English Discussion

LEARNING GOALS: By participating in this unit's discussion, you will:

• add to your understanding of the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos)
• analyze how writers and advertisers establish credibility, use emotional appeals, and incorporate logic and reasoning

TASK: Because you should be spending most of your time this unit in peer review and revision, the requirements for this discussion will be relatively simple. First, please do one of the following:

• Locate an advertisement on the web (visual or video),

Then, perform an analysis of the text's rhetoric by briefly answering the following questions:

1. What does this text argue? In other words, what is its focus or central message?
2. What does this text do to invoke emotions? How does the text make you feel? (Be specific!)
3. What logic and reasoning does this text use? Does the text make an argument?
4. What does this text do to establish a sense of credibility and trustworthiness? What shared values does the text invoke?
5. Which of these appeals does the text rely on most?
6. What can you, as a writer, learn from how this text uses the appeals?