Poster Rhetoric

NAU ID Poster:

Author: NAU ID Card Department
Audience: NAU Card Holders a.k.a. students
Purpose: Informative list of Card benefits

Ethos: Created by the office, which determines the card's abilities.
Logos: Reference sheet for card amenities.
Pathos: Benefits students to have ID. i.e. Swimming Pool, Parking Passes, Book Checkout.

Fake Essay

For an effective essay, an author must be credible in his or her topic of discussion. In the case of Chris Godsey, he is able to prove his credibility. "I'm one of those guys who are hung up on their looks.--I concentrate on MTV, Hollywood, and US weekly ideals of masculine value and attractiveness." (Ashley Russel's blog) The entire discussion is on the problem of the ideal male body and trying to live up to it, and here the author is experiencing this first hand which makes his point quite valid.

Author Anne Lammott, establishes her credibility to discuss Shitty First Drafts. "For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous." Here she states that she as a writer, does not have the euphoric and easy grace when writing. This sets a trust between the reader and the author.

Godsey: Author, Audience, Purpose & Ethos, Logos, Pathos

Author: Godsey is a male who for half his life "...been constantly conflicted, never content and remarkably self centered." Always "comparing myself (Godsey) to narrow, arbitrary ideas about what we all "need" to look like." (117) His life experience is what the essay is essentially about.

Audience: Males who have been fooled by this massive trick. Those who have fallen to the false ideas taught to them by society and media. "Society is telling them now, more than ever before, that their bodies define who they are as men."

Purpose: Godsey attempts hack at what has become rooted in our minds, which is this idea that bodies define who men are. His main point, "Masculine value doesn't lie in powers of attraction and conquest."


Ethos: Considering that this is a completely personal view, I think Godsey is perfectly entitled to his opinion and credibility must be given. He reports on a first hand experience which provides supports for his claims.

Logos: To support his claim that the image of man has changed, he points out the transition from stars like Clark Gable to Brad Pitt. The difference, was a few more sets of abs, hairless bodies, and chiseled arms.

Pathos: Millions of American men feel insecure, shallowness, and inferiority due to their worry "that their hair is thinning, their breasts are fat, or their penis is too small"

Lamott: Audience, Author, and Purpose

In Shitty First Drafts, Lamott answers the questions of Audience, Author and Purpose. The audience that Lamott seeks seems to be anyone who overestimates the abilities of successful writers. Lamott focuses (her purpose) on demystifying the belief that all great writers can magically produce a best seller on the first try. On the contrary, like everyone else, they must begin with a shitty first draft. As a previous food critic and author of several novels, Lamott uses her first hand experiences and accounts from fellow writers to justify her position and credibility.