Question

Please Help.
What stylistic elements does King use to influence his readers? After reading and analyzing "Letter from Birmingham Jail," write an essay in which you answer the question and analyze structure and language in his text, providing three or more examples to illustrate and clarify your analysis. What conclusion can you draw about the power of this text?

Answer 1

Okay. So I would go through the text and find examples of ethos, pathos, and logos. Also look for some metaphors and other figurative language.

Answer 2

what are ethos, pathos, and logos? I haven't learned that yet.

Answer 3

Ethos is things that make the reader have an ethical appeal to the text. Like if I wrote a paper on how puppies are being abused in pet shops, that would make you feel emotional.

Answer 4

I'm sorry I mean Pathos

Answer 5

Okay thanks :) what about ethos and logos?

Answer 6

Logos is logical explanations in writing which can be statistically based. If you say "4 out of 10 students failed the test." you would think it is more credible than just saying "A couple of people passed the test."

Answer 7

Awesome! Thanks so much for the help! I have a really stupid question... what is an analysis? I kind of know what it is, but I'm not 100% sure.

Answer 8

And Ethos is a shared belief in a community. So I know King was very spiritual so you could use God or Christianity in that aspect.

Answer 9

An analysis would be creating a thesis which is basically "I think King uses (example), (example), and (example) in his writing to influence his readers."

Answer 10

The thesis would be your first paragraph and the rest of your paragraphs are for explaining your examples.

Answer 11

Thank you so much! There needs to be more of you on this website to help explain stuff haha :)

Answer 12

No problem! Haha thanks. This is just my favorite subject.