Austin Carney

Professor Pierson
11/15/17
Rhetorical Analysis Paper: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Introduction to Community

This research essay will examine the use of ethos, pathos and logos in a text, Rey was at

Lukes Jedi academy and heres how, from the community of StarWarsTheories subreddit. The

community is found online at a discussion based website called Reddit. Here thousands of

categories break down the website into what are known as subreddits. The community takes

place within the StarWarsTheories subreddit specifically where members can read, rate and

comment on each others posts.

The StarWarsTheories subreddit community has many different literacy sponsors. First

and foremost, the Star Wars movies and their creators are the main literacy sponsors of the

subreddit. Other literacy sponsors include the two creators of the subreddit who moderate the

community by producing a set of rules and monitoring the members activities. These moderators

also produced the values of the community within the rules such as: respectfulness, politeness

and distinctiveness. They want the members to respect one anothers opinions and to be polite

when discussing a topic disagreed upon. And to be distinct by posting a new thread: to search

before you post because it may have already been discussed. These posts serve as the literate

activities within the community because this is where members propose and discuss different

theories of Star Wars possibilities.

This is considered a Discourse Community, according to Ann M. Johns, because it

follows the defining characteristics of a Discourse Community (Johns, 1997, p.321). The first
defining characteristic is a set of common public goals which are the desires to spread theories

to likeminded Star Wars individuals. The next characteristic is mechanisms of

intercommunication which would be the posts by the members. These posts all have a comment

section where other members are free to agree/disagree which serves as the participatory

mechanisms which allows for feedback. Specific lexis is found all over the texts which would

leave outsiders (nonmembers) clueless. Bringing us to the final characteristic of threshold level

of members, you must possess knowledge about Star Wars and its terminology to enter this

community in order to participate and follow along.

Introduction to Text

In the text, Rey was at Lukes Jedi academy and heres how, the rhetor writes to persuade

Star Wars fans of his theory. The exigence of this text is to solve the mystery of Reys past. This

theory fills a gap with the understanding of Reys childhood and upbringing. The rhetor for this

specific text is ChiSoxBoy. He is a member of the StarWarsTheories subreddit community. The

exigence of this community is to share theories of Star Wars with one another through text.

The rhetors intended audience was Star Wars fans, in particular members of the

StarWarsTheories subreddit community. However, the rhetor also has an unintended audience

because it is available to anyone who happens to browse the internet. The rhetor appeals to his

audience by using lexis, community specific language. The main lexis he uses to appeal to the

audience are proper names of characters, objects and places. Examples of names of characters

discussed are: Rey, Shmi Skywalker, Ben, Snoke and Kylo.

The rhetor wrote this to persuade other Star Wars fans of his theory that Rey was secretly

at Lukes Jedi academy disguised as a male. This theory addresses the question of Reys
upbringing, which would explain how and why she stands in her place now. He persuades by

utilizing the three rhetorical appeals. For example, the rhetor appeals to logos when he states,

we see Rey use mind-trick techniques and expertly, though a little rusty, wield a lightsaber for

the first time. Only it isnt the first time. These are things she learned at Lukes Jedi academy.

This gives logic to his theory because he states a specific quote in time where it proves his theory

to makes sense.

The Rhetor faces many constraints while writing this text. The foremost constraint is the

comment box below the text that allows people to criticize his theory. This makes it much harder

for the rhetor to persuade his audience because the comments below negate his reasoning which

can make the readers doubt the theory. For example, one person commented that the timelines

dont match followed by more comments agreeing and supporting the negative comment with

evidence. This gives the audience reason to not accept the theory prior to making their own

decision. Other constraints consist of background information, interest and linguistics.

Methods

I chose ethos, pathos and logos for this paper because I felt that it suited my text the best

with the knowledge I was provided. The topic itself also serves as an analytic which I felt was

best for my text because the rhetor touches on all the three of these characteristics of rhetoric. To

enhance my prior knowledge of this analytic I performed research with the guidance of my

professor. The sources I used can be easily accessed online. I used Ethos, logos, pathos:

Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports and Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Kairos:

Using a Rhetorical Heuristic to Mediate Digital-Survey Recruitment Strategies which can both

be found on google scholar by simply searching ethos, pathos and logos and are within the first

page of the search results.

 The first article studies how language use influences how social actors think, feel and act

using discourse analyses of three social/environmental business reports. The second article is

about how potential participants are influenced by a rhetorically informed heuristic to recruit

individuals to respond to a survey. In this article, Rife defines rhetorical analysis as an effort to

understand how people within specific social situations attempt to influence others through

language (2010). This concurs with the first article, both explaining how use of language can

convince the audience.

Analysis and Findings

Ethos, pathos, and logos are considered distinct but not separable Taken together,

these elements reveal the characteristics of a good argument, and identify the dimensions of the

persuasive appeal (Higgins and Walker, 2012). I used ethos, pathos and logos to analyze the

text by determining which analytic applied to different sections of the text, then used that one

specifically to gain insight to understanding the rhetors exigence. Once identifying the

dimensions of the persuasive appeal, it is clear how the rhetor convinced the readers.

First, the rhetor establishes ethos throughout the post by using proper terminologies and

names of characters. The rhetor uses lexis, terminologies and or characters specific to the

community, including: Jedi, Tatooine, Jakku, apprentice, lightsaber and YT-1300 freighter.

These lexis confirm credibility of the persuader. To myself, lacking knowledge of Star Wars, this

shows me that the rhetor is a part of the Star Wars community and has proved it with the lexis

used.

Pathos is then established multiple times in the text. It is first and foremost established

towards the beginning of the text where the rhetor states Her [Reys] parents are nobodies.
Theyre outcasts or living somewhere where theres no hope they have a daughter and they

want her to live a fulfilling life. This makes the reader feel sympathy for the family justifying

their action and decision to disguise their daughter as a boy to go to the Jedi academy. Which is a

part of the rhetors narrative however it is not a part of his argument. The sympathy the reader

feels isnt going to make the reader believe his story anymore than before. Therefore, the pathos

established here does nothing in support of his argument.

ChiSoxBoy appeals to logos in several different instances. He made his theory logical by

providing evidence. For example, he uses quotes and would also state which episode or movie he

was referencing. In the text he refers to The Force Awakens and Episode 6. These references help

connect his ideas which makes it logical in the readers mind. Especially when youre Star Wars

illiterate like myself, I totally believed his entire theory with no doubt until I read the comments.

Which also provide evidence when they make counter claims to the authors theories, making me

realize Im totally illiterate to make a conclusion.

Discussion and Meaning

The analytics of ethos, pathos and logos help the rhetor of the text, Rey was at Lukes

Jedi academy and heres how, persuade non-Star Wars fans by establishing credibility, sentiment

and logic. The StarWarsTheories subreddit community was not persuaded by the rhetors claims

because they found apposing evidence that was stronger than his claims. Even though, the rhetor

uses ethos to establish credibility by using proper lexis along with quotes and references. To

establish pathos the rhetor makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the beginning of his post to

get the readers emotionally attached. Followed by the emotional attaching the rhetor gives

specific examples connecting their theory to actual events within the episodes of Star Wars to

complete the readers understanding. The fans of the subreddit are not convinced. However,
someone who doesnt have experience and facts to make counter claims can easily be persuaded

by the rhetor because he uses ethos, logos, and pathos.

This analytic gives you one way of analyzing why this text can effectively persuade an

individual. The analytic effectively working on this text shows that it can work on nearly any

other application of human interactions because there is an underlying meaning behind every

interaction. Whether you realize it or not every interaction has its exigence and can be broken

down using ethos, pathos and logos. However, the successfulness of the interaction will be

determined based on how well one appeals to these rhetorical elements. Thus, the rhetor of this

subreddit post was successful because he effectively appealed to ethos, pathos and logos

convincing his audience of his theory.

Bibliography

Johns, A. (1997). Discourse communities and communities of practice. In E. Wardle and D.

Downs (Ed.) Writing about Writing: A college reader (pp. 321-338). Boston: Bedford/St.

Martins.

Higgins, C. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports.

Accounting forum, 36(3), 194-208. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003

Rife, M. (2010) Ethos, pathos, logos, kairos: using a rhetorical heuristic to mediate digital-survey

recruitment strategies. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications, 53(3), 260-

277. DOI: 10.1109/TPC.2010.2052856