NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Student: Steven Clark Bradley THIS FORM MUST BE COMPLETELY FILLED IN Follow these procedures: If requested by your instructor, please include an assignment cover sheet. This will become the first page of your assignment. In addition, your assignment header should include your last name, first initial, course code, dash, and assignment number. This should be left justified, with the page number right justified. For example: BradleySEDU8001-8-5 Save a copy of your assignments: You may need to re-submit an assignment at your instructors request. Make sure you save your files in accessible location. Academic integrity: All work submitted in each course must be your own original work. This includes all assignments, exams, term papers, and other projects required by your instructor. Knowingly submitting another persons work as your own, without properly citing the source of the work, is considered plagiarism. This will result in an unsatisfactory grade for the work submitted or for the entire course. It may also result in academic dismissal from the University.
Course ID Number: EDU8001-8-5

Instructor: Amy Gates

Assignment: 5

Course Title: Advanced Scholarly Writing

Faculty Use Only <Faculty comments here>

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Running head: USING RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

USING RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ACADEMIC WRITING Steven Clark Bradley Northcentral University

USING RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Using Logos, Ethos and Pathos in Academic Writing The topic I chose to write about in activity two was the quantification of the positive or negative impacts of the massive change in American education called Common Core. I envision using this same subject for my dissertation. As my style of writing tends to emphasize the use of language to get my ideas across and to understand the ideas of others, I found that the Intelligence learning style that fits my topic best is the Linguistic style. I ascertained this approach from the chart of the various learning styles along with the rhetorical perspectives that are most likely employed by academic writers. The rhetorical perspectives listed under the linguistic style are Ethos, Pathos and Logos. This paper will clarify the rhetorical perspectives of Ethos, Pathos and Logos and establish if and when they are most appropriate for my topic. Logos The topic I am researching is one that is based on a comparison of traditional educational standards for American students to new, untested and unevaluated Common Core values that have not, heretofore, faced sufficient corroborative scrutiny. Since applying pure logic that does not acquiesce and that fairly treats both sides with well-founded research and attestation appears to be the only objective way to approach my topic, Logos is highly appropriate. Of the three rhetorical perspectives, in question in this paper, Logos is clearly the one that I will use the most. My determination of this point was made because Logos is founded on objective reasoning. This is vital when drawing from a written collection of verifiable sources, on the same topic as mine, but from either the same and/or differing points of view. The topic I have chosen logically necessitates that quotes and paraphrases from academia, which shore up my dissertations perspective, be located and alluded to. Accordingly, Logos will need to be exploited throughout my dissertation, not only through the various citations I will use in support of my topic, but also in the points of view and conclusions I will draw from my scholarly research.

USING RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Ethos It is striking that though the necessity of employing the rhetorical perspective, Logos is clear and strong, the exact opposite can be said of Ethos, in my research and writing of my topic for my dissertation. The rhetorical perspective Ethos is used to highlight ones own experience and skill in their writing. Ethos draws its power from appealing to personal background and standing in ones writing. As has been pointed out in both the Foundations course and in the Advanced Scholarly Writing course, academic writing employs virtually no personal examples, background or informal writing in a dissertation or in most forms of academic writing. This will certainly be the case for the topic I am researching for my dissertation. I cannot foresee any necessity of using my personal background or experience to draw the required profound comparisons of the traditional education standards that have been in effect, state by state, in America and the changes that will inevitably take place, if Common Core standards are fully implemented throughout the nation. As a result, since there will be virtually no use of personal information, neither positive nor negative, in my dissertation, the need of employing the rhetorical perspective of Ethos in my research and final writing of my dissertation is fundamentally nonexistent. Pathos Pathos finds its perspective in the use of emotion, empathy and opinion. Pathos is highly constructive in many styles of writing. It is functional in such genre as fiction, editorials and biographical writing. Yet, it seems apparent that it has little utility related to the writing of a dissertation and most other forms of academic writing. Scholarly writing, and the structure of an accurately written dissertation, requires the ability to describe, to explain, to research and to detail material with objectivity, which may disprove ones theories or hypotheses on a topic. The general premise of the topic I have chosen for my dissertation is not to set out to prove my

USING RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

predisposed assumptions related to traditional education standards or those of Common Core. I must let the body of world knowledge reveal what is true and accurate, without opinion or prejudice. Consequently, other than a limited use of Pathos in the explanation of the topic of my dissertation, this rhetorical perspective will not be advantageous in the writing of my dissertation. The use of emotion and/or empathy, for one side or the other, could imperil the impartiality of my research and the writing of my subject matter and could render it editorial and biased in nature. The use of Pathos risks removing impartiality and legitimacy from my dissertation.