RATIONALE

Brian Miller, Ansel Steele, Joseph Robertson

English 400

Dr. Guler

April 26, 2018

Rationale for the use of course concepts in the common good project, “Advocates for Global Education”

1. Logos: Logos is a term that is used often in rhetoric situations. It is defined as a type of rhetoric used to persuade the audience with reason, often using facts and statistics. Our team’s version and example of logos is displayed in the brochure. We have displayed stats that discuss the problem of education worldwide. One example is that seventeen percent of our world remains illiterate. Another example of logos in our brochure is that more than 200 million children do not attend secondary school. This examples in our presentation are designed to persuade the reader/audience to take action in our goal. Using logical appeal helps the reader to understand what is going on in the world and our website and brochure show the need for change by using logical appeal (logos).

2. Pathos: Pathos is a term used when the speaker tries to convince an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. Pathos is used often when emotion is needed to persuade the audience of a case. In our brochure, pathos is displayed in multiple places. On the first page of the brochure there are two pictures that use emotional appeal to get to the audience. The first picture on the left is of a small kid wearing a backpack. It looks like he is wearing a school uniform. The reader can infer that he is coming home from school and is happy. The next picture on the right is of a classroom of kids. Both pictures display pathos because they contribute to moving the reader in an emotional way. We know how important education is and the ability to read in our world. The reader might feel sad when they think about the other kids in these photos who are not able to get an education or learn how to read.

3. Ethos: Ethos is when the speaker refers to ethics to convince his audience of a particular argument. Often times the speaker uses his credibility or authority in a particular field to further display knowledge or experience to the reader. In our website, ethos is used throughout by getting our information from reputable sources and sites we are showing the reader that we are proving the facts and doing so as a credible source. In addition, we are able to show our readers we have the authority to do so because we are college students and educated on the issue at hand. Finally, ethos is shown in the video we displayed because they are reputable speakers and college professors.

4. Visual symbols- Visual symbols are symbols that have a meaning behind them and represent something. In our project, we have many visual symbols. On our brochure, the pictures of the kids are visual symbols. They represent all the children in the world who are receiving an education, but also to represent all the children who are illiterate and not receiving an education.

5. Symbolic action – This course concept applies to our project and goal as a whole. Symbolic action is defined as expressive human action, showing how symbols act in the world. We are presenting the current need to educate and showing what happens when we don’t. The website we created is to persuade citizens and organizations to join and support our cause

6. Civic engagement- civic engagement is defined as people’s participation in collective action to develop solutions to social problems. This concept relates to our objective as a group. We are trying to present statistics and facts that show how important literacy is. We are appealing to organizations and individuals for assistance and to help join our cause.

7. Terministic screen- this term is defined as a screen composed of terms in which humans perceive the world. This term applies to our project because our goal is to enlighten the world on one of the major problems existing around the world today. Many people have a small scope and are focused on their life and don’t realize there are billions of people around them. A goal of this project is to possibly give our audience and the general public who sees our brochure and website another screen to look through. If they can see and identify with the problem, they will be more likely to support our cause.

8. Argument- argument is an attempt to persuade by presenting support for a position. In our case, we are arguing for importance and for support. The statistics in our brochure support our case for the necessary support for literacy and education.

9. Claim of value- in addition to the previous term, claim of value is a term that advances a statement about what is worthy. All of our claims are to show how important our cause is. We are trying to show that to our readers and viewers of our website in order to gain support.

10. Universal audiences- this concept is defined as an audience composed of all reasonable and competent members of humanity. This is our ultimate goal to get this information and data to as many people as possible. We want to appeal to many different audiences and get as much support as possible for a very serious issue in our country and world.