![]() ![]() It can also make you seem smug, affected, or obsessive. Your writing style can make you seem fair-minded, thoughtful-cool even. So as you establish a sense of ethos in your writing, think about sentence structure and tone. We know nothing about the biography of these speakers, and yet we do get a strong sense of ethos. The first sounds like a rather opinionated person, the second seems like the voice of a police spokesperson, and the last one may come across as empathetic and understanding. They feel as if the police is spying on them, as if their constitutional right to privacy has been violated. I understand why people dislike photo radar. While photo radar may be abused for monetary gain, it is an effective strategy for enforcing traffic regulations. They say they care about people’s safety, but they just want your money. Photo radar is just a cash cow for the police. However, a more subtle way to establish ethos is to let your writing style draw a portrait of your personality and character. Having been forced to wear a school uniform myself, I can tell you … While doing post-doctoral research on the effects of marijuana on college students … You might also describe your experience in relation to the subject matter: Your book might have a bio on the dustjacket. One strategy is to draw attention directly to your credentials. If you’re a general speaking to the press, those medals pinned to your chest will do a lot of persuading.įor a writer it’s more difficult to create a sense of ethos. Your clothing, your gestures, your body language-all these things influence your audience. If you’re giving a speech you can give plenty of visual cues that reveal who you are and why you should be believed. Unfortunately, establishing ethos is much more difficult for writers than for public speakers. We want the author or speaker to have credibility. Would you read an essay written by a serial killer on death row? Would you trust a man to tell you? Or let’s say you want to read a compelling argument against the death penalty. Let’s say you want to know more about what it’s like to be a female CEO in corporate America. EthosĮthos is the appeal to the authority and reputation of the speaker or writer. These three rhetorical appeals are at the heart of communication, and on this page we’ll explain how they work. He called these logos, ethos, and pathos. You have to find the method that works for your specific audience.Īristotle also argued that there are three primary ways to make a persuasive appeal. In other words, if you want to be persuasive you have to be both tactical and tactful. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “an ability, in each case, to see the available means of persuasion” (37). ![]()
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