Many people have heard of the rhetorical concepts of logos, ethos, and pathos even if they do not necessarily know what they fully mean. These three terms, along with kairos and telos, were used by Aristotle to help explain how rhetoric functions. In ancient Greece, these terms corresponded with basic components that all rhetorical situations have.
Ethos
Ethos is frequently translated as some variation of “credibility or trustworthiness,” but it originally referred to the elements of a speech that reflected on the particular character of the speaker or the speech’s author. Today, many people may discuss ethos qualities of a text to refer to how well authors portray themselves. But ethos more closely refers to an author’s perspective more generally. In this resource, ethos means “author.”
Pathos
Pathos is frequently translated as some variation of “emotional appeal,” but it originally referred to the elements of a speech that appealed to any of an audience’s sensibilities. Today, many people may discuss the pathos qualities of a text to refer to how well an author appeals to an audience’s emotions. Pathos as “emotion” is often contrasted with logos as “reason.” But this is a limited understanding of both pathos and logos; pathos more closely refers to an audience’s perspective more generally. In this resource, pathos means “audience.”
Logos
Logos is frequently translated as some variation of “logic or reasoning,” but it originally referred to the actual content of a speech and how it was organized. Today, many people may discuss the logos qualities of a text to refer to how strong the logic or reasoning of the text is. But logos more closely refers to the structure and content of the text itself. In this resource, logos means “text.”
Welcome to the English 111 Library Guide! Your assignments will require you to support your writing with outside sources in a variety of formats, including books, articles, websites, visual aids, and also primary sources. You will also need to give appropriate credit to sources used in your writing by following correct citation style in either MLA or APA format.
While writing your paper you might ask, why should I cite my sources? Who is going to know anyway?
Well, for one, you will know, and whether you want to believe it or not, your instructor will know. Citing your sources gives credit to the creator of the source materials. So, If you use any part of a source, whether it is a direct quote, paraphrasing, or just using statistics or ideas from that source, you must cite the original source.
When you conduct research for a paper, you will consult sources of information (books, journals, etc.) relevant to your topic. In your paper, you will use some of the words and/or ideas and maybe graphics from these sources. You must tell those reading your paper from which sources the words/ideas/graphics came. This is documentation.
If you do not document your sources, you are leading the reader to believe the ideas/words/graphics are your own when they are not. This is plagiarism.
There are many different styles for citing your sources. In this LibGuide we will cover MLA (Modern Language Association) style, and APA (American Psychological Association) style. It is important to know which style your professor wants you to use for your paper. Refer to your course syllabus to find out or ask your professor.
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
"People tend to look at successful writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have a what a great story they have to tell; that they take a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident." - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Consider the following sentences:
"I've just never been good at writing."
"I am not a great writer, so I am nervous about this class."
"My writing just doesn’t flow."
""I want to sound sophisticated, but I don’t feel like I am good at it."
If these sound like things you have said before, fear not: you are in the company of some of the greatest writers of all time.
As Anne Lamott elegantly reminds us, we too often think of writers as brilliant novelists, poets, or academics who can sit down and write beautifully without even trying. We tend to think, in other words, that great writing either comes naturally or not at all. However, even professional writers struggle. They struggle to begin writing, they struggle with writer’s block as they write, and they even struggle with the feeling that their finished work is inadequate.
