Before everyone began writing this analysis we talked about how a good analysis would be set up and how it would use quotations from the original article to support its claims. For this, we used the follow sample statement that makes use of ethos:
As someone who has also been a pro-wrestler for the last eight years, I know a thing or two about effective headlocks.
We then looked at a very basic use of this statement to talk about ethos:
The author shows ethos. “As someone who has also been a pro-wrestler for the last eight years, I know a thing or two about effective headlocks”.
We then revised this statement to make better use of the quote as follows:
The author shows ethos when she says, “As someone who has also been a pro-wrestler for the last eight years, I know a thing or two about effective headlocks”.
People continued to suggest ways to improve the use of this information until we came up with the following analysis:
The author uses ethos to show that she is knowledgeable since she has “eight years” of experience in “effective headlocks”. This shows that she has really become familiar with this skill through repeated practice.
This discussion is strong because it identifies the appeal, how it’s being used, integrates a quote from the author into it’s discussion, and then explains how the quote makes use of the appeal. The quotes used in this discussion are also strong because they focus the specific parts of the author’s argument that the writer here wants to discuss.
To see the full progression of development for this analysis, click here.
Everyone then had ten minutes to analyze the use of ethos in the bear baiting editorial with these strong practices in mind.
At the end of these ten minutes, we looked at several students' responses and what they did that was good in their analysis. Everyone had the rest of the period to apply these practices to their analysis of ethos, logos, and rhetorical devices. If people had not yet finished developing their annotations after our work yesterday this should be done before revising their analysis. Having a good analysis requires that people have strong annotations to direct their analysis.
While people were working on their annotations and analysis for ethos, logos, and rhetorical devices, I met individually with people to check in on their annotations and answer any questions about this process or their analysis. We will continue with this work in class tomorrow.
Homework:
Revisit annotations for ethos, logos, and rhetorical devices so that these annotations are as developed as the ones we did in class.
When your annotations are complete, use them to strengthen your analysis of these appeals and rhetorical devices in the speeches you selected.
