(a) what appeal to emotion does jefferson use in paragraph 1?
(b) why is this an important technique for him to use as he begins his argument?

Thomas Jefferson's main point in the Declaration of Independence is that King George is a tyrant and that is reason enough for the colonies to declare their independence from him. Jefferson sets about proving this argument in two ways.

Explanation:

In paragraph 1, Thomas Jefferson appealed to his audience’s emotion when he stated: “All men are created equal”.

Explanation:

Jefferson explained his argument by mentioning humans’ inalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He went on to say that governments were formed to protect these rights, and if they failed to do so, people had the right to rebel.

This technique were crucial to use at beginning of his speech because it emphasized the importance of reason, and made people skeptical of authority and traditional ideas. As a result, people were much more skeptical of the king and Britain's motives and, at the same time, they were more open to change.

quite an interesting way to teach topic sentences, because the answer to this question is the best definition of a topic sentence that one can present, it is as if answering the questions taught you how to do it, this is some real teaching, it is terribly well-done.

the topic sentence in this paragraph is:

topic sentences writers stay on track and keep a paragraph from becoming an aimless collection of sentences about an idea.

which incidentally tells you what a topic sentence should be.

yeah it is i have the dark knight