Ethos Pathos Logos

Ethos is a rhetorical device authors use to establish their credibility to speak authoritatively on a topic. To strengthen their arguments, they also use logos, or logical arguments and scientific data, and pathos to create an emotional reaction in the audience. In the ERWC Juvenile Justice unit, four different authors, with four different levels of ethos, discuss whether or not juveniles who have been charged with murder should be tried as an adult in the adult court system. Most argue that minors should be tried in the juvenile court system, while one demands that adolescents who massacre innocent victims spend the rest of their lives in prison. After closely reading each author’s opinion, it is clear that Jennifer Jenkins has the most

For example, she uses James Q. Wilson, a Harvard crime expert, as an introduction saying that some people are just evil and there is nothing we could do about it except separate them from the innocent(1). This helps the author’s credibility because now the readers know that the author gets her sources from experts. since she quotes, stats and other things from crime experts and other people within that field of expertise. Another example that the authors uses to strengthen her article with the use of ethos is when Professor Stephen Morse says that the brains of adolescents should not be blamed for the murders; in spite the fact that U.S. teens kill more than other teenagers throughout the world. That effect of this example on the readers is that it makes them reconsider on where to put the blame the murder because of teens (6). As previously stated the quoting or getting information of experts, like Professor Stephen Morse is an expert in criminal law, therefore this helps the author’s credibility based on her source.Throughout the essay she had expert sources supporting her thesis of teenagers committing heinous crimes without a

She says that kids should not be tried as an adult until they start commiting crimes.An examples of the weak ethos is when they said that a “California appeals court recently stuck its nose into the quandary,” (7).This is a weak form of ethos because even though they had an expert at hand, they did not say what case they stick their nose into. This makes the readers feel that that even though this is a court case they do not know the name of it therefore they cannot look it up, they are just left curious. Since there is nothing to prove which case it was, then that example will hurt the author’s credibility.Second examples is when she mentions that there was judge that was looking over a case of a child, but what about the case, what is it about (1)?I think that this just leaves a sense of incompleteness for the rea. Not knowing what the case is about will do little but still damage her credibility. In this entirety she talk about children not becoming adults until they commit some sort of crime