English 455 Syllabus Questions and Answers
1. What is she trying to persuade her readers to believe about writing?
2. What ethos is she constructing?
3. Does that ethos help or hurt her persuasion? and how so?
1. Dr. Lisa King is trying to get her students to critically think and go in depth when reading and writing. She wants to really challenge her students by giving them a lot to write about, while also giving them very intricate topics to write about. She probably wants her students to believe that they cannot just speed their way through her class, and it is going to be a very time consuming class. She might be trying to see whether or not students really want to be in the course.
2. By reading her syllabus, we can assume that Dr. King is very particular and firm with her students and assignments. She even states that the course will be difficult and there will be no extra credit opportunities. Dr. King gives a very credible, and austere personality.
3. Ethos helps her persuasion, because the more credible and stern she seems, the more serious students will take her. This mood that she sets will make her students work a lot harder to meet what she expects.
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