Rhetoric is a tool used in language to persuade a target audience through spoken or written form. "Aristotle defined rhetoric as 'an ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion” (PurdueOWL). "Rhetoric" can be divided into three categories: Ethical appeals, Emotional Appeals and Rational Appeals. Or terms easier to remember Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos allows the reader to know that the Author is credible and trustworthy. Pathos creates an emotional appeal to the audience from the message the Author is attempting to get across. Finally Logos, how the facts given by the Author affects the Readers opinion.
Rhetorical Triangle
The top of Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle is the Audience (Logos), helps the Author to give a "debatable thesis statement". The next point is Speaker (Ethos), the Author gives readers a credible evidence for the message they are trying to get across. The final point is Message (Pathos), the Author uses emotional appeal to explain to readers why they should care for the said situation.
In the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, the Author uses Pathos to explain why she appreciates the simple things in life for they were often luxurious items in her eyes, "Not this girl. I felt sorry for the parents who had paid college tuition for these blue-collar wannabes and sorry, too, for the people they intended to uplift. In my own family, the low-wage way of life had never been many degrees of separation away; it was close enough, in any case, to make me treasure the gloriously autonomous, if not always well paid, writing life."(NickelandDimed) She explains in the story that often many of her relatives had low-wage jobs, and that created her appreciation for the life she has now.
Ehrenreich uses Ethos to create credible evidence for her thesis and Pathos to emotionally appeal to the audience, " My sister has been through one low-paid job after another-phone company business rep, Factory worker, receptionist- constantly struggling against who she calls 'the hopelessness of a wage slave,"(NickelandDimed) the author describes how her sister works so hard, and struggles to make a living. Ehrenreich uses the Rhetoric Triangle method to explain that sometimes things in life come easy to others and sometimes it does not. We often take advantage of the easy achievements and do not recognize that often hard work and dedication is skills we can forget when goals are easily achieved.
Below are links and References of Websites and Videos that can further define Rhetoric:
"Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: The Rhetorical Situation. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2014. <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/01/
An, When Crafting. LOGOS: Logic (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 28 June 2014.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Introduction: Getting Ready." Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America. New York: Metropolitan, 2001. 2. Print.
