Everyones an Author
Is Everyone an Author?
Authors do not always have to be people who write best-selling books or have published news articles; they don’t even have to write something at all. Painters, chefs, and musicians can all author compositions. An author, as described by the textbook, Everyone’s An Author, is someone whose piece can be viewed by a large group of people and critiqued by anyone. This critique is a result of rhetoric. Rhetoric, “language that is intended to influence people,” helps the author’s audience understand their perspective of a certain topic (Ethos). In a song by The Wonder Years, “Teenage Parents,” “Soupy,” the singer/songwriter of the album, tries to influence his listeners to overcome what may seem like an expected outcome for their life. Dan “Soupy” Campbell is authoring this piece by using the three rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos and ethos.
The first device in the song is logos. John Bean once described logos as “the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence” (Ethos). The claim Campbell is trying to make, not explicitly stated in the song, is that although it may seem like your life has an expected path you should follow, you can merge off of this path and make a life for yourself. Teenage Parents is a song telling of specific hardships Campbell faced while growing up with a young mother and father. The song is only the story of a boy’s childhood, but the listener can relate his or her own struggles to it and still take away the point the artist is making. The argument Campbell makes has personal evidence that supports it, his own memories. Campbell’s stories of his childhood can help the audience believe in his claim because they compare where he was at in his life before his career and where he is at in his life now.
Another device used in rhetoric is pathos. An author can “appeal to the audience 's sympathies and imagination” to help with their persuasion (Ethos). To have his
Authors do not always have to be people who write best-selling books or have published news articles; they don’t even have to write something at all. Painters, chefs, and musicians can all author compositions. An author, as described by the textbook, Everyone’s An Author, is someone whose piece can be viewed by a large group of people and critiqued by anyone. This critique is a result of rhetoric. Rhetoric, “language that is intended to influence people,” helps the author’s audience understand their perspective of a certain topic (Ethos). In a song by The Wonder Years, “Teenage Parents,” “Soupy,” the singer/songwriter of the album, tries to influence his listeners to overcome what may seem like an expected outcome for their life. Dan “Soupy” Campbell is authoring this piece by using the three rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos and ethos.
The first device in the song is logos. John Bean once described logos as “the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence” (Ethos). The claim Campbell is trying to make, not explicitly stated in the song, is that although it may seem like your life has an expected path you should follow, you can merge off of this path and make a life for yourself. Teenage Parents is a song telling of specific hardships Campbell faced while growing up with a young mother and father. The song is only the story of a boy’s childhood, but the listener can relate his or her own struggles to it and still take away the point the artist is making. The argument Campbell makes has personal evidence that supports it, his own memories. Campbell’s stories of his childhood can help the audience believe in his claim because they compare where he was at in his life before his career and where he is at in his life now.
Another device used in rhetoric is pathos. An author can “appeal to the audience 's sympathies and imagination” to help with their persuasion (Ethos). To have his
Bibliography: "Ethos, Pathos, and Logos." Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2014. The Wonder Years. “Teenage Parents” The Greatest Generation. Hopeless Records, 2013. CD.