Rhetoric

I guess I would say that I've had a fair amount of contact with rhetoric prior to taking this class. I took a class last year that explored various rhetorical conventions and how they worked to persuade others. While one will always see either ethos, pathos, logos, or some combination within the three in any form of writing, many times one will see rhetorical fallacies as well. Fallacies often occur within arguments that are made in writing. So, a fallacy would be when a writer makes an argument about something and there is an error in the reasoning of that argument. For example, ad hominem is the name of a common fallacy, although there are many others. This fallacy occurs when person A has a claim, person B attacks person A, therefore person A's claim is false.

The 3 Elements of Rhetoric

Ethos: We learned that this is the self or the I in writing. I think of the word ethics. In writing, I believe it to be how you present yourself and your credentials. If you present some information or make a claim, the reader will want to know your experience in presenting such information in order to determine whether or not to trust what it is you're saying.

Logos: Logos is logic. It is the structure in writing. Whether or not one's writing is clear and follows a good line of reasoning.

Pathos: This is all about emotion. How a writer creates emotional feelings in readers. A good use of pathos is to try to find a commonality between the writer and the reader. For example, one might say, "This is our right as human beings," in order to make an emotional feeling of togetherness or equality.