Rhetorical Strategies: Ethos Pathos and Logos

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Guns do belong in schools and prospective parents should be required to obtain a license before having kids. These are the dominant themes present in Jamie O'Meara's "Gun, Sex, and Education" and Janice Turner's "Should We Need a License to Be a Parent?" respectively. O'Meara argues that just like sex education arms the youth with knowledge, protecting them from irresponsible promiscuous behavior, gun education would serve the same purpose with respect to violence and guns. Similarly, Turner calls for new legislation but in an entirely different arena. She believes that in order to become parents, adults or non-adults for that matter, should meet a certain required standard and obtain a license in order to enter the most important profession of all: parenting. In order to develop these arguments, both writers utilize the general rhetorical strategies of comparison and argument. However, there is one key difference between the approaches taken to the development of the arguments. O'Meara's article has successfully employs ethical (ethos), emotional (pathos) and logical (logos) appeal whereas Turner's article takes a predominantly rational appeal (logos). Though both articles do an excellent job of conveying their points, all things considered, O'Meara's attempt at presenting a well balanced approach appealing to logic, emotion and ethics is more successful than Turner's attempt at presenting a solely logical argument.

O'Meara is more successful than Turner at utilizing ethos in order to validate his arguments. One way in which to establish ethos is by recounting personal experiences. O'Meara's article in fact opens with a very powerful anecdote; reminiscing about the first time he ever held a gun. He vividly descri...

... middle of paper ...

...tion, ethics and logic in "Guns, Sex and Education" is definitely superior to Janice Turner's appeal to primarily logic in "Should We Need a License to Be a Parent?" It is rather counterintuitive that Turner's reliance on solid facts, figures and statistics takes away from the strength of her argument in comparison with O'Meara's reliance on imagery, emotion and rapport with the audience. Though both are extremely well crafted essays, it is safe to say that at the end of the day, it is O'Meara's persuasive imagery that stays with the reader.

WORKS CITED LIST

O'Meara, Jamie. "Guns, Sex and Education." Respond in Writing. Ed. Ricki Heller .

Toronto, ON: Nelson, 2002. 386-388.

Turner, Janice. "Should We Need a License to Be a Parent?" Respond in Writing. Ed.

Ricki Heller. Toronto, ON: Nelson, 2002. 390-393.

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