Ethos as a Means of Persuasion

Ethos is supposed to be used in order to support the author or speaker as being credible for what he or she is talking about. There are a variety of ways to create good ethos for yourself and we have recently seen many examples of these various means of improving your credibility. In Frannie Lou Hamer's speech she presents a good ethos by stating everything she says as very straightforward. This lets the audience know that the speaker has nothing to hide and is being truthful in what he or she says. Another example was found in Stokely Carmichael's speech. He presents himself as a funny, down to earth man. Because he sets up his ethos like this, he is more likely to appeal to the college age group of students which he is trying to persuade. A third example is that of the Freedom Riders as well as the march which we watched on the computer. Both groups of protestors presented themselves in a non-violent manner. This made them seem more credible to the public eye and therefore more successful in their protest. Although each of these means of providing a better ethos was successful, not all of them would have worked in any situation. For example, had Stokely Carmichael tried to persuade the same audience as Frannie Lou Hamer, he would not have chosen jokes to better his credibility because he knew that the more sophisticated group of listeners would possibly look down upon his silliness. For this reason, one must be very careful when choosing a way to present himself as trustworthy and worth listening to.