Essay Sample on Navigating Rhetorical Terrain: A Journey in Writing Mastery with Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

I acknowledge and admit that language is an ideal communication tool, as it has been highly emphasized throughout my Freshman year. A student should write with a specific and explicit intention while integrating argumentative and persuasive ideas to capture the target audience's attention and challenge their opinions regarding the subject under discussion. Learning how to become an authoritative and skilled writer while presenting my arguments using ethos, logos, and pathos challenged me to push myself from my comfort zone and exposed me to a new writing world that I have grown to love. This paper explores how I met the course objectives using logos, ethos, and pathos (and kairos), the rhetorical benefit of these skills in my writing, and my progress as a writer, student, researcher, and critical thinker.

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The quality of the message in the essays I wrote this year was impeccable because I learned how to use logos in my writing. For instance, I met the Rebuttal Argument essay's objectives, Jar Jar Binks VS the Gorilla, by relying heavily on logos. I used logical thinking to determine that the Gorilla would have won the fight since he has the natural primal instincts that allowed him to sense danger and respond to it better than the human, Jar Jar Binks. Moreover, the Gorilla was larger than Jar Jar Binks and had the additional attribute of riding on a Wookie, making it easier to cover more ground and consequent triumph over the man.

The primary skill I gained in using pathos is identifying my literary work's target audience and meeting their expectations by citing facts from the right documents. For instance, I integrated multiple pathoses by using Engelen's article, 'Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy' (Englen, 2007), in an essay about voting's importance to the citizens. Engelen's report emphasizes that compulsory voting in the United States affects everyone, from the leaders to the citizens. The author argues that voting is the most effective way of reducing inequality in the future. The essay targeted minority groups since most of them do not value the voting process. Consequently, this is the main reason voting should be made compulsory by the United States government to affect equality. I also appealed to my readers in the essay on the rebuttal argument while coaxing them to embrace the idea of mandatory voting being enacted into the Constitution.

Additionally, I incorporated kairos into the essay, 'Why Compulsory Voting can Enhance Democracy' using Avery's article. The author explains how the voting process is vital and effective in promoting and protecting the interests of the less privileged members of society (Avery & Peffley, 2005). Avery's argument is timeless because the voting process is a current and future affair that should concern American youths. The concept presented an opportunity for me to convince my audience to agree that the government should formulate a compulsory voting policy. I gave my audience the ability to look into my argument's loopholes and arrive at a conclusion before revealing my judgment on the research topic.

Learning the art of using pathos, logos, and ethos enables writers to reveal their characters to the audience, improve their persuasion skills while writing essays, and connect to the audience emotionally (Connors, 1979). I must acknowledge that I am not in the worst position even though I did not fully meet the course objective of incorporating these skills into my writing. My exhibition of professionalism in using pathos, ethos, and logos in my essays convinced the audience beyond any iota of doubt that I researched thoroughly on the essays' topics and presented progressive ideas after analyzing the information I got from my research. I learned to polish my writing skills and master English's grammatical rules upon realizing that writers quickly derail from an argument or lose the audience's interest long before accomplishing the paper's objective if they do not employ competent writing skills and excellent command of the language (Harker, 2007).

I learned that inadequate research and preparation hinder the writer from using pathos, logos, and ethos strategically, hence invalidating the essay's ideas (Connors, 1979). I admit that I was slightly incompetent in displaying professional writing skills. Still, the audience could not identify this incompetency because I ensured that I relayed proven facts and communicated my thoughts to the audience in the simplest, friendly, and orderly manner. In the third essay, 'Effect of Social Media Reviews on Brand Perception,' I used the appropriate format and writing skills to entice the reader into reading the entire article. For instance, I informed my audience about the study method I used throughout the research and cited references from other writers' essays to give a broader and deeper perspective of the research topic. Gerald’s article enabled me to focus on the significance of content production for social media advertising and entertainment (2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the tremendous progress I have made in the English language as a writer and researcher is worth mentioning. I have become a better writer upon learning how to determine my target audience's information needs before writing an essay to avoid writing irrelevant information. Using pathos, ethos, and logos has improved my creativity to the extent that I can hold my audience's attention throughout the article (Sipiora & Baumlin, 2012). My academic scores have improved remarkably because I can communicate efficiently with my instructors. Moreover, I learned the benefits of writing accurate information and the impact of using misleading information in an essay. The profound knowledge I have gained from the classes will help me identify and correct essay writing mistakes in the future, score highly in courses that require essay writing, and succeed in project management and research careers.

References

Connors, R. J. (1979). The differences between speech and writing: Ethos, pathos, and logos. College Composition and Communication, 30(3), 285. https://doi.org/10.2307/356398

Sipiora, P., & Baumlin, J. S. (2012). Rhetoric and kairos: essays in history, theory, and praxis. SUNY Press. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yZxcAIyi-CgC&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=pathos+kairos+and+ethos+in+essay+writing&ots=TBzfq8iWxH&sig=7Ul12MWrfh1GhcyCjouYI0ep50o&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Harker M. (2007). The Ethics of Argument: Rereading Kairos and Making Sense in a Timely Fashion. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20456982Engelen, B. (2007). Why compulsory voting can enhance democracy. Acta politica, 42(1), 23-39.

Gerard, M. (2015). Content marketing statistics: The ultimate list. Curata.com. Retrieved from: http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics-the-ultimate-list/

Avery, J. M., & Peffley, M. (2005, Spring). Voter registration requirements, voter turn-out, and welfare eligibility policy: class bias matters. State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 5(1), 47-67.