ipl-logo

Examples Of Ethos In The Declaration Of Independence

432 Words2 Pages

The Declaration of Independence is an extremely important document to the United States. Thomas Jefferson receives the most credit for writing the declaration, however he was assisted by five other men that were apart of the Constitutional Congress. They wrote the declaration to persuade the colonist to break free from Britain. The Declaration of Independence uses numerous persuasive appeals and language, including parallelism, pathos, and ethos. Parallelism is “a pattern in writing in which words and phrases are similar in structure, one echoing another.” It can be found in the declaration numerous times to describe the hatred towards the king. They show this when they use, “For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: for imposing taxes on …show more content…

Pathos is “the quality of speech or written work that appeals to the emotions of the audience.” For instance, “plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” The words ravaged, and destroyed are emotional words to describe the unjust actions the king did to them. Also it is demonstrated in, “Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.” This proves the colonists opinions on the king, showing how he is not worthy to lead their uprising nation. Ethos is “the character and credibility of the writer in the eyes of the reader.” An example of this is, “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..”. The author shows their credibility by stating they are representatives of the United States of America. The authors also portrayed this by, “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms.” By saying this, the authors show they have tried to set agreed terms with

Show More
Related
141 Words | 1 Pages

The authors of the Declaration of independence are John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. After the first draft all four authors had agreed on the document to be artistic as well as precise. Jefferson out of the four was chosen to do the majority of the document. Today, we know Jefferson had a difficult time writing part of the document because Jefferson’s landlady recorded his painful struggles in her journal. One, day Jefferson set home for his violin and when it had arrived he would pace a little, then play a little, then the house would become silent for some time then he would do it again.

Read More
235 Words | 1 Pages

But as for ethos, “the audience sees the author as reliable, competent, respectful, sincere, and thoughtful.” I would have to believe that the President of the United States speaking

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, and Speech to the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry compare in many different ways. Regardless of the fact that Patrick Henry’s piece was a speech and Thomas Jefferson’s was a legal document they both used rhetorical devices effectively to convey their message and persuade their audience. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was writing it so that it would stand the test of history. He made it a concrete document by using repetition and parallelism. In Henry’s speech, he was aiming to convince the delegates at the Virginia Convention to begin preparation for war With Britain.

Read More
231 Words | 1 Pages

The declaration of independence was written on July 4th 1776 in Philadelphia by Thomas Jefferson for all Americans. The document was written to explain why America had voted to declare independence from Britain and is one of America’s most important documents to this day. There are many persuasive techniques used in this document. As Thomas Jefferson says, “We hold truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” (p.) he uses ethical appeal.

Read More
1173 Words | 5 Pages

Pathos is when the speech appeals to the audience’s emotions. President Abraham Lincoln uses pathos is this speech to console the audience for the losses that the country has endured during the Civil War. Lincoln uses pathos to convey sadness when he says, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” When saying this Lincoln appeals to the people’s emotions by explaining that their loved ones struggled there and he also appeals to the feeling of pride they feel for their loved ones who dedicated their lives to their cause. Another example of pathos in this speech is, “...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…”

Read More
375 Words | 2 Pages

The Declaration of Independence is America’s political tradition founding document. It expresses the underlying ideas that form the nation of American, that is, all men are created equal and free and hold the same inborn, natural rights. Therefore lawful governments must be based on the approval of the governed and must secure their rights. The Declaration of Independence notified the world of the unanimous decision of the 13 American colonies to detach from Great Britain.

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

Ethos is used by using facts to back up their arguments and claims. Readers should be able to trust that the authors one finds that they know what they are talking about. After some research of each author, they are both trustworthy writers. Another thing is the politics, politics are very important to the society that we live in so it would be safe to say that the authors could easily be trusted with the information they portray. The authors used an example of a document, that was found on October 23, 1946, with instructions on how keep the Jewish children out of the hands of Jewish officials.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Pathos is a rhetorical device used for providing emotion to the reader. He wants the reader to feel sympathetic towards the mistreatment of African-Americans. In the introduction, the first rhetorical device he introduced is pathos. Coates present pathos when he introduced Clyde Ross. He titles the first chapter as, “So that’s just one of my losses”.

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

The Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal,” yet our country bears a dark past when it comes to racism. Even though all blacks were supposed to be “free” that didn’t quite happen. Under a corrupt law system they were abused, discriminated against, people were very cruel to them. And of course they tried doing things about it like boycotts and what not, but Martin Luther King changed everything. How did he do it?

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

According to Everything's an Argument, pathos is defined as using emotional appeal to persuade an audience. An example of how Orwell used pathos to persuade the audience is used very strong words such as “oppressor”, “tyrant”, “savage”, and “crucified” which evoke emotions in the audience. He often referred to the British as oppressor instead of the ruler. Since Orwell used such heavily connotated words, the audience was able to understand how he felt much clearer and it showed he put a lot of thought into his story. The precision in his words helps convince the reader he really did evaluate his whole life after the incident where he shot the

Read More
100 Words | 1 Pages

Declaration of Independence Precis Thomas Jefferson in his historical document, The Declaration of Independence (1776), asserts that the colonies should break free from Britain’s tyranny. Jefferson supports his assertion through the use of anaphora, parallel structure, imagery, emotional appeal to patriotism, and logical appeal to the colonist’s basic rights. Jefferson’s purpose is to advocate for the separation of Britain and the colonies in order to escape the British tyranny that King George imposes on the American colonists. Jefferson writes in a measured tone for the British parliament, King George, and for colonists who have been a victim of Britain’s oppression.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Pathos is a charged language, in which someone uses a lot of emotion in words and towards the audience. In King’s speech, he uses a lot of emotion and passion in his words towards his audience at the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington D.C.. As of King Jr 's “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he uses a lot of Logos (another persuasive technique) in

Read More
1242 Words | 5 Pages

Have you ever watched a movie, tv show or short film that has enticed you to feel a certain way, provided pivotal information, or watched a documentary that was intriguing recently? Directors, script writers and authors attempt to appeal to the reader’s senses and emotional sides to get their points across and keep their intended audiences interested. Authors use ethos, logos, and pathos to connect their attended audience to their article or book. In “Weigh Loss Diets : Are They All the Same?”

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

In Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence,” he uses rhetorical devices to convey his purpose which is to say that colonies have decided to break their bond with the King and Great Britain and to explain their reasoning. One of the devices used the most to convey his purpose was parallelism. Jefferson also uses repetition to make his reasons clear. Some might think that his use of restatement further makes his points clear; however, they are wrong. Jefferson uses rhetorical devices like parallelism and repetition to explain the reasonings of the Colonists decision to break their bonds with the King and Britain.

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

The writers accurately depict ethos because they represent multiple viewpoints and they have connected themselves to the topic. Pathos is used in the document because they expressed their emotions for

Read More

More about Examples Of Ethos In The Declaration Of Independence

Open Document