What I Have Learned in Second Quarter Essay
By: Becca Beaudoin
There are three main things that I have learned in this second quarter of this class.
They are the persuasion techniques of ethos, pathos, and logos. Persuasion is a big part
of writing and we learned a lot about how to be persuasive effectively in our writing
assignments this quarter. We also learned how to identify ethos, pathos, and logos in
different literature and speeches. These three concepts are things that we will be able to
use for the rest of our lives when trying to persuade others.
The first concept is ethos. Ethos is the author’s credibility or even their
reputation. The more credible the writing sounds, the more likely someone is going to
believe it. Also, if the author has a bad reputation for false writing, it is going to be hard
for readers to believe what they have to say. The best example I can think of is when we
read Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream.” Before Dr. King even began his
speech, the man who introduced him called him the moral leader of our country. That
shows ethos because it gives him the authority to speak and what he has to say is going to
be credible.
The next concept is pathos, or appeal based on emotion. I personally think that
this concept is the most persuasive of all three of them. I think this because when people
have strong feelings about something, they are going to believe in whatever that thing
may be. Passionate feelings, strong emotions, and motivational factors are great tactics to
use when trying to persuade someone. An example from reading we’ve had this year
comes from the book we read, Night. This book was probably the most appealing to our
emotions than any other thing we have read all quarter. The book talks about all the
horrible things that the author went through. It makes a person truly feel bad for all those
involved in concentration camps. It may make people hate the Nazis and hate Hitler for
all the wrong and injustice that was going on. It really stirs up people’s emotions and
makes them think about how they feel about what they have read.
The last concept is logos. Logos is the use of good reasoning and rational
thinking. It is the logic used in a piece of writing. Logos is normally used to describe
facts. The use of logos actually enhances ethos because it makes the author look more
knowledgeable and credible in their writing. The best example I can think of from this
quarter is from the “Gettysburg Address.” Abraham Lincoln uses a lot of facts in this
speech. He uses the term “four score and seven years ago” to say that 87 years ago we
came together as a nation. He references the Declaration of Independence in the line that
states, “… and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” It shows that
Lincoln is an educated man and knows his facts about his country. His use of logos is
only one of the ways he used persuasion in his speech, but logos was a great example of
how to use logic to persuade others.
In conclusion, this quarter has been completely centered around three terms:
ethos, logos, and pathos. I really enjoyed reading the different literature and recognizing
when each of them were used. I think that this quarter has helped our ability to be
effective in our persuasive writing so much. It has been a great quarter to learn about
these three important things that we can now use for the rest of our lives in our writing.