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The Use Of Ethos In Bernard Roth's 'Reasons Are Bullshit'

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“Reasons are Bullshit” is a chapter in the popular book The Achievement Habit, by Bernard Roth. In this book, Roth uses the rhetorical triangle, which was introduced by Aristotle in the fourth century BCE. The rhetorical triangle is made up is made up of three parts: logos, pathos and ethos. Pathos is emotion, ethos is ethics, and logos is logic. The rhetorical triangle is still used to this day, especially in writing. Logos, Pathos, and Ethos are the three appeals used in argumentation. Roth ineffectively uses the rhetorical triangle by the employment of pathos, ethos, and logos by not regarding the persons’ situations or feelings, projecting hypocrisy onto the text, and by using unclear evidence and logic. ‘Reasons are BS’(Roth 38). This is a saying that claims every reason, even if it is a good reason, is BS. This includes the good reasons, like, “My grandma died” and “I’m late to class because my bike got a flat”. These are “Goood” reasons(Roth 43). Another would be if there was a natural disaster that wiped out the school in a town. Do you think those kids are going to go to school? No, simply because sometimes other things come up or are more important. All these reasons and even the topic “that’s a goood reason”(Roth) is pathos. People say this because it is emotional. If a dedicated college student walks in the door …show more content…

This is another quote that comes from Professor Roth. Roth says, “It happens when someone attributes a feeling or trait to another person, when it’s she herself who owns that particular trait or feeling”(Roth 47). This problem can be easily avoided if you make sure to get all the facts and evidence about whatever you are choosing. This particular trait is learned, normally from a close family member or even someone you look up to. However, this is usually not a good trait to acquire, because you can never make a decision even if you want to, and it can be very

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For example, Mr.Gilmer uses Pathos when making Mayella explain what happened on the supposed day Tom abused and took advantage of her, the reasoning is that in the book it says “Mayella stared at him and burst into tears. She cover her mouth with her hands and sobbed. ”lee241 When this scene happened Mr.Gilmer was questioning Mayella. This showed a negative holistically in the argument; Pathos was strengthened because of the reason it appealed the audience emotion making them feel bad for her, this helped the argument because the audience felt emotion when Mayella was crying this might cause an unbiased audience to feel and think that Tom could possibly be guilty. Also, Mr.Gilmer used Ethos appealing to the audiences good morals for this reason

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