{"id":240,"date":"2025-09-15T13:13:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/10-4-1-ethos-ethical-appeal-or-credibility\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:19:38","slug":"10-4-1-ethos-ethical-appeal-or-credibility","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/10-4-1-ethos-ethical-appeal-or-credibility\/","title":{"raw":"10.4.1 Ethos (Ethical Appeal or Credibility)","rendered":"10.4.1 Ethos (Ethical Appeal or Credibility)"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"10.4.1-ethos-(ethical-appeal-or-credibility)\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Aristotle in ancient Greece argued ethos consisted of three dimensions: good character, goodwill, and intelligence. A good character is related to a source or speaker\u2019s nature \u2013 whether the audience sees one as an honest person. Goodwill refers to the intention the speaker has toward the audience. Intelligence is connected to a speaker\u2019s expertise (Frymier, 2021, p. 65).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">When you present qualifications, experience, expertise, and wisdom (whether yours or others\u2019) in an attempt to build readers\u2019 confidence in you and your document, you are using ethical appeals. Part of what will convince readers to \u201clisten\u201d to you is if they know who you are and what makes you an authority on a subject. Another aspect of ethos is the credibility and \u201ctrustworthiness\u201d of your sources of information. The appropriate development of ethos will build readers\u2019 confidence in you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">You may also have encountered the \u201cstylistic\u201d appeal: the use of language and visual effects to increase the persuasive impact. For example, a glossy, fancy design for a re\u0301sume\u0301 can have a positive impact just as much as the content. This is yet another facet of ethos as it is an appeal that lends to how you are perceived by your audience.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"10.4.1-ethos-(ethical-appeal-or-credibility)\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Aristotle in ancient Greece argued ethos consisted of three dimensions: good character, goodwill, and intelligence. A good character is related to a source or speaker\u2019s nature \u2013 whether the audience sees one as an honest person. Goodwill refers to the intention the speaker has toward the audience. Intelligence is connected to a speaker\u2019s expertise (Frymier, 2021, p. 65).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">When you present qualifications, experience, expertise, and wisdom (whether yours or others\u2019) in an attempt to build readers\u2019 confidence in you and your document, you are using ethical appeals. Part of what will convince readers to \u201clisten\u201d to you is if they know who you are and what makes you an authority on a subject. Another aspect of ethos is the credibility and \u201ctrustworthiness\u201d of your sources of information. The appropriate development of ethos will build readers\u2019 confidence in you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">You may also have encountered the \u201cstylistic\u201d appeal: the use of language and visual effects to increase the persuasive impact. For example, a glossy, fancy design for a re\u0301sume\u0301 can have a positive impact just as much as the content. This is yet another facet of ethos as it is an appeal that lends to how you are perceived by your audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-240","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":231,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/231"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/240\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}