A Rhetorical Analysis Of Camouflage

Rhetoric is a powerful tool to be used for writing, speaking, and engaging the audience. It can be used in almost every aspect of life, and understanding it is a great way to persuade an audience. It has been used extensively since its creation by ancient Greeks all the way through today. One such example of rhetorical strategies being used is in the magazine article, Camouflage, You know it when you see it by Stephan Wilkinson,. The author informs and persuades the audience with the history of camouflage in combat and the effect its effectiveness. He expertly uses the rhetorical strategies ethos, pathos, and logos. The most dominant form of rhetoric used is ethos, and the next most common form is logos, with the least used being pathos. This …show more content…
Picasso is a famous painter and his comments on the visual art of effective camouflage is very notable. This helps the author build credibility by involving outside sources for his article. Another effective use of ethos, was the quoting of Hugh B Cott, “ a British Zoologist and an authority on natural and military camouflage” with his statement of “ Camouflage research and application are at the present time dominated by artists, or in the hands of civil servants, and officers and in either case controlled by people lacking the necessary scientific training and no knowledge of the fundamental biological and psychological principles involved… As a result much contemporary effort of at camouflage has failed completely.” The previous statement has been given more credence by the insertion of the his title by the author. A third example of ethos is the citing of the book by Guy Hartcup, “Camouflage: The History of Concealment and Deception in War.” This also helps the author’s article by the insertion of outside sources into it. One more use of ethos, was the reference of Tim Newark, who wrote a book called “Camouflage”, was himself was quoting American painter Abbott Thayer. Thayer noted, “that patches, stripes and blocks of color in an animal’s markings have the effect of visually breaking up its contours, making it more difficult to distinguish at a distance”. This use of rhetoric improves the author’s credibility by citing his source and the assumption that by including the large amount of wide perspectives from artists, military historians, and even a biologist, that the article itself is