Methods of Persuasion: Individual Essay Analysis (evaluated)

**BEFORE YOU START THIS ASSIGNMENT, PLEASE CHECK THE LESSON EXEMPLAR. I HAVE
MODELLED HOW TO IDENTITY LITERARY DEVICES. REMEMBER TO USE YOUR LITERARY DEVICES
HANDOUT TO HELP YOU (ON THE HUB).

Read the essay provided by your teacher. Choose a chunk of writing (a few paragraphs) that
you would like to analyze according to Ethos, Pathos, and/or Logos AND literary devices.

Provide 3 quotes and explain what method of persuasion each is using.

Lastly, identify at least 3 literary devices within that chunk of writing.

For the how do you know section, explain how you know the writer is using Ethos, Pathos, or
Logos. You will also evaluate if the attempted persuasion is successful (IN YOUR PERSONAL
OPINION).

Literary Devices- Please try your best to identify 3 DIFFERENT DEVICES. Identify what device
is being used, and briefly explain the effect of the literary device. Ask yourself, why does this
writer use this device? What is the purpose?

Quote 1 “When what was left of my family moved to the rez we lived in a two-
bedroom apartment trailer my sister and I in the smaller room, my three
younger brothers in the master bedroom. My parents had no bedroom, no
bed. They slept in the living room on the couch and recliner.”

Method of Pathos
Persuasion
How do you I know it’s pathos because the writer shows how a family of seven had to live
know? in a small trailer, and the parents did not even have a bedroom of their own
and they slept in the living room on a couch and a recliner.

Is it Yes, because it paints an emotional image in the reader’s mind of the family’s
successful? living conditions. And it also gives the reader a feeling of sympathy towards
Explain. the family and their hardships.
 “Weight in and of itself is not devastating; depression is. At times it made me
short of breath and at times it had the potential to be deadly, but was it
really like drowning?”

The literary device used here is simile.

Literary
Device #1

The purpose of this literary device in the quote above is to help the reader
What is the see the impact of depression by comparing it to drowning.
purpose of
the device?

Quote 2 “Most recently, my mother has been diagnosed as having either

schizoaffective disorder, which is a version of bipolar disorder with
elements of schizophrenia, or post-traumatic stress disorder,
depending on which doctor you talk to.”

Method of Logos
Persuasion
How do you I know that this is logos because this is a mental illness (schizophrenia) which
know? is scientifically proven to be true, and many people has this mental illness in
real life.

Is it Yes, it is successful because the writer later in the story shows how the
successful? mother is complaining about hearing voices in her head and that she thinks
Explain. that she is being possessed. Which are all symptoms of schizophrenia.
 “Terminology is tricky. Initially, depression was known as
Literary “melancholia," a word that first brought to my mind a field of blue
Device #2 cornflower and golden hay.”

The literary device used here is short sentence “Terminology is tricky”.

The purpose of this device here, was to help the reader understand complex
What is the terms while reading. For example, in the quote above it helped the reader
purpose of understand the word “Melancholia”.
this device?

Quote 3 “According to Diane Purkiss's The Witch in History: Early Modern and
Twentieth-Century Representations, European colonists widely
considered Indigenous peoples to be devil worshippers.”

Method of Ethos
Persuasion
How do you Using Diane Purkiss' book as a reference is ethos because it establishes
know? credibility with historical analysis.

Is it Yes, because by mentioning Diana Purkiss’s the Witch in History, the writer
successful? helped proving his point of European colonists considering Indigenous people
Explain. to be devil worshippers.

“What these words meant to my siblings and me was that our mother’s
Literary health was on timer.”
Device #3 The literary device used here is Euphemism.
 The purpose of the device in here was rather than saying that the mother
What is the will soon pass away, the writer phrased the sentence in a less harsh way by
purpose of saying “our mother’s health was on timer.”
this device?

Curriculum Expectation Success Criteria Level and Feedback

- I can
EN.B - Strand: B - READING AND LITERATURE locate and
STUDIES
identify methods of
EN.B.1 - B.1 - Reading for Meaning
persuasion
EN.B.2 - B.2 - Understanding Form and Style
- I can explain how
EN.B.3 - B.3 - Reading With Fluency
methods of persuasion
are used to create
meaning
- I can evaluate how
effective an attempt at
persuasion is
-I can identity literary
devices and explain
their purpose