Purpose, Context, Speaker/Ethos, Logos

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Components of Analysis/AP Language Purpose, Context, Speaker/ Ethos, Pathos, Logos Any analysis must begin with the purpose of the text. For any text to exist, first there needs to be an occasion, an impetus--in formal discussions of rhetoric, it is usually referred to as exigence--that which motivated the text. Exigence precedes a text, so exigence does not equal purpose. Purpose is what the text, created in response to the exigence is intended to do. • Example: A eulogy is written in response to an exigence, a community’s sorrow, grief, and need to formalize the death of a member of its community; however, the purpose of a eulogy is most likely to honor the deceased. The purpose of any given text can vary tremendously.…show more content…
• Important text(s) and/or events to which the text was written in response • Responses that the text or similar texts generated at the point of its original publication and/or throughout time, and/or current…show more content…
One important set of tools comes to us from some of the earliest language theorists and philosophers, including the ancient rhetoricians, Aristotle and Cicero, who provided a framework for analyzing discourse that is still useful. In simplistic terms, that framework consists of three lenses: ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos (Speaker) • Refers to the image the text develops of the speaker, an image that an author or speaker can use to influence listeners or readers • Examine how the writer or speaker presents himself or herself, what aspects of his or her personality come through in the text • One particular consideration for students is the level of a speaker or writer’s qualifications or authority to discuss a given

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