In Mary Sherry’s essay, “In Praise of the F Word,” she praises the power of the f-word. She argues that the word is a source of strength and liberation for women. Sherry believes that the f-word can be used to empower women and to encourage them to take control of their lives.
The use of ethos in Mary Sherry’s essay is very effective. By praising the power of the f-word, Sherry is able to convince her readers that the word is a valuable tool for women. She uses personal anecdotes and examples to support her argument, and she makes it clear that she is not advocating for violence or vulgarity. Rather, she believes that the f-word can be used as a means of self-empowerment and liberation.
Ultimately, Mary Sherry’s essay is a powerful argument in favor of the f-word. She makes a convincing case that the word can be a source of strength for women, and she provides concrete examples of how the word can be used to empower individuals. Her use of ethos is very effective, and her essay is sure to provoke debate and discussion.
There are always those who do not comprehend in school, but they receive passing grades. In Mary Sherry’s essay In Praise of the F Word, she discusses the subject in greater depth. The essay explores how the American education system passes you along without considering your pace or skill level. She also talks about how unready the American public is after high school and college. Her essay also covers her son and one of his experiences at high school. Her ethos usage isn’t very significant in the essay itself, but it accounts for most of her ethos in her bio.
Mary Sherry is a high school graduate, which gives her some ethos because she has been in the schooling system. Mary Sherry has also been teaching for about twenty years. This would be another example of ethos due to her experience in the field. Mary Sherry’s use of logos is present throughout her essay In Praise of the F Word. An example of logos would be, “The average American worker today is vastly better educated than his or her counterpart of a generation ago” (Sherry Mary 1). Mary uses this quote to back up her opinion that the education today is not good enough.
Another example of logos used by Mary Sherry, would be “We need to radically redefine ‘competence’ and ‘ success’”(Sherry Mary 1). She uses this logos to try and get her opinion point of view across to the audience. The pathos that Mary Sherry uses is shown best towards the end of her essay In Praise of the F Word. An example of pathos would be, “We need to radically redefine ‘competence’ and ‘success’” (Sherry Mary 8).
Mary Sherry is trying to evoke an emotional response from the reader so they will agree with her opinion. Another example of pathos that Mary Sherry uses is when she talks about her son Joe, and his experience in school. She states, “Joey was bored and unchallenged in high school. He coasted along, doing the minimum to get by” (Sherry Mary 3). Mary Sherry is trying to evoke sympathy from the reader so they feel bad for her son and his experience in high school.
In her essay, she employs a relatively little amount of ethos, regardless. Her pathos, on the other hand, is considerably more abundant. She utilizes a variety of anecdotes to elicit certain emotions regarding the issue under consideration. Words with a negative meaning are also used effectively to affect our emotions. In Mary Sherry’s essay in praise of the F word, there was less logos than in the other two appeals.
However, even though her ethos is low, it is still there. And although her pathos is high, it does not mean that her logos is not effective. In fact, I believe that Mary Sherry’s essay would not be as successful if she had not used logos in addition to ethos and pathos.
All three appeals are important in order to get her message across effectively. The use of ethos allows Mary Sherry to establish credibility with her audience. The use of pathos helps to engage the audience emotionally, and the use of logos provides logical reasoning for why the audience should agree with Mary Sherry’s opinion.
The ethos employed by Mary was effective in establishing trust, but it wasn’t very widespread throughout her essay. For example, the bulk of her ethos is found in the preface before the essay really begins. She claims to have a bachelor’s degree from Rosary College. She also runs a business that specializes in economic development research. The publication of other magazines and papers, as well as teaching adult literacy courses outside of it all, are all excellent examples of ethos.
After the biography, Mary doesn’t really use ethos again until the end of her essay. She says that the F Word isn’t a bad word, and is used to describe feelings that people have. In order to make her point stronger, she provides examples of how the F Word has been used in a positive way by famous people.
Overall, Mary Sherry did a good job of establishing ethos. However, she could have done a better job of spreading it out throughout her essay. By including it at the beginning and end, she bookends her essay nicely. However, ethos could have been used more throughout the body of her work in order to make her argument even stronger.
This is all due to the trust that readers have in her life story. Because all of this faith in her life narrative is centered on her biography, if someone skips over that chapter, they will miss out on all of the trust that was built throughout reading it. This isn’t to say Mary Sherry’s essay had terrible ethos; in fact, In Praise of the F word has enough ethos to persuade readers to believe what Mary has to say.
Mary Sherry talks about how the F word is not a bad thing, and that it can be used in good ways. In Mary’s essay, she does a great job of showing how the F word can be beneficial to someone who is trying to get their point across. Mary also uses ethos when talking about how the F word was used in her life. She talks about how it has helped her, and how it has been a part of her life for many years. The use of ethos allows Mary to connect with her audience on a personal level, and makes them more likely to trust what she has to say.
The use of ethos is important in any persuasive text because it allows the writer to connect with their audience on a personal level. When someone is able to connect with their audience, they are more likely to trust what the writer has to say. Mary Sherry does a great job of using ethos in her essay In Praise of the F word, and because of this, her argument is more persuasive.
