Modes of persuasion depend on the character of the speaker, framing the audience to a state of mind and lastly proofing through the speech itself (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2006). This essay analyses how ethos, logos and pathos have been used in the assigned reading. Ethos is a persuasion mode that deals with the character of the speaker and the intention to appear credible to the audience through competence, good intention and apathy. This is expressed through the first paragraph where the author tries to explain to the reader how following a trail without warning will lead to the panorama view of waterfall. Further, the use of the word moment of ‘Aha’ is used to combine body language and eloquence (Tefil, 1983). The vocabulary ‘vista’ has also been used to define how the social or professional life can influence their view. In the example of motorists, the ethics of their professions shapes their vista and makes it different from all the three of them.

Pathos is the use of emotional influence through speech that persuades the audience to appropriate emotional states. When the uses the word ‘Aha’ in the second paragraph with a light bulb combining above someone’s head creates the emotion that the actor seeks the audience to feel (Tefil, 1983). Through use of the two differently items in the play the audience is led to an undiscovered discovery that they were not expecting. Since the speaker has several possibilities for eliciting emotions then the content must be adjusted separately to give different views. For example, in the third chapter, the question of the audience being asked to imagine a set of motorists looking at the traffic light creates a clash of emotions to the audience where each individual will have their own view despite them looking at the same item now and then. The ability of the audience to judge has been reduced through the use of three properly chosen professionals that are both looking at the traffic light. This allows the author to easily create a conclusion without questions from the audience.

Logos is the use of logic reason to present an argument that appears to be sound. This is through a persuasive effect created to the audience through proving the truth by persuasive arguments that are reasonable. The author uses the example of motorists to present the logic of the vista where he seeks to justify that people do not have to always view the same thing (Tefil, 1983). Through the use of a medieval landscape painting, the audience is induced to look at it by creating a vista that each driver looks at. However, Jowett & O’Donnell (2006) add that the reaction or the interpretation that each individual sees is based on other factors like their careers or any other fact that they have experienced or gone through before. Such experiences that people have had in life influence the way they interpret things and how they perceive the world differently from others. Through the use of electrical engineer, firm representative and attorney professions, the author uses technical or artificial proof based on the facts that people have in their heads. Therefore, the author presents logical reasoning is presented through the term vista which the author creates for his own persuasion.

References

Jowett, G. S., & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion. California: Thousand Oaks.

Tefil, J. (1983). Unxecpted Vistas. In The World of Science (pp. 696-699).