ETHOS IN CREATIVE WRITING
Corinne Bates
TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTIONS 1
Introduction
2 What is ethos? -Aristotle -Three Pillars 5 How does ethos relate to creative writing? -Let's Break it Down -How it Looks 11 How to use ethos in your writing 12 Appendix
Introduction
1
What is ethos?
ARISTOTLE
2
THE THREE PILLARS
-What is ethos?-
(a)
Phronesis
Arete
Eunoia
3
-What is ethos?-
To put it simply...
“Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible” -Aristotle 4
How does ethos relate to creative writing?
“‘There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, on that feared God, and eschewed evil.’ With one stroke the unknown author has given us a kind of information never obtained about real people, even about our most intimate friends” (3).
5
-How does ethos relate to creative writing?-
Let's break it down... Phronesis
6
-How does ethos relate to creative writing?-
Arete
"The notion of prior ethos, moreover, should be complemented with its a posteriori counterpart, as readers may be confronted with manifestations of the author after their reading experience, which may lead them to reconsider their interpretation and, in particular, the way in which they constructed the authorial image and ethos" (Korthals Altes 18).
7
-How does ethos relate to creative writing?-
Eunoia
“Indeed, to display eunoia, the speaker needs to know his audience and to estimate what kind of style and argument appeals to this particular public� (Korthals Altes 17).
8
-How does ethos relate to creative writing?-
How it looks
“By presenting the reader with a legible, neat, pleasing manuscript, the writer is creating an image of herself for the reader, an image that can support or sabotage her message� (Connors 64-65).
9
-How does ethos relate to creative writing?-
10
How to use ethos in your writing
11
Appendix “Moral judgments, however balanced, however elaborately qualified, are nonetheless categorical. Once rendered, they shape decisively one’s relationship to the object judged. They compel, as forcefully as the mind can be compelled, a manner of apprehending an object. Moral judgements coerce one’ perception of things” (Black 109).