Adler's Ethos In How To Mark A Book

An example of ethos used by the author is “Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who studies the American culture wars”. This statement just shows that Jonathan Haidt isn’t just some guy on the internet blogging because he is bored with his life. He is a credible source with a good background.

In the essay “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler, the author explains that “marking up a book is not an act of mutilation, but of love” (1). Adler points out that marking books keeps a reader vigilant to what they are actually reading (2). The author continues on to say owning a book is more than having it sit on a shelf; owning a book means for the reader to make it unique for him or herself, doing so will make reading that much more enjoyable for the reader. Adler also claims that writing small notes or comments as you read helps readers to summarize what they’ve just read, even days later. He says that writing in books allows the brain to store that information deeper into the long term memory making it easier to come back to (2).

Ethos is an appeal to ethics, which gives the author credibility to persuade their attended audience. For instance, both Lukianoff and Haidt give a little insight about who they are, “Greg Lukianoff is a constitutional lawyer and the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which defends free speech and academic freedom on campus, and has advocated for students and faculty involved in many of the incidents this article describes; Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who studies the American culture wars.” (Lukianoff and Haidt). Using this rhetorical strategy to start their argument off was a strong approach to persuading their attended audience because it provides credibility to the readers to prove to them that the authors know what they’re talking about and it makes the argument much more effective. Another example of ethos that the authors provide is, “Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them… But vindictive protectiveness teaches students to think in a very different way… A campus culture devoted to policing speech and punishing speakers is likely to engender patterns of thought that are surprisingly similar to those long identified by cognitive behavioral therapists as causes

In his writing of “How to Mark a Book,” Mortimer J. Adler recommends that while reading a book, you should make a personal index on the papers in the book, but not page by page or point by point. Instead, he suggests making it an integrated structure with a basic unity and an order of parts. The marked book is usually the thought-through book.

Adler gives examples of different ways one can still actively read and make annotations while getting around writing in a book when he suggests, “How about using a scratch pad slightly smaller than the page-size of the book...and then insert these sheets permanently inside the front and back covers of the book” (Adler 19). By offering other ways to make annotations, Adler makes the point that there is no excuse to not actively read. Another way he creates an encouraging tone is by pointing out the flaws of people who do not own books in more than a physical way by using words such as “deluded” (Adler 17) to steer them away from passive reading. Adler’s use of logos also makes the tone persuasive. He explains why writing is necessary by mentioning “the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory” (Adler 18). By providing a fact, Adler provides reason for his ideas to effectively reach out to his audience. One other strategy Adler uses to keep a consistent tone is enumerating devices for marking a book. If Adler would have summarized them in paragraph form, it would have made the tone more informative than persuasive. With listing, he gives off the impression that one should consider trying many different

Credibility of an author based on their reputation, fair-mindedness, and sincerity is also known as ethos, which Ehrenreich establishes several times throughout the book to make her

In Christina Haas and Linda Flower’s article “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”, they point out, and break down, the three reading strategies that are used by students when reading a passage, or paper. An experiment was constructed to show what each of these strategies are like while being used and what the reader may ask, or get out of, a certain excerpt.

In Christina Haas and Linda Flower’s article “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”, they present three different strategies readers use when reading a paper or an article, and the importance of each. An experiment was constructed to show those strategies in action, and what each type of reader does while using the strategies.

Graff’s argument relies heavily on his own personal experience as he in his early academic life lacked “book smarts” but had plenty of “street smarts”. Graff attempts to build his ethos by including his personal anecdote to make the readers believe that he has credibility on the subject, especially since he himself was a student just like the one he was speaking of in the introduction. This proves ineffective because Graff’s inability to use other interests than his own to prove his argument hurts his ethos. By only using one example,

Ethos is used to prove the authors credibility, Pathos is used to elicit feelings and emotions from the audience, and Logos is used

Ethos, also known as credibility, is an ethical appeal the author or speaker uses, considering that, “we tend to believe people whom we respect”(Page 2). Martin Luther King Jr. uses Ethos when he says, “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must…” Ethos was displayed here by demonstrating expertness and authority that Martin Luther King Jr. reached out for to refine the opinions of the clergyman. Although ethos is an influential literary device, because it portrays the attitude of the author, Pathos plays a big role in

To be an active reader is to be able to express yourself in the book one reads. Mortimer J. Adler argues in his article, “How to Mark a Book”, that to be an active reader, the reader needs to actually write in their book; but also to fully claim ownership of their book. According to Adler, there are plenty of ways one can mark in a book; underlining, vertical lines at the margin, asterisk, numbers in the margin, circling or highlighting, writing in the margin at the bottom or top, etc. One does not initially understand what they are reading, until they feel like they are having a conversation with the author. Adler emphasizes marking in a book keeps the reader mentally awake, helps their thoughts become more alive, and also remember later what

An example of ethos used by the author is “Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who studies the American culture wars”. This statement just shows that Jonathan Haidt isn’t just some guy on the internet blogging because he is bored with his life. He is a credible source with a good

Throughout the first quarter of American literature we have annotated plenty of texts that have made me a stronger and more thoughtful reader than ever before. The difficulty of the readings we have done created the challenge of understanding the text in a timely manner, while thoroughly annotating it with a clear balance of quality and quantity. Going into the first quarter my previous understanding of what it meant to annotating a text was very minimal; only making short annotations on things that I found notable. I had never before been challenged to think while reading about all the literary devices that were causing me to have these analytical thoughts and perspectives while reading. One of the first pieces of text we read in the course was “The Audacity of Hope” By Barack Obama, now looking back I recognize that I took a sloppy approach in understanding that text. Because it was the start of the year the stamina I

Perhaps more important: somewhere in the book Adler mentions Great Books discussion groups. I looked into it and found that, during the 50s and early 60s there was a fad bordering on a movement, where groups of average people would actually convene to discuss readings from the classics of Western literature. Imagine! Next, I found out that an organization had been formed to support and propagate these groups, the Great Books Foundation, that it still exists, and that it publishes collections of readings from the Great Books for use by discussion groups.