Aristotle’s Legendary Suggestions for Students Writing Argumentative Essays |
Posted: April 16, 2019 |
The master of philosophy, education, and knowledge itself; Aristotle’s name lives on millennia after his death. His work was so brilliant, that its principles are still applicable today. The man’s life’s work paved the way for modern education; all the way back in Ancient Greece. Case in point: argumentative academic writing. It’s generally considered to be the most difficult kind of writing project and if you have been assigned one, then check out this advice by the Great Master, coming to you from 300 BC: Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker [ethos]; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind [pathos]; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself [logos]. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. –Aristotle 1356a 2, 3 While these suggestions were initially intended for how one should frame their speech to manipulate the listeners’ opinion, they can also be applied to writing work. Ethos This deals with your personality as the person making the argument. According to Aristotle, an argument’s credibility is more than just the substance; it’s also about the character of the person making the argument. Since ancient times, people have been wary about each other’s intentions. A convincing arguer needs to show to his or her audience that they can be trusted. You can easily achieve this for your essay. Your writing style needs to reflect that you’re a competent person who is passionate and earnest about what they are writing. Since as a student you are not an authority on whatever you are writing (yet), therefore you need to reference credible sources. Make sure that you demonstrate that these cognoscenti are reliable and can be trusted to provide legitimate information. Pathos Your reader needs to feel involved in your work. Pathos is about appealing to their emotions and sentimentality. Aristotle knew that there will always be people who wouldn’t care about an issue unless it was broken down to its raw feelings. Meaning, you need to show the human side of every issue, and share individual stories of how people affected by a certain issue. For example, when writing about the Syrian Civil War don’t simply focus on the economic collateral and refugee statistics. Tell the individual tales of actual people on the ground over there to humanise your point. Additionally, you can make readers dance at your fingertips by explain how your topic of discussion could impact them personally. So instead of talking about how Climate Change impacts the citizens of Tuvalu, explain how it impacts the residents of Cornwall. Another method to make your academic work more engaging is to use pronouns that directly refer to the reader; like ‘you’. Logos This is perhaps the easiest element to incorporate into your argumentative writing project. Simply make sure that whatever point you are trying to make is based in reality. Meaning that it has many interesting, facts and statistics that solidify its foundations. Therefore, giving it unquestionable credibility. These three factors work are not standalone. They work in conjunction with each other. When including Logos, you can use references that utilise Pathos and pull the readers’ strings. You can also use personal examples that not only make the audience’s emotions flow as you want them to, but also make you sound like an honest actor. Thus, achieving Ethos. The brilliance of Aristotle is ever lasting, but it alone is sometimes not enough to meet the needs of contemporary academic work. If you need a bit of extra academic help, then swiftly get in touch with a writing service to get excellent work right on time.
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