Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in An Inconvenient Truth

Upcoming:

• Tuesday, March 4:  Meet in Cyberia: ARTX 265.  Bring Brainstorm + Read online articles criticizing Gore.
• Thursday, March 6: Outline
• Tuesday, March 11: Revise outline and come prepared for the in-class midterm in the Batmale 301 computer classroom.

Midterm Topic:

In your midterm essay, you will evaluate how effectively Al Gore has appealed to ethos, pathos, and logos in the sections of An Inconvenient Truth about melting ice.  Basically, how well did he use evidence, emotion, and his own image to convince us?  Your thesis should answer that question.  You may want to structure your body paragraphs around ethos, pathos, and logos.

Reading for Tuesday, March 4:

•  “From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype”

• “An Inconvenient Truth for Al Gore”

•  “The Moral Flaws of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth”

• Listen to or read NPR’s “Assessing the Art and Science of An Inconvenient Truth”

Brainstorm for Tuesday, March 4:

• Ethos: List three or more examples from the sections we just read of Gore’s attempt to gain the reader’s trust and goodwill.  For each example, explain how Gore wanted the image or phrase to affect us.  Then tell how well it worked on you. 
• Pathos: List three or more examples of appeals to emotion in the sections we read.  For each one, tell us whether or not it affected you as it was intended to.  Did you feel what Gore wanted you to feel?  Why or why not?
• Logos: List at least 5 types of evidence that Gore offers the reader in these sections.  You may want to glance back at A Short Guide to College Writing for its classification of types of evidence. 
• Logos: Pick two pieces of evidence which were most helpful and convincing to you as the reader and explain why.
• Logos: Pick three places where reasonable readers could say that Gore either got the science wrong or purposely distorted it.  Explain the possible criticism and any possible defenses against it.