Blog 5

Although ethos is of great importance when conducting an argument, it is not the only appeal needed to create a successful argument. The true importance lies within the ability to accurately balance ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is the most widely disputed of the three, and can have a huge effect on an argument - however, without logos and pathos, there is no support for the author's argument. Chapter 6 in ARCS focused on the importance of ethos and how it can affect an argument. Even an author with a great amount of experience in conducting arguments with ethos can stumble in the area if they do not provide enough hard evidence, or make the argument relevant to the audience through the use of logos and pathos. A lot of attention is paid to ethos, however it is not solely responsible for creating an effective and powerful argument.

Blog 4

The readings this week focused on ethos. Ethos, to me is the most important realm of rhetoric. It explores the credibility of the speaker. It was always explained to me to be the "ethics" of the writer, but that isn't the most helpful definition in my opinion. It seems to me that ethos can make or break an argument. One can "prove" as much as he wants through the use of logos, and can appeal to the emotions of an audience by using heartfelt stories and appeals which tug at the heart strings - but without any credibility, an audience is not going to be easily fooled. Audiences want to believe speakers and they want to why they should believe the speaker. You can prove a point all you want, but until your audience has a reason to believe you, your argument is completely pointless.

Blog 3

The impact of Aristotle's rhetoric is phenomenal on today's communication. He focuses primarily on logos, ethos and pathos. From the time I enrolled at Washington State University I've had the rhetorical triangle shoved down my throat. I feel like I know these things like the back of my hand. I can look at any advertisement and find the ethos, logos and pathos of it. I simply cannot sit and listen to a political speech without listening for those blatant appeals to emotion. Aristotle would probably be proud to know his legacy lives on in nearly every aspect of our lives today and he is continuing to influence us as communicators.

Blog 2

I found it interesting to read about Plato's transcendent truth and that the truth is hidden but we've known that since we were born. I feel that this is true about pretty much everything in our lives. We choose to believe whatever we want. Whether someone has taught us it, or we disagree with someone's opinions. When we communicate with people, we gain pieces of their personality. We take those pieces to form our own opinions and ideas about different topics. Whether it be politics or religion or what kind of music we want to listen to. We take this information and we form our own ideas. So to say that our ideas are predetermined by the life we lived before is interesting because I could, in some way, believe it. The idea that our opinions and ideas are constantly evolving only makes sense because everything has evolved so fluidly. From speaking, to writing to combining the two... I don't find it that far fetched.