Kathryn Tyler And Julie Hanus: A Rhetorical Analysis
In this essay, I am going to analyze the use of ethos, pathos and logos in the following essays: “The Tethered Generation” by Kathryn Tyler and “The Kid in the Corner Office” by Julie Hanus.
Firstly, let us define what these concepts are.Ethos, pathos and logos are the “ingredients of persuasion” according to Aristotle. The source’s logos is the argument’s main idea, the way it appeals to the audience’s logic. Ethos is the source’s credibility and authority. In other words, it is how trustworthy and knowledgeable the author seems to the audience, how strong their claims are.
Finally, pathos is the appeal to the reader’s emotions and imagination. Bearing these concepts in mind when creating a speech or a piece of writing is crucial as right usage of them can support an idea to a great extent – as much as, contrarily, even the most brilliant thoughts will sound week if the proof is not solid enough or the vocabulary choice is improper. Both texts I have studied dwell on the same topic (the Generation Y youth, the pitfalls and benefits of the upbringing they have received and the hardships they might endure when immersed into adult life) and describe pretty much the same problems, but each author’s peculiar use of logos, pathos and ethos makes them different. Tyler’s ethos is dependent, first of all, on her reputation of a specialist in HR with a solid background. It is perhaps due to this background that she carefully chooses the sources on which she relies.
Among the personalities cited are Claire Raines, the author of numerous books about generation gap and its impact on the work, Jim Taylor, a chairman of a huge marketing consulting firm, Jordan Grafman, a high-profile cognitive neuroscientist, and a plethora of other people whose positions and experience speak for themselves. Each time Tyler cites anybody, she not only mentions their name but also the field in which this person works and either the position they hold (“Stephen P. Seaward, director of career development for Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.”) or their achievements (“Claire Raines, author of Generations at Work (AMACOM, 2000)”).
Moreover, she also appeals to research results mentioning who exactly the research was conducted by. (Tyler, 470)The other important notice about Tyler’s ethos is the way she supports her claim not only with research reports and citations, but also letting college professors and HRs tell the audience about their everyday encounters with the millennial youth and their helicopter parents. Again, she uses a lot of citations.This, however, is not only how her ethos is employed; this detail also supports the pathos of her work. By retelling stories from real life connected to the millennials and placing a great emphasis on the subjective attitudes (such as in “the manager was aghast”). (Tyler 471) Though, we cannot say that the role of pathos is prevalent in this piece of writing, or at least that …
