On Teens And Tattoos: The Three Modes Of Persuasion

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When you sit down to read anything that is trying to persuade you, you are being subjected to the three modes of persuasion that have been outlined by Aristotle in his book “rhetoric” (Meyer). Ethos; the mode of persuasion that attempts to change your opinion by using the author 's credibility, Pathos; appeals to your feelings and finally logos; that uses logic to try and sway your opinion. “On Teenagers and Tattoos”, an article written by Andres Martin, is an example of a persuasive work that can affect an audience very well and it does this by effectively using these three modes of persuasion. Andres Martin takes full advantage of the three modes of persuasion outlined by Aristotle and in the following few paragraphs, I will outline each …show more content…

in his article “The earth’s ethos, logos and pathos: an ecological reading of relation”. Andres Martin, an assistant professor at Yale university, bolsters what he says in his article because his position in the school naturally lends itself to the credibility of this article. In Martins use of ethos we can see that, although not the most powerful mode of persuasion used in his article, it is still used tremendously. In the article, Martin writes about the interviews he did with some people he met who were proud owners of tattoos. While Martin himself does not mention himself having tattoos, his interviews with people who do help to build up the credibility in his writing. In Michel Meyer’s writing “Aristotle’s rhetoric”, Michel talks about how the use of other people 's stories can become a basis for credibility (Meyer 2012). Martins use of these interviews do just …show more content…

To summarize the words of Aristotle pathos is putting the audience into a certain frame of mind (Meyer 2012). According to Martin, for some teens getting a tattoo is effectively hanging a metaphorical DO NOT ENTER sign on their body (Martin 2000), this plays into the emotionally charged opinion that some parents have about their teens being part of a fringe group that hate their parents and just wish to express themselves. Using the two interviews Martin did at the tattoo convention as an example again it 's easy to see how Martin can make his audience feel for the people who so passionately speak about their tattoos. The thirteen-year-old who was interviewed spoke about how he got his tattoo, a pair of dice with the day and month of his father 's birth, to pay respect to his father who passed away in a motorcycle accident (Martin 2000). He goes on to speak with a seventeen-year-old father who had a tattoo covering his chest of his four-month-old daughter. The father went on to say he will “always know how beautiful she is today” (Martin, 2000, p.2) and all he would have to do is look down. Pathos is a very powerful persuasive tool and Martin used it masterfully in this

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