Ethos and audience are unfamiliar terms for students with respect to writing, but probably not too difficult to understand if the terms are presented with a variety of examples.  This three-part assignment is intended to introduce you to the concepts of ethos and audience and provide you with examples for analysis.

Writers create themselves (construct an ethos) in their documents through word choice and syntax.  Walker Gibson has a good article that lays out the options:  "Tough, Sweet and Stuffy" (available in GCC's library and in many composition readers).  Don Nilsen has a PowerPoint presentation on Gibson's typology contrasing the novel, the ad, and the textbook as examples of tough, sweet and stuffy. 

Writers not only write to an audience; they can also create a desired audience by making some assumptions about the reader or tapping into some presumed beliefs.  

Part 1:  Analyzing email messages (See this collection of real email messages sent by students to their English teachers)

Most college students have written so many email messages that they really don't think about them much.  But email is a notoriously misunderstood genre; messages seem to "go wrong" as often as they go right, although the writer is often the last to know when his or her message has offended or been misunderstood.  How does this happen?

• Who's the audience?  What matters to them?
• What kind of ethos is constructed by the writer?  How?

Articles:  "I'M WITH THE CEO OF IMATIX" by Paul Wooding

Part 2:  Analyzing the syllabus (See this collection of attendance policies)

The course syllabus is usually the first encounter a student has with a teacher, sometimes even before a face-to-face meeting.  Read the syllabi from your current classes.  Look at syllabi from different  teachers in the same department, or from teachers of the same course at different institutions.  How are they similar or different?   

• Who's the audience?  What are their characteristics?  How do we know?
• What are the characteristics, beliefs, and "personality" of the author?  How do we know? 

Assignment: 
 

Part 3:  Analyzing textbook introductions (See this example and this example)

Many textbooks have an introduction specifically addressed "To the Student."  Look at your course textbooks to see what the writer says.  In what ways are the introductions similar and different? 

• Who's the audience?  What are their characteristics?  How do we know?

What are the characteristics, beliefs, and "personality" of the author?  How do we know?
 

Assignment: