Strength of Argument: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos bell hooks’s essay, "Keeping Close to Home", uses three important components of argument (ethos, pathos, and logos) to support her claim. hooks develops her essay by establishing credibility with her audience, appealing to the reader’s logic, and stirring their emotions. She questions the role a university should play in the life of a nation, claiming that higher education should not tear a student away from his roots, but help him to build an education upon his background. bell hooks gains the trust and credibility of readers through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing common ground with the audience, and demonstrating fairness. Ethos is the distinguishing moral character of a writer that instills faith in the audience. bell hooks is a well respected writer and teacher known for her strong opinion and academic background. She establishes her credentials through her personal struggles with the university system and her efforts to maintain her own individuality and background. The reader gains respect for hooks as she courageously resists the pressure to adapt to her new academic life. For` example she says, "It [is] my responsibility to formulate a way of being that [will] allow me to participate fully in my new environment while integrating and maintaining aspects of the old" (hooks 92). bell hooks writes not only to help others find strength to hold on to their pasts, but for her own resistance as well. Her audience is assured by her motives to educate and inform. Whereas hooks’s personal experience srenghtens her ethos, a certain rigidity used in addressing the audience simultaneously weakens her credibilty. For example, hooks’s tendency to label academics and groups unlike herself pushes the reader to see her as self-righteous. She separates people into classes of those she percieves as right and those she sees as wrong. Thus, she creates a smaller audience of readers and weakens her message. This tendency causes her argument to sound one-sided and prevents a formation of common ground. hooks’s efforts to help others preserve the background that "enable[s] one’s self development in the present, that sustain[s] and support[s], that enrich[s]" however, prevents her voice and opinions from being ignored (91). bell hooks’s use of logical evidence is not as strong as her ethos. With the aid of facts and studies, an author’s
For some, an argument may be a discussion that leads people to become mad and feel hate towards someone. This also might bring tension, between friends and family, but there’re times when people just want to discuss a topic that they feel would make the conflict better or resolved. When an argument happens, it’s recommended to use Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle. It is here that Aristotle set’s up three ways to appeal to the audience, which are ethos, pathos, and logos. These three appeals help the writer to persuade, inform, or convince the audience that what he/she is doing the right thing. Without Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle and Aims of Arguments, the writer would unsuccessfully perform an argument correctly. If creditability of the
As a former slave, bereft of any free will, written words were all but unavailable to Frederick Douglass. Slaves were unable to tell their stories, to expose the dehumanization that their enslavement caused on both sides of the racial rift; so it was necessary for Douglass to fight tooth and nail to obtain the right to learn, and ultimately to narrate his own life story. Amongst the narration, multiple rhetorical strategies are integrated into the text in order to uncover the dehumanizing effect their mistreatment had on slaves during this time. His primary purpose is to educate those who are ignorant of the horrible conditions that slaves lived in and the cruelty that they suffer. He does this through the use of rhetorical devices such as anecdotes, irony and by further connecting to his audience with pathos and ethos. By using his own personal experiences as the subject of his argument, Douglass is able to make a strong and compelling case against slavery; at a time when it was socially unacceptable to do so.
It is evident that the author Covington has a strong ethos, which he uses to convey his argument to his readers. His argument becomes clear only at the end of the memoir, which is intentional; readers had to see the entirety of his journey in order to fully understand his underlying message. The author successfully conveys the message of self-purpose through his own struggles and experiences written in his memoir.
In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” (1999), Francine Prose argues that literature is not being exposed to and taught to high school students in the way that it should be and that students learn to “loathe” it due to this. Prose provides her audience with her personal experience as both a mother and a college professor along with her own research on the books and suggested purposed of them. She continues to expand on this topic in order to help illuminate the importance of literature itself, not being associated with personal experiences or morals. Prose’s position is valid and she makes her essay directed towards school boards, teachers, and students and continues to maintain a critical tone throughout her essay.
Did you ever think that books that have sex, obscene language, and immoral subjects can make a good book? The Catcher in the Rye has been on the banned reading list for exactly those reasons. The book was mainly put on disapproval from between 1966 and 1975 in almost every school district in the United States. The book was said to be so bad that in 1960 a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fired for assigning the book to an eleventh-grade English class. Despite some opposition to the novel, however, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye should be on a reading list for the freshman students because it gives a crystal clear image on how the world is in violence, sex, and obscenity and the book also teaches the motifs of lying and deception.
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
Upon further analysis of Expelled: No Intelligence allowed, we can see that the documentary is tied up in fallacies of ethos, pathos and logos, misrepresentation of facts, and the deviation from the main theme of the documentary. With this in mind, Ben Stein fails to persuade the active viewing audience, but succeeds in persuading the inactive viewing audience. The inactive viewing audience will be convinced from Stein’s use of appeal to ethos, pathos and logos, and will overlook the fallacies in the documentary. Stein uses appeals that are rooted in fallacy, incredible information, and misguided reasons to persuade us of this. Stein wants us to raise our voices to bring down the wall between academic freedom, but we must look at his motives and reasons he takes to instill us with these notions.
The credibility and trustworthiness of a person can be achieved through their achievements and titles. Writers have the ability of achieving this by appealing to the rhetorical strategy ethos. Rebecca Skloot’s inclusion of her knowledge in science to provide her credibility and numerous information of all her characters in the novel helps develop the rhetorical strategy of ethos. Skoot’s implementation of appealing to ethos aids in emphasizing on the credibility of both herself and all the other characters in the novel. She demonstrates this rhetorical strategy by indicating titles and achievements her characters in the novel. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot develops the rhetorical strategy of ethos through the use of her characters in the novel consisting of Skloot herself, George Gey, and the virologist Chester Southam.
bell hooks ties in the three elements of argument, ethos, pathos, and logos in her essay, "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education," by telling us about the many events of her life. hooks establishes credibility, or ethos, unintentionally, through descriptions of her achievements and character. hooks appeals to the readers logic, or logos, by giving real world examples from her personal experiences. She also appeals to the readers emotions, or pathos. Pathos is the aspect of argument she uses most heavily. hooks does this by talking about family, peers, feelings, and change. hooks shows us ,in her essay, credibility, logic, and emotion using the stories of her life.
There are many ‘norms’ and values expressed throughout hook’s writing. In the early part of the twentieth century survival belonged to the fittest. Not necessarily meaning fittest as ‘strongest,’ but able to produce, work hard, and make a secure life for yourself and family. On the other hand, in today’s society the message is that survival belongs only to the greedy. Also many young kids have the notion that in order to ’live the good life’ you must be wealthy of material possessions. Younger kids have to deal a lot more with the pressures associated with wealth.
... much easier when we were all in segregated communities sharing common experiences in relation to social institutions. Without this grounding, we must work to maintain ties, connection" (hooks 95). As hooks hints, maintaining ties may not be easy, but it is definitely possible. hooks establishes common ground with people who have these questions, and she gives the answer in her experience of hard work. Having worked hard on handling harsh criticism and pressure without losing ties with her background, bell hooks, in my opinion, is an example of a strong individual. So, if you need proof that the answer to these questions is yes, bell hooks is all the proof you need!
When analyzing the arguments of both Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation” and John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School”, their most distinct aspect is the tone in which their arguments are presented. Moore’s informal writing invokes a reaction within the reader. He capitalizes entire sentences to make them appear louder and draw attention. How can referring to a president as an “Idiot-in-Chief” not elicit a certain emotion within the reader? Moore is a well-known activist who is quite aware of popularity and infamy. His words are not an attempt to persuade dissenters to his side, but rather to appeal to the emotions of his supporters and drive them to action. Whereas Gatto writes in a formal but understandable language that appeals to the intelligence of parents and children alike regardless of their view of public education. It is notably free of exclamation marks as well as the jargon associated with educators. The voice used plays a key role in the techniques and tools each arguer uses to convince their intended audience to take action.
bell hooks reveals that she can only characterize the world as a place where you either have money to spend or you don’t (433). In college, she recollects how her professors and peers reinforced through countless
Moore uses a great deal of data and logos strategies to alarm the reader. Michael Moore’s overall essay is based on his pathos arguments. He is highly irritated and in disbelief of the education system. The author uses one of the most common and easy to read strategy. First, he makes a logo standpoint and then supports his argument with pathos. He does this so that the reader is engaged and taken aback by his logo argument then is in agreement with his pathos argument that follows.
“The Hook” is written by K. M. Weiland. She is the IPPY and NIEA Award-winning and an author read all over the world. Her Amazon bestsellers are Structuring Your Novel and Outlining Your Novel, as well as the western A Man Called Outlaw, and Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic, the medieval story Behold the Dawn, and the fantasy novel Dreamlander. She has won Writer’s Digest’s “101 Best Websites for Writers” for two years, and has appeared on npr’s podcast, “All Things Considered”. Her story, “The Hook” is a helpful essay on catching a reader within your first paragraph using a “Hook”.