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Importance of pathos essay
Logos, ethos, pathos in argumentative arguments
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All authors, at varying levels, write with purpose. Ever written work has a purpose, varying from artistic creativity to academic and professional curiosity. Although the purpose is evident to the author, the reader may find difficulty determining what that purpose is. In the case of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public release on Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the document’s purpose, as well as its intended audience, can be determined through an introspective analysis. One can use the three rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos to determine the purpose of the CDC’s document, and give one’s self insight into the audience for which it is intended.
In the article "Life Isn't Fair - Deal With It", the author, Mike Myatt, claims that "life is not fair, nor do I believe we should attempt to socially or financially engineer it to be such" (Myatt 2011). He supports this claim in the article by using a plethora of persuasive techniques and real-life examples. Using ethos and logos to convince the reader of his point has a strong effect on this opinion piece; by being logical and credible, he creates an environment of an authority figure, making it seem that the author knows more than you; therefore, trusting them comes naturally. For example, when the author is talking about "The following 11 points came from a commencement speech widely attributed to Bill Gates entitled Rules for Life" (Myatt 2011), one becomes convinced that the author knows what he is talking about; by using Bill Gates, a famous entrepreneur, and billionaire, as an example to prove his point valid, Myatt creates trust and reliability, establishing ethos.
Pathos, ethos, and logos have a specified role in argumentative literature. Logos is defined as the logic behind an argument. Writers utilize logos to impress a reader; thus, persuading the audience to believe in the reasoning presented to them. Ethos, also known as ethics, illuminates the author’s “back-bone”, or belief system, which provided him with a position for the argument. In other words, ethos explains why the author believes what he is saying and why the reader should, too.
In my essay, I was able to use pathos, ethos, and logos effectively to interpret the ideas of power and how it affects one’s personal life. I used the technique of logos, by taking the information of Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, and Adolf Hitler as evidence so I could have accurate conclusions. Also with the evidence and the leaders I mentioned in my essay, I stated Ethos, because it related to the idea that my ideas were credible based on my evidence. Ethos was also stated in the in-text citations and quotes, helping to make my essay credible that I got the information from a worthy source. I appealed to emotion with the technique of pathos, by creating sympathy for Brutus’s wife in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
This method is sometimes referred to the core of the paper, in which it uses concrete evidence to sway the reader’s viewpoints in the author's direction. The first time I read the article on Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I thought it was a well-written article on a disease which is common among young children and some adults. After learning more about Aristotle rhetorical appeals of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, I see a completely different website that has successfully taken advantage over these methods. For instance, let us first look at how the overall site has been designed: The web page has definitely been designed by a professional.
Ford uses the persuasive appeal of pathos in Paragraph 16 to appeal to the audience's sense of fear. By saying "These are the people who are falling victims to the propaganda of Fear today.". He said that because people fear change and are feeling victimized by it. Words like "fear" and "falling victims" show that people are afraid of change. Ford's motive is likely that he believes members of the audience do not want to be associated with the fear of change, so they would be optimistic and be on the side of change.
People have been persuading one another for thousands of years, they have been using three different types of appeals, ethos, pathos and logos. Over the thousands of years people have realized the easiest appeal to use is pathos: appealing to one’s emotions. As a man named, Francois de La Rochefoucauld, a French author once said “The passions are the only orators which always persuade.” (Rochefoucauld). So once you find the passions who persuade it becomes easy, but how can you find those passions in the first place?
How can an author get the reader attention? Readers don’t like to read boring books, articles or essay. There are many strategy an author can use such as an ethos, pathos, and logos. The author can either use an emotional appeal, which is pathos, the usage of statistic and facts makes it logos, when an author builds up their character they are using ethos. When analyzing I asked myself what are these concepts used for and how can one recognize these strategies when reading?
Ethos (credibility) is the Greek word for ‘character’. You have to convince your audience, that you are someone worth listening to. The reader/writer become trustworthy to the listeners/readers who are then persuaded by their arguments. Ethos is created by the writer/speaker through their choice of words to convince the readers or listeners. It helps being an expert on the topic for it will determine his/her ethos.
Imagine having an opportunity to further your education and build a better future for your family and yourself. Then all of a sudden all of those things have a possibility to vanish out of nowhere and now there is only fear. That is the feeling that many young people are feeling right now across the country. Tim Marema and Bryce Oates write about how the end of DACA affects every single person in the United States. They apply pathos and logos to appeal to the reader by informing them about what the issue is and what will happen.
Two American politicians have made speeches about what direction they want their country to take. In this task, I am going to point out what language features and literary devices the politicians use to persuade the ones who listen to their speech. Speech 1 is made by Craig Johnson, and speech 2 is made by Susan Kilpatrick. When writing argumentative and persuasive texts, the purpose is to make someone believe you. Argumentative and persuasive texts overlap each other to a certain point, but when an argumentative text uses facts, a persuasive text also uses three different appeals.
In one of Aristotle’s best works titled “The Art of Rhetoric,” Aristotle wrote about three rhetorical devices that can be used to appeal to an audience. The three devices are ethos, pathos, and logos and they are simply referred to as ethical strategies, and when properly used they can effectively help in appealing to various audiences in different subject matters. Looking at the image, there is little argument that Aristotle’s tools of persuasion have been effectively used. According to Aristotle, ethos is the credibility of a source that helps in building trust in the audience to consider the source as reliable. Finding common ground with an audience is an important and powerful way of establishing of establishing ethos.
It was a chilly Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School; students eager to learn. Around 9:30 am, teachers heard gun fire in the hallway. Immediately, the teachers scattered to get their children to safety. The teachers, pushing them into the bathroom, shoving them in closets, or even hiding them in cabinets. Still, if someone was to enter the room, they would do their best for them not to be able to get to the children.
The point of ethos is the appeal to ethics and means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. So back to my analogy, Moms have a lot of authority if you think about it. Our moms are heroes that have survived everything, including dealing with us. But moms do convince us to do and not to do certain things. My mom talked me out of going to a college across the country.
Five Cognate Strategies from the Three Rhetorical Elements I have chosen five of the nine cognate strategies to dissect and represent in this assignment. In my consideration of the available topics, I strove to include cognate strategies from each of the rhetorical elements (logos, ethos, and pathos). My emphasis strongly leans toward logos (logic), thus all three logos-related cognate strategies are represented here (clarity, conciseness, arrangement), followed by an ethos(ethics)-related cognate strategy (reference) and a pathos(emotional appeal)-related cognate strategy (tone). First Cognate Strategy: Clarity Clarity, as a cognate strategy, is one of the three logos (logic) strategies which refers to clear and simple phrasing to foster understanding in the reader. In my own formal writing, particularly in essay writing, I strive to be as clear as possible, without sacrificing academic vocabulary.