Is an emotional appeal to authority a strategy? Because Ms. Kirk explained that pathos is an effect, so can you say, for instance, in your thesis “the author strengthened his/her argument through an emotional appeal to authority, strong diction, and parallel structure.”
Emotional appeal can absolutely be a strategy - make sure to mention directly the emotion(s) that would be evoked.
Also - be careful - emotional appeal (pathos) is different than appeal to authority (ethos).
Finally, I wouldn’t write a paragraph on “strong diction.” You can absolutely analyze a writer’s word choice, but I recommend looking for the “umbrella strategy” that the word choice would be under. For example, the overall strategy could be the author aligning herself with her audience. The words that you could analyze that fit under this umbrella would be “we” and “us.”
Thanks so much
You’re welcome!
