Using Rhetorical Approach of Ethos, Pathos and Logos by Malaysian Engineering Students in Persuasive Email Writings
Keywords:
persuasive email, ethos, pathos, logos, engineering students
Abstract
It seems that many English language learners have deficiency to write persuasively. This portent has been observed among university students, particularly those from technical fields. Therefore, the present study examines the use of ethos, pathos and logos in persuasive email writing and determines if these features were used appropriately. The participants involved in this research were 43 third-year Malaysian engineering students. The task evaluated was persuasive email writing, and the data was obtained from an official university website forum. The data was analysed qualitatively by using Aristotelian rhetorical theory. The results show that there were some persuasive techniques used by the students in their email writing. It appears that the appeal to pathos was preferred highly in directly connecting with the emotions of the instructors. This was followed by appeals to ethos, where the students used their own ethicality and credibility to persuade the instructor into giving them an extension deadline of their classwork. The findings further revealed that appeal to logos were not used in a very persuasive manner, which could also due to avoiding logical fallacies. Therefore, the present study shows the engineering students prefer to link with emotions in their email writing in achieving their goals.
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References
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Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (2010). Language assessment in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beck, C.E. & Wegner, K. (1992). Toward a rhetoric of technical proposals: ethos and audience analysis. Technical Communication, 39(1), 122-127.
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Black, E. (1970). The second persona. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 56,109-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00335637009382992
Burke, K. (1969). A Rhetoric of motives. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Chakorn, O. O. (2006). Persuasive and politeness strategies in cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 16(1), 103-146.
Charland, M. (1987). Constitute rhetoric: The case of the ‘puple quebecois’. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73, 133-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00335638709383799
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Demirdugen, U. D. (2010). The roots of research in (political) persuasion: ethos, pathos, logos and the yale studies of persuasive communications. International Journal of Social Inquiry, 3(1), 189-201.
Emanuel, B., Rodrigues, C. & Martins, M. (2015, August). Rhetoric of interaction: analysis of pathos. in international conference of design, user experience, and usability (pp. 417-427). Springer International Publishing.
Fife, J.M. (2010). Using facebook to teach rhetorical analysis. Pedagogy, 10(3), 555562.
Frank, S. (2018). Truth value, Trump, and benign lies at the closing of the Gutenberg Parenthesis. Communication Research and Practice, 2206-3374. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2018.1434790
Gabrielsen, J. & Christiansen, T. J. (2010). The Power of Speech. Denmark: Gyldendal.
Graham, S., K.R. Harris, & Mason,L. (2005). Improving the writing performance, knowledge and self-efficacy of struggling young writers: The effects: of self-regulated strategy development. Contemporary Educational Psychol., 30: 207-241.
Hayes, A. F., & Krippendorff, K. (2007). Answering the call for a standard reliability measure for coding data. Communication Methods and Measures, 1(1), 77-89.
Horovitz,B.( 4 May, 2012). After Gen X, Millenial, what should next generation be. USA Today.
Hovland, C. I., Lumsdaine. A. A. & Sheffield, E. D. (1949). Experiments on mass communication. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Higgins, C. & Walker, R. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports. Accounting Forum, 36, 194-208.
Jackson, S. L. (2012). Research methods statistics. (4thed.) Chigago,NY:WadsworthCengage Learning.
Jennifer, L. L. & Jorge,V. (2018). Affective Effects of Offering Options on Persuasiveness of Fear Appeals, Journal of Promotion Management, 0,(0).1-15.
JobStreet (2013). Survey Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-economy/comms-english-skills-more-important-for-employers-jobstreet-survey
JobStreet (2014). Survey, Retrieved December 30, 2016, from http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-tops five reasons fresh graduated don’t get hired.
Jorgensen, D. L. (1989). Participant observation: A methodology for human studies. newbury park, CA: Sage Publications.
Ledgerwood, A., Chaiken S., Gruenfeld, D. H. & C.H. Judd (2006). “Changing minds: persuasion in negotiation and conflict resolution”. In Deutsch, M., Coleman, P.T., & E. C. Marcus (eds.) The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. San Fransisco: Jossey Bass.
Kagermann, H., Wahlster,W. & Helbig, J. (2013): Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative Industry 4.0 (Eds.), Final report of the industry 4.0 Working Group.
Kamimura, T. & Oi, K. (1998). Argumentative Strategies In American And Japanese English. World Englishes, 17(3), 307-323.
Koo, C., Gretzel, U., Hunter, W. C., & Chung, N. (2015). The role of IT in tourism. Asia Pacific Journal Information Systems, 25, 99-104.
Larson, C. U. (1992). Persuasion: Reception and responsibility. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Lisa, L. (2016). Stunning statistics for persuasive speaking. Communication Teacher, 1740-4630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2016.1244346
Manning,T. (2012). The art of successful skills: Seven skills you need you get your points across effectively. Industrial and Commercial Training, 44(3), 150-158.
Mori, K. (2016, November 14-15). Analysis of the discourse of diplomatic conflict at the UN: Application of ethos, pathos, logos. Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Humanities & Social Sciences 2016 (IC-HUSO 2016), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.
Mshvenieradze, T. (2013). Logos, ethos and pathos in political discourse. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(11), 1939-1945.
Nair, S. R. & Ndubisi, N. O. (2013). Entrepreneurial values, environmental marketing and customer satisfaction: Conceptualisation and propositions. Enterprise Development in SMEs and Entrepreneurial Firms: Dynamic Processes. 257-269
Naksawat, C., Akkakoson, S. & Loi, C.K. (2016). Persuasion Strategies: Negative Forces in Scam E-mails. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 16(1), 1-17.
Nicks, D. (2015). Hotels Airbnb competition report. Times Magazine.Retrived December 01, 2017, from, http://time.com/ money/4117068/hotels-airbnb-competition-report/.
Peck, B.S. (2018, January 24). Industry 4.0 success depends on key factors. Retrieved March 09, 2018 from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/01/24/industry-40-success-depends-on-key-factors/
Raslie, H., Pit S. & Ting,S.H. (2016). Millennials’ expectations of life at the university and the workplace: A Malaysian perspective. International Journal of Education, 8(3), 71-84.
Rebecca,R.(2016, June 12). English skills vital for all. The Star. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2016/06/12/english-skills-vital-for-all/
Robberson, M. R. & Rogers, R. W. (1988). Beyond fear appeals: negative and positive persuasive appeals to health and self‐esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18(3), 277-287.
Shahrbanou, G.A., Helen, T., Ain,N.A, Sharon, S. & Lee,G.I. (2019).Introduction chapter of traditional and article-based theses: A comparison of rhetorical structures and linguistic realisations, GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 19(1), 116-135.
Stacks, D. & salwen, m. (2009). An integrated approach to communication theory and research. New York: Routledge.
Sung-Byung,Y., Hanna,L., Kyungmin,L. & Chulmo,K.(2018). The application of Aristotle’s rhetorical theory to the sharing economy: An empirical study of Airbnb. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35 (7), 1-13.
Ting, S.H. & Collin,J. (2018). Framing of disease risk messages in airport banners. International Journal of Law, Government and Communication, 2(6), 63-75.
Ting,S.H. (2018). Ethos, logos and pathos in university students’ informal requests. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 18(1), 234-251.
Uysal, H. H. (2012). Argumentation Across L1 and L2 Writing: Exploring Cultural Influences and Transfer Issues. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics (VIAL),9,133-159.
Vawn, H. (15 Feb, 2019).Ethos, pathos, logos: How rhetoric can improve your teaching, Retrieved May 16, 2019 from https://tophat.com/blog/ethos-pathos-logos/
Winn, W. (2000). The persuasive power of pathos in e-commerce web design: A new area for research. In professional communication conference, 2000. Proceedings of 2000 Joint IEEE International and 18th Annual Conference on Computer Documentation (IPCC/SIGDOC 2000),(pp. 155-160). IEEE.
Amossy, R. (2000). L’Argumentation dans le discours. Paris : Nathan Univertsty.
Androniciuc, A.I. (2016). Using social media in political campaigns. Evidence from Romania. SEA: Practical Application of Science, 4(1).
Allwood, J. (1976). Linguistic communication as action and cooperation. Gothenburg Monographs in Linguistics 2. University of Goteborg, Department of Linguistics, pp. 1-257.
Al-Momani, K.R. (2014). Strategies of persuasion in letters of complaint in academic context: the case of Jordanian University students’ Complaints. Discourse Studies, 16(6), 705-728.
Atkinson, P. & Hammersley, M. (1994). Ethnography and participant observation. In NK Denzin and YS Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 248-261). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
Aristotle. (1954). On rhetoric (trans. W. Rhys Roberts). London: Random House.
Aristotle Rhetoric (1959). Edited by Ross, W.D. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Arnold, V.D. (1985). The Importance of pathos in persuasive appeals. Bulletin of the association for business communication, 48(4), 26-27.
Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (2010). Language assessment in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beck, C.E. & Wegner, K. (1992). Toward a rhetoric of technical proposals: ethos and audience analysis. Technical Communication, 39(1), 122-127.
Berg, B. L. & Lune, H.(2012). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (8th ed.). Boston. p. 3. ISBN 9780205809387. OCLC 732318614.
Berlanga, I., Garcia-Garcia, F., & Victoria, J. (2013). Ethos, pathos and logos in facebook. user networking: New Rhetor of the 21st Century. Comunicar, 21(41), 52. Brown, J., &
Black, E. (1970). The second persona. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 56,109-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00335637009382992
Burke, K. (1969). A Rhetoric of motives. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Chakorn, O. O. (2006). Persuasive and politeness strategies in cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 16(1), 103-146.
Charland, M. (1987). Constitute rhetoric: The case of the ‘puple quebecois’. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73, 133-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00335638709383799
Christina, C. (2018, March 4). Varsity aims to boost grads’ employability. The Star, Retrived March 8, 2018, from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/03/04/varsity-aims-to-boost-grads-employability/
Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.) SAGE Publications, Inc
Connors, R. J. (1979). The differences between speech and writing: ethos, pathos, and logos. college composition and communication, 30(3), 285-290.
Demirdugen, U. D. (2010). The roots of research in (political) persuasion: ethos, pathos, logos and the yale studies of persuasive communications. International Journal of Social Inquiry, 3(1), 189-201.
Emanuel, B., Rodrigues, C. & Martins, M. (2015, August). Rhetoric of interaction: analysis of pathos. in international conference of design, user experience, and usability (pp. 417-427). Springer International Publishing.
Fife, J.M. (2010). Using facebook to teach rhetorical analysis. Pedagogy, 10(3), 555562.
Frank, S. (2018). Truth value, Trump, and benign lies at the closing of the Gutenberg Parenthesis. Communication Research and Practice, 2206-3374. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2018.1434790
Gabrielsen, J. & Christiansen, T. J. (2010). The Power of Speech. Denmark: Gyldendal.
Graham, S., K.R. Harris, & Mason,L. (2005). Improving the writing performance, knowledge and self-efficacy of struggling young writers: The effects: of self-regulated strategy development. Contemporary Educational Psychol., 30: 207-241.
Hayes, A. F., & Krippendorff, K. (2007). Answering the call for a standard reliability measure for coding data. Communication Methods and Measures, 1(1), 77-89.
Horovitz,B.( 4 May, 2012). After Gen X, Millenial, what should next generation be. USA Today.
Hovland, C. I., Lumsdaine. A. A. & Sheffield, E. D. (1949). Experiments on mass communication. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Higgins, C. & Walker, R. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports. Accounting Forum, 36, 194-208.
Jackson, S. L. (2012). Research methods statistics. (4thed.) Chigago,NY:WadsworthCengage Learning.
Jennifer, L. L. & Jorge,V. (2018). Affective Effects of Offering Options on Persuasiveness of Fear Appeals, Journal of Promotion Management, 0,(0).1-15.
JobStreet (2013). Survey Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-economy/comms-english-skills-more-important-for-employers-jobstreet-survey
JobStreet (2014). Survey, Retrieved December 30, 2016, from http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-tops five reasons fresh graduated don’t get hired.
Jorgensen, D. L. (1989). Participant observation: A methodology for human studies. newbury park, CA: Sage Publications.
Ledgerwood, A., Chaiken S., Gruenfeld, D. H. & C.H. Judd (2006). “Changing minds: persuasion in negotiation and conflict resolution”. In Deutsch, M., Coleman, P.T., & E. C. Marcus (eds.) The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. San Fransisco: Jossey Bass.
Kagermann, H., Wahlster,W. & Helbig, J. (2013): Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative Industry 4.0 (Eds.), Final report of the industry 4.0 Working Group.
Kamimura, T. & Oi, K. (1998). Argumentative Strategies In American And Japanese English. World Englishes, 17(3), 307-323.
Koo, C., Gretzel, U., Hunter, W. C., & Chung, N. (2015). The role of IT in tourism. Asia Pacific Journal Information Systems, 25, 99-104.
Larson, C. U. (1992). Persuasion: Reception and responsibility. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Lisa, L. (2016). Stunning statistics for persuasive speaking. Communication Teacher, 1740-4630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2016.1244346
Manning,T. (2012). The art of successful skills: Seven skills you need you get your points across effectively. Industrial and Commercial Training, 44(3), 150-158.
Mori, K. (2016, November 14-15). Analysis of the discourse of diplomatic conflict at the UN: Application of ethos, pathos, logos. Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Humanities & Social Sciences 2016 (IC-HUSO 2016), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.
Mshvenieradze, T. (2013). Logos, ethos and pathos in political discourse. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(11), 1939-1945.
Nair, S. R. & Ndubisi, N. O. (2013). Entrepreneurial values, environmental marketing and customer satisfaction: Conceptualisation and propositions. Enterprise Development in SMEs and Entrepreneurial Firms: Dynamic Processes. 257-269
Naksawat, C., Akkakoson, S. & Loi, C.K. (2016). Persuasion Strategies: Negative Forces in Scam E-mails. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 16(1), 1-17.
Nicks, D. (2015). Hotels Airbnb competition report. Times Magazine.Retrived December 01, 2017, from, http://time.com/ money/4117068/hotels-airbnb-competition-report/.
Peck, B.S. (2018, January 24). Industry 4.0 success depends on key factors. Retrieved March 09, 2018 from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/01/24/industry-40-success-depends-on-key-factors/
Raslie, H., Pit S. & Ting,S.H. (2016). Millennials’ expectations of life at the university and the workplace: A Malaysian perspective. International Journal of Education, 8(3), 71-84.
Rebecca,R.(2016, June 12). English skills vital for all. The Star. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2016/06/12/english-skills-vital-for-all/
Robberson, M. R. & Rogers, R. W. (1988). Beyond fear appeals: negative and positive persuasive appeals to health and self‐esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18(3), 277-287.
Shahrbanou, G.A., Helen, T., Ain,N.A, Sharon, S. & Lee,G.I. (2019).Introduction chapter of traditional and article-based theses: A comparison of rhetorical structures and linguistic realisations, GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 19(1), 116-135.
Stacks, D. & salwen, m. (2009). An integrated approach to communication theory and research. New York: Routledge.
Sung-Byung,Y., Hanna,L., Kyungmin,L. & Chulmo,K.(2018). The application of Aristotle’s rhetorical theory to the sharing economy: An empirical study of Airbnb. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35 (7), 1-13.
Ting, S.H. & Collin,J. (2018). Framing of disease risk messages in airport banners. International Journal of Law, Government and Communication, 2(6), 63-75.
Ting,S.H. (2018). Ethos, logos and pathos in university students’ informal requests. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 18(1), 234-251.
Uysal, H. H. (2012). Argumentation Across L1 and L2 Writing: Exploring Cultural Influences and Transfer Issues. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics (VIAL),9,133-159.
Vawn, H. (15 Feb, 2019).Ethos, pathos, logos: How rhetoric can improve your teaching, Retrieved May 16, 2019 from https://tophat.com/blog/ethos-pathos-logos/
Winn, W. (2000). The persuasive power of pathos in e-commerce web design: A new area for research. In professional communication conference, 2000. Proceedings of 2000 Joint IEEE International and 18th Annual Conference on Computer Documentation (IPCC/SIGDOC 2000),(pp. 155-160). IEEE.
Published
2020-04-26
How to Cite
Isai, K., Lin, T., Ching, H. S., Selvajothi, R. and Maruthai, E. (2020) “Using Rhetorical Approach of Ethos, Pathos and Logos by Malaysian Engineering Students in Persuasive Email Writings”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 5(4), pp. 19 - 33. doi: 10.47405/mjssh.v5i4.386.
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