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Example Of Ethos Pathos Logos

Decent Essays

In accounts of true crime seen today, rhetoric is often used to impact readers and how they receive the information presented in the article or given argument. The use of rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos ensures that the information appeals to not only one area of communication, and effectively gets across to the intended audience. Bianca Roberson was an 18 year old girl who was recently killed by David Desper in a road rage incident. The article, written by Lydia O’Connor recounts the events of the murder, including details on how Bianca was killed. O’Connor’s writing includes examples of pathos, and logos, making it an effective form of communication to her readers. The first example of pathos is shown when O’Connor includes a background on the victim. She states that Bianca “was headed to Florida’s Jacksonville University in the fall”, and as readers, we sympathize with this not only because we realize how young she really was at the time of her brutal death, but also because it becomes so clear how quickly her future was taken away from her. By including details about Bianca’s future, the author gives a very specific piece of information that, in turn, appeals …show more content…

O’Connor includes the source of her data in the form of Tom Hogan. The information about the incident is known to be reliable as Tom Hogan is the Chester County District Attorney. This appeals to ethos as we are inclined to trust what Hogan says because we know that situations like this one is what he bases his career off of. We as readers are also able to infer that O’Connor’s information from Hogan is accurate as she provides a link to the press conference in which he presented information on the murder. Although only one appeal of ethos is presented in the article, it proves to be sufficient, as Tom Hogan is an individual with clear authority on the

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