Overview
Ethos appeals to the character, or credibility, of the speaker or write
Overview
Ethos appeals to the character, or credibility, of the speaker or writer as a reason to believe. At their core, ethos appeals attempt to foster trust, or belief, in the speaker or writer. The opening paragraph of this brief selection states succinctly the ethos problem that Fisher faces: can the audience take a “food writer” seriously as a writer? This piece was written in 1937, long before books and writing about food became commonplace around the world. This was originally the foreward to a volume of her collected writings, and it answers in a very small space what she imagines to be her audience’s questions on picking up such a book: Am I going to read a whole book about food? About the preparation and serving of food? And yet not a cookbook, but a book?
THE GASTRONOMICAL ME
1 People ask me: Why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way others do?
2 They ask it accusingly, as if I were somehow gross, unfaithful to the honor of my craft.
3 The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied . . . and it is all one.
4 I tell about myself, and how I ate bread on a lasting hillside, or drank red wine in a room now blown to bits, and it happens without my willing it that I am telling too about the people with me then, and their other deeper needs for love and happiness.
5 There is food in the bowl, and more often than not, because of what honesty I have, there is nourishment in the heart, to feed the wilder, more insistent hungers. We must eat. If, in the face of that dread fact, we can find other nourishment, and tolerance and compassion for it, we’ll be no less full of human dignity.
6 There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?
Download and Print Copy of “The Gastronomical Me”
THE GASTRONOMICAL ME.docx
Instructions
Identify and explain at least three of the specific ways that Fisher attempts to enhance her ethos in this piece. This should be multiple paragraphs (one paragraph per example). Be sure to do the following:
Identify the type of ethos appeal (special experience, for example).
Explain why Fisher employs it. Why might Fisher need to employ this particular form of ethos, knowing that her audience may be doubtful or suspicious of her as a food writer?
Explain what effect she hopes to have on her audience. What does she want her audience to think or believe about her?
In case you’ve forgotten, here are the types of ethos appeals:
Accidental Ethos: External factors that the speaker or writer brings to the rhetorical situation. Age, gender, reputation, special awards, degrees. For example, Oprah Winfrey has powerful accidental ethos.
Authority/Expert Knowledge: a writer’s/speaker’s use of facts, studies, data, research. For example, Dr. Anthony Fauci has studied infectious diseases for more than thirty years.
Humility: This person identifies with the audience. They might say, “I’m like you. For example, presidential candidates, who often come from privileged backgrounds, will very often put on work shirts and cowboy boots to meet the people, work in food lines, or pick up a hammer to help “build” a house as they attempt to show that “they’re just like us.”
Special Experience: This person has firsthand knowledge of what they’re talking about. They might say, “I was there.” For example, war veterans who ran for president, such as John McCain.
Intensity of Conviction: These people demonstrate passion, very often through their speaking voices and gestures, but may also demonstrate conviction through their commitment to the cause. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they are willing to go to jail for their causes, to sacrifice their lives.
Self Deprecation: This is the lowering of oneself below the audience, especially in cases where the audience is hypercritical, suspicious, or doubtful of the speaker or writer. For example, Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, who self-deprecates in order to gain the “approval” of her white audience.
Self Effacement: Attempting to give the appearance of dispassion and pure objectivity. The voice of authority. The opposite of intensity of conviction. For example, Walter Cronkite, CBS new anchor, who delivered the news in a grandfatherly, monotone voice.
Download and Print Copy
Types of Ethos Appeals.docx
See Grading Rubric Below:
Rubric
Analyzing Ethos Grading Rubric
Analyzing Ethos Grading Rubric
Criteria Ratings Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeResponds to the Prompt in Three Fully-Developed Paragraphs
Do you identify at least three types of ethos appeals (special experience, for example) and explain each one in its own fully-developed paragraph?
Do you explain why Fisher employs each type of ethos? Why might Fisher need to employ each particular form of ethos, knowing that her audience may be doubtful or suspicious of her as a food writer?
Do you explain what effect she hopes to have on her audience by employing each form of ethos? What does she want her audience to think or believe about her?
30 pts
Total Points: 30