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Key Modes Of Persuasion

Decent Essays

There are three key modes of persuasion or rhetorical methods used in forming an argument - ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos, the Greek word meaning “character”, is an appeal to the author’s credibility; logos, the Greek word meaning “logic”, is an appeal to the audience’s judgement; pathos, the Greek word meaning “emotion”, is an appeal to the audience’s personal thoughts and biases. There are many ways these methods can be implemented, but not all works make use of them all. We can study the implementation of specific methods, in this example, the use of ethos, through examining their use in various works, such as Pavel Zemliansky’s “Methods of Discovery”. First, ethos must be more clearly defined. Classically, Aristotle did not include an …show more content…

In the first section concerning argument, he writes, “Some years ago, I heard a conference speaker define argument as...”. When defining “rhetoric”, he uses outside sources: “Examples of this misuse [of rhetoric] abound. Here are some examples.” This passage is followed by references to news articles from CNN, political websites, and personal videos. This is followed up with quoting Aristotle's definition of rhetoric. Later, he uses more examples from Aristotle, Plato, and Sophist teachers, all of whom are, unquestionably, the supreme authorities on the use of rhetoric. He also quotes the authors of Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, who he describes as “modern rhetoricians” and states that he agrees with them concerning the use of pathos and emotional appeals. He quotes the widely known “parlor scenario” passage from The Philosophy of Literary Form in his discussion of the audience. One could argue that his wide use of references and quotes from ancient as well as modern prevalent voices in academia is a use of ethos in and of itself, as a way of proving his own knowledge on the subject. Overall, “Methods of Discovery” by Pavel Zemliansky employs ethos throughout the text, and does so without fallacy or false appeals. Above other methods of implementation, referring to other authorities is the most commonly used tool in this piece. Logos and pathos are also employed by Zemliansky, as they are necessary for any solid argument to stand. However, the prevalent use of ethos allows him to build on the shoulders of

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