Sunday, July 14, 2013

Blog No.2 : The Implied Author & Her Ethos

While I was writing my feminist paper, I didn't want to sound like the "bra-burning, man-hating, whiny liberal" that is described in the first paragraph. It would have instantly lost my ethos, and I would have looked like I was failingly trying to defend my feminist beliefs. I tried to just present arguments against every possible attack that the idealized "opponent" I invented in my head would argue in debate. I tried to make it relevant to someone who is a critic of the third feminist movement (initiated in 1992), by arguing that feminism is for everyone, boys included, making it relevant to the other 50% of the population: boys. Otherwise, you'd have to be fairly masochistic to be male and support feminism if it was about female supremacy over the male population. I tried to use an intelligent and informed tone throughout my paper, to continue to boost ethos indirectly through logos, but it resulted in sounding like a know-it-all. My writing persona was, after all, "informed, knowledgeable, and intelligent" but just a little to the point it sounded slightly snobbish. Not that I minded, it was still pretty convincing and persuasive in the end, and I felt that it was what I was trying to achieve. The fact that it was "snobbish" just shows I did maybe too much in trying to build that type of persona. However, it is an accurate representation of who I am as a person, an over-achiever and braggart to the point it's a nuisance for most.

No comments:

Post a Comment