seemed un-Rogerian were when he spoke of the clergymen commending the Birmingham Police Department. He did not see common ground on that at all and it could have had a negative effect on the reader.
4. King definitely used ethos and appealed to emotions when he was writing of how it feels watching the violence against blacks. He also appeals to logos when he was writing about how we all have not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. I think he uses those appeals to get the readers to agree that there are just and unjust laws and the reasons needed to break the unjust laws.
5. He seemed to make a special effort to reach his audience of fellow clergy when he spoke of how disappointed he was in the white church and its leadership.
6. In his essay, King’s sequence was Rogerian because he started with identifying the shared problem of just and unjust laws and problem of unequal rights. Then he stated Christian beliefs that they all agree on from the Bible and Apostles and Christ.  Further on he spoke of the misunderstandings of how the clergy saw his actions as “unwise and untimely” but explain why he chose that time. He found common ground in human rights for everyone and how they could all work together.
7. I think he did not have to take a more aggressive approach in his letter. His appeals to emotions seem to really work for me. Also the common ground he stresses that all mankind deserve equal rights. I think it was an important time to find common ground and take the Rogerian approach because it would have made white people mad if he took a different approach.