Research shows that your audience influences how you speak and what devices you use to convey your ideas. Peñuelas argues that the writer’s mental representation of the audience determines what composing strategies they will use, how they express themselves, and what kind of “arguments” they will use. For example, in the study, successful writers thought of their teacher as someone interested in their ideas. Therefore, her purpose was to convince. Unsuccessful writers saw their teachers as evaluators, making their purpose of writing to be a knowledge display (101). When people hear the word “argument,” they tend to picture someone expressly trying to persuade someone, this is just a dramatic version of what it is. In the essay “Logic does
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We often change how we speak and persuade (“logic does not occur in a vacuum” 15) depending on how we view the audience. In my writing, I found that I use a greater amount of pathos, but similar amounts of logos and ethos, to persuade my family; but, I almost always use exclusively pathos to convince my friends. For example, when I want to go some place with my friends I tell them that it will be fun, and we should go just because we need to get out more. When I want my family to go somewhere, I usually tell them why it’s a fun place to go and what they can get out of it (nice views, good experiences). It is a whole different matter with instructors. I use high amounts of logos and ethos when I am trying to persuade them to either give me a good grade (like on an essay) or when there is a problem that needs resolving or when I am just asking them to clarify something.
I collected my data over about a week, collecting Skype conversations and emails with my friends, family, and instructors. They were first sorted based on what the main argument was about; then they were classified into which strategy I used: ethos, pathos, and logos. I believe that by analyzing my data, I will be able to identify how audience affects my speech and how that affects the outcomes of my
We often change how we speak and persuade (“logic does not occur in a vacuum” 15) depending on how we view the audience. In my writing, I found that I use a greater amount of pathos, but similar amounts of logos and ethos, to persuade my family; but, I almost always use exclusively pathos to convince my friends. For example, when I want to go some place with my friends I tell them that it will be fun, and we should go just because we need to get out more. When I want my family to go somewhere, I usually tell them why it’s a fun place to go and what they can get out of it (nice views, good experiences). It is a whole different matter with instructors. I use high amounts of logos and ethos when I am trying to persuade them to either give me a good grade (like on an essay) or when there is a problem that needs resolving or when I am just asking them to clarify something.
I collected my data over about a week, collecting Skype conversations and emails with my friends, family, and instructors. They were first sorted based on what the main argument was about; then they were classified into which strategy I used: ethos, pathos, and logos. I believe that by analyzing my data, I will be able to identify how audience affects my speech and how that affects the outcomes of my