Raising the minimum wage has been one of the biggest debates during the 21st century. One side of the spectrum argues that raising it will make it so they have a living wage, while the other argues that raising it will hurt the economy. Whichever the case is, people are clearly divided on this issue. Before Oregon passed the 15 dollar minimum wage law, people wrote arguments to try to either prevent or pass this law. The article, “How a $15 minimum wage would affect a real business: Guest opinion” by Lee Spector argues that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses like the one he earns. “People don’t go to college to earn a $9.10 minimum wage: Guest opinion” by Justin Norton-Kertson is an article that argues against Lee Spector’s article. Although both
The start of the movie shows that Mr. Clark was a hard, stern man. He didn’t take crap from others and didn’t take no for an answer. Ethos appeals to the credibility of character. Mr. Clark was a great judge of character and because of that he knew what he had to do when he became in charge of the school. A bold move, but what he had done was expel all of the hoodlums and drug dealers and just the bad apples. He took all the kids who didn’t belong in that school and kicked them out. He believes in order for his students to do better he has to get rid of the negative influence. Further into the movie Mr. Clark decides to address his students before they go and take the state exam. He tells the students that everyone else, that society thinks that everyone that goes to their school isn’t good enough. That all his students
Gladwell uses Ethos as well in Blink quite frequently. The way he uses ethos to confirm the credibility of the hypothesis and research he expresses. Through ethos we are persuaded to believe the research is true and that we can put trust in the
Billy Joel is a musician and he is giving the commencement speech at Berklee College of Music in 1993. Berklee College of Music is the largest contemporary music college in the world. Billy Joel is an amazing singer and songwriter so even though he did not attend this college, it is still an honor to be able to speak there. His commencement speech has plenty of rhetorical literary devices such as ethos, logos, pathos, parallelism, antithesis, as well allusions. There are other literary devices such as metaphors, rhetorical questions, and similes.
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American activist, once said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” In the Jim Crow South in the 1930s, the setting of the film The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington in 2007, King’s words were particularly relevant. James Farmer Jr., the main character of the film, argues King’s point in the final debate about civil disobedience between Harvard and Wiley College. Although the Wiley debaters rely effectively on the strategy of ethos, the keys to their victory are the strategies pathos and logos.
Mike Rose confirms ethos when he admits to being a terrible student in high school. Rose states, “by high school I had accumulated a spotty academic record and many hours of hazy disaffection”(275). Knowing that the author is a professor, this makes him seem more trustworthy. By acknowledging his youth as a student, he produces a trust between him and reader. It seems like he does not want the reader to just think he is a prestigious professor, but that the author is human as well. In addition to Rose establishing ethos, in the latter part of the essay Rose mentions a study he did about the thought processes of blue collar workers. His study validates him as someone that should be taken more seriously. Mike Rose concluded that even though physically demanding work does not require a high school diploma, there is a lot of reading and note taking that takes place (282). Thus, Rose also establishes logos. Rose uses the knowledge he accumulated from his study and educates the reader about what he has discovered. Mike Rose gains the trust of the reader and becomes more convincing, allowing the reader to believe he is
Movie posters are important marketing tools used to persuade potential viewers to visit the theater and purchase a ticket to see the film. Posters create a specific feeling about the upcoming film, establish a setting, introduce characters, highlight star talent, and create a perception about the genre. Successful posters inspire me to learn more about the film’s subject matter and potentially visit the box office to buy a ticket. Poor attempts at a poster will leave me confused and disoriented with the intended subject. After seeing a successful poster, viewers can use rhetorical devices to discuss how the poster is attempting to market the upcoming film. The film’s ethos, pathos, and logos all contribute to persuasion, as the poster forces a determination regarding interest in the upcoming film. I will discuss the poster for The Wolf of Wall Street and how it uses each rhetorical device as a means to establish the tone and setting for the film.
Pathos is a rhetorical device used for providing emotion to the reader. He wants the reader to feel sympathetic towards the mistreatment of African-Americans. In the introduction, the first rhetorical device he introduced is pathos. Coates present pathos when he introduced Clyde Ross. He titles the first chapter as, “So that’s just one of my losses”. He displays the sad moments in Ross’s childhood. The loss of his red horse, his father’s land being cheated from him, and the lack of money to buy his suit for the church program. Coates, also explains how Ross was bought “on contract” like many black individuals or families, the reason they were unable to receive a loan is because of racial propaganda. Coates states, “the men who peddled contracts in North Lawndale would sell homes at inflated prices and then evict families who could not pay [. . .] Then they’d bring in another black family, rinse, and repeat”. Buying the property at a low price, then selling at a high rate to lower income black families just to gain profit. Another example Coates uses is a black family in a white neighborhood, who had a cross burned outside their front lawn. Coates used pathos very well in this article. He wants the reader to understand the hardships that were created for
Spurlock uses ethos, or ethical appeal, in his film. The definition of ethos is the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society. A way he uses the customs or practices is by following four rules he was given. He can only supersize if he is asked. He can only eat food that is from McDonald’s.
In the article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” Chuck Klosterman explains how everyday life is like zombies and why they are so popular. Zombies are experiencing an up rise in popularity because they are being used in video games and television shows such as “The Walking Dead”. Zombies are becoming more interesting to watch because any kind of sound or smell of a living human draws their attention. For example, the sound of shooting one zombie attracts others zombies to the person doing the shooting. Zombies are becoming more popular because the audience are able to relate to them in numerous ways. In the article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” Chuck Klosterman offers profound commentary on why zombies are so popular.
Ethos is when one gives credibility. President Johnson has credibility in his speech when he claims, “Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the congress…” Mr. President also uses ethos when he states “...at the request of your beloved speaker, and the senator from Montana, the majority leader, the Senator from Illinois, the minority leader, Mr. McCulloch, and other members of both parties, I came here tonight…” These are example of ethos by giving credibility to everyone he mentioned. Aside from ethos there is pathos.
In school, there are always those who do not understand the content in class, but get by with passing grades. In Mary Sherry’s essay, “In Praise of the F Word”, she writes about how in the American school system students get passed along without any consideration for their pace or skill level (Sherry, 564-566). Sherry also discusses how unprepared the American public is after high school and college (Sherry, 564). In, “In Praise of the F word”, Sherry also discusses her own son and one of his experiences in his high school (Sherry, 565). The content of “In Praise of the F word” was very persuasive, as Sherry effectively utilizes the aristotelian appeals. She uses ethos effectively to build trust in her message. The ethos or trust built in Sherry was effective in persuading the audience about her credibility. The examples used in Sherry’s essay relate to her own experience with the topics on hand. The
In Act III, Scene 2 of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Marc Antony is able to change the mood of the crowd. The commoners transform from a confused, depressed group of people to an angry mob wanting to get back at the conspirators for their despicable action. Antony manages to do so by using ethos, pathos, and logos. These three persuasive techniques all appeal to the audience in a different way. Ethos are phrases that relate to ethics or morals and make oneself sound fair and unbiased. Pathos control the emotions of an audience and evoke a certain feeling to persuade the crowd in this case. Finally, logos convince an audience using reasoning and logic. Antony expresses a variety of persuasive techniques throughout his entire speech and change the mindset of the commoners using ethos, pathos, and logos.
Robert Reich’s, essay, “Don’t Blame Wal-Mart”, is an excellent example of strong and effective persuasive rhetoric. Reich relies heavily on passionate pathos mingled with powerful logos and convincing ethos.
The use of ethos throughout Staples essay helps it progress because the examples given in the essay are not of fiction. Brent Staples did grow up in Chester, Pennsylvania and later on in his life peruse higher education. Fabricating his essay about his brother’s death would ruin his credibility as a writer and publisher as well was ruin the emotional effect his writing could evoke on to readers. If the author of the essay would have been an old Caucasian man, the essay would lose all credibility because readers would feel that a person like that does not know what life is like for a young African American male. So, by Staples being a truthful storyteller, he is able to connect to his audience and hopefully make an impact on their