Question

(06.01 MC)

Read the following excerpt from a speech by Helen Keller. Answer the question that follows.

It is your duty to insist upon still more radical measure. It is your business to see that no child is employed in an industrial establishment or mine or store, and that no worker in needlessly exposed to accident or disease. It is your business to make them give you clean cities, free from smoke, dirt and congestion. It is your business to make them pay you a living wage.

This excerpt is an example of what rhetorical appeal?

Logos
Ethos
Pathos
Kairos

Answer 1

Ethos

A good example of an ethos appeal is the passage you gave. Ethos pertains to the speaker's legitimacy, authority, and dependability. Here, the speaker is pleading with the audience to take action on issues like fair pay, safe workplaces, child labor, and clean cities. By emphasizing the audience's responsibilities ("It is your duty," "It is your business"), the speaker is appealing to their feeling of civic duty and moral obligation. This is an ethos appeal since it depends on the audience's authority and credibility to bring about change.

Answer 2

The excerpt from Helen Keller's speech exemplifies the use of ethos, as she uses her credibility and moral authority to appeal to the audience's sense of duty and justice.