Per. 1 Class 10/4/17

Today in class we reviewed the three appeals/devices used in rhetorical literature; ethos (ethics/credibility), pathos (emotion) and logos (logic, statistics, fact). Mr. River's then called on the class to talk with our groups to discuss what we thought were the top three devices/ways to develop the Pathos appeal. Although every group had something different, most agreed that cacophony and euphony were fundamental to the development of Pathos. My group had put down that euphony/cacophony, Anaphora/Antis-trophies and Metaphors were the most effective way to develop the Pathos appeal. However, the largest portion of the class today was spent on something different than Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Around halfway through class, Mr. River's introduced a way to make our essay thesis statements much better through adding extra detail by using the 'formula': who, what, when, where, why and how. Each group was assigned one of these terms and had to apply it to a sample thesis statement in order to make it more detailed (this document is easily accessible on the period 1 google classroom page). My group was assigned the 'what' term for this assignment. The sample statement started out as:
- "Jonathan Edwards uses metaphor, hyperbole, and tone to create a text that supports emotion over logic."
At the end of the exercise, the sample statement looked like this:
- "Jonathan Edwards, an American preacher and philosopher in the 18th century, uses read this sermon in North Hampton, Massachusetts where Puritans had established in Massachusetts Bay, created a statement back in 1741 by using multiple literary devices such as metaphors to help listeners hear what he is saying, hyperbole to exaggerate his point, and tone to give the listeners a dark look on the topic, to create a text that supports proving that he uses emotion over logic by persuading sinners to clean up their lifestyle and to fear God while keeping their faith because emotion would resonate and relate better to someone who follows a religion because religions are usually built on faith and emotion. He uses religion to scare them, which was prominent at the time, to support emotion over logic."
This shows that the use of the who, what, when, where, why and how 'formula' to create a better and more detailed thesis statement really works.
The way that we can connect this lesson to the world around us is when (if you do) you write a college essay explaining why that college is the right choice for you, you want to make your opening paragraph/thesis not only sound great but also hook whoever is reading the essay into reading more about you and why their college is right for you. Another time in life that we could connect this lesson from class is when you are writing in general, wether it be for a career, school or job. The 'formula' for the thesis statement will always help your essay start out sounding smoothly and intelligent.