Cover letter

In this assignment, I grew to understand the power of ethos in rhetorical strategies. Javier employs ethos skillfully by building credibility, sharing personal experiences, and giving relatable examples. When Javier used this writing strategy, it inspired me to build a better connection with the readers in my own writing. The course learning outcomes have been greatly aided by the completion of this phase’s assignment, especially in the areas of effective communication and rhetorical awareness. The syllabus highlights the improvement of rhetorical understanding as one particular course learning outcome that stands out: “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” Practical insights into the application of ethos, balanced viewpoints, and storytelling as successful rhetorical devices were obtained from the examination of Javier’s rhetorical narrative. I now have a better understanding of how to approach writing strategically by taking a variety of audiences’ needs and expectations into account thanks to this exploration. For instance, I can now more purposefully add personal experiences and build trust in my writing to strengthen its impact because I understand the power of ethos.

       In this instance, it seems that Javier’s target audience consists of people who have experienced challenging initiatives such as IEPs and ESL courses. Javier employs emotions and personal tales to establish a sympathetic and relatable tone to establish a connection with this audience. He hopes that by sharing his setbacks and successes, he will be able to relate to others who might have gone through comparable difficulties. His message is more powerful when he employs Javier probably avoids using too technical or complicated terminology that could turn off his audience in favor of language that is interesting and approachable. Through the use of rhetorical questions and phrases such as “Well here we go again,” he engages readers in his story and invites them to consider their own experiences.

One more course learning outcome that has been attained as a result of the assignment is “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” Examining Javier’s story highlighted how crucial it is to modify writing for various platforms and comprehend the subtle differences between print and digital media. This is demonstrated by looking at how Javier uses multimedia and internet platforms to effectively communicate his message. This knowledge directly relates to my ability to use and navigate different writing platforms, taking into account the particular requirements of digital and print environments. I am better prepared to use appropriate strategies when speaking with a variety of audiences through various communication tools thanks to what I have learned from Javier’s story.

Javier Robles wrote a powerful narrative on his experiences with the IEP program and how it shaped his academic career. This interested me because of the way he described being in kindergarten battling with his emotions from being taken out of class to practice his speech. For him, this felt more intimidating than anything as a young boy. He then uses the rhetorical strategy of ethos to express how he had always been very timid and had trouble expressing himself in a situation that felt overwhelming. He also uses this rhetorical way of communicating by quoting his past self in instances where he would internally express the feelings of “well here we go again” when entering his anxiety-inducing speech class.   

           Ethos; the rhetorical strategy is highly effective in that it connects deeper with the readers’ emotions and can tug on hearts for greater understanding. This is based on the writer’s credibility to the reader and to prove credibility, examples are given. Acknowledging both sides of the topic of interest gives a fair view of the topic and can couple with the writer’s view by providing polar examples to elevate the understanding of the writer’s point of view. The ability to connect with a topic by sharing a story that aligns with the readers’ possible experiences is strongly effective in conveying a message and Javier did just that with his rhetorical narrative of his experiences with the IEP program and how it shaped his academic career. 

        In this rhetorical narrative, Javier was trying to convey the fact that feeling out of place and weak can be very temporary and can soon turn into something gratifying. He expressed his feelings of happiness when he expressed himself seeing how far he has come in his academic career seeing that he is now in college and even studying speech and how it affects our society. The purpose of this speech was to evoke hope in his intended audience and provide them with his experiences as a youth so the intended audience could relate and know that there is someone like them who has achieved greatness and continues to shine.

        The intended audience in this speech is people who may have had emotionally challenging and trivial times throughout their academic career due to being put in learning programs such as the IEP and ESL classes. Javier appealed to the audience by expressing his motivation to demonstrate that not every student received the same educational background, and he was one of the many students struggling with feeling inadequate from a young age. These emotions being produced by a young child can be very molding and in order to break free from this view, realizing that you are not your struggle is important and is also what Javier expressed when he said that everyone, including us, is an outcast. He also pointed out that when we reach a point in our coming of age where ignorance is looked at as incompetent, we can get to the point of feeling unworthy. When Javier rhetorically expresses the question “What happens when you don’t understand or even struggle to express those understandings?”, this thought process seems to have affected his way of communicating today. Javier broke down what it felt like to be a child who felt out of place for the majority of his adolescence and has used this as fuel to obtain more knowledge. Today he is studying how speech affects our society, and this is what ethos is all about, we as a society must note that everyone’s words have meaning.