Ethos,_Logos_and_Pathos

The Art of Writing for a Sport Paintball; Promoter of Violence or Healthy Fun' by Ross Taylor, is a paper where a student decided to touch the topic of how people interpret paintball as a violent unethical sport and how he wanted to help his audience understand the truth behind the fun, athletic and mentally challenging sport. In my attempt to understand Taylors work, I will break up his writing into Logos, Ethos and Pathos. Logos being the appeal to reason, Taylor uses this to his advantage by demonstrating it throughout his paper. When Taylor first begins by explaining the reasons of the common belief that paintball is a promoter of violence and dangerous sport, he goes into how he believes it is misunderstood and that the game is fun, mentally challenging, and builds teamwork. He includes this into his paper to clarify his reasons behind promoting paintball. He goes on to explain each aspect he had mentioned by giving proper evidence to support his views. Like when he disguises paintball as an athletic sport he states that "During the game, players execute numerous strategic moves to gain a tactical advantage, often including quick jumps, dives, rolls, and runs." To continue to support his argument, Taylor mentions the article about eye injuries. Paintball can be violent and can cause such injuries if not played with proper safety precautions. He mentions the counter argument about violent injuries in order to justify his thought properly. Finally when Taylor begins to explain how people interpret paintball as a promoter of violence he counter attacks that with the fact that there is nothing proven that this sport influences teenagers into committing violent dangerous acts. Ethos is the appeal to the character of the speaker/writer. Taylor demonstrates ethos when he begins his paper and places the audience in the middle of a paintball game. By doing this the reader builds confidence in Taylor's knowledge on the sport. By going through different rules and regulations, the reader cannot help but have faith in what they are reading. In his attempt to use ethos in different ways, Taylor goes on in showing fairness to the common belief stating their reasons first and following them with him agreeing but to only the extend of stating obvious points. Like with injuries he gives the example of his friend who pointed the barrel of his paintball gun into his face and it went off and caused him to lose his eye. When accidents like these happen it is the cause of not using proper safety measures. If Taylors friend were to have been wearing the proper safety equipment he would still have his eye today. Injuries in paintball are often caused by the players being reckless. Pathos, the appeal to sympathies, values, beliefs and emotions of the audience. An excellent way Taylor wrote in term of pathos was when he placed the reader in his shoes. By taking this approach the audience was able to feel like they were playing and truly grasp a feel of paintball for what it is. Taylor showed his reader the feelings and rush the sport gives him and how passionate he is about it. He also took a very interesting approach when he tells the reader that paintball can be for any size, shape, or age. The gives Taylor a positive feel, when enlighting the audience that no person is to skinner or to fat, to short or to tall, and to young or to old, shows that paintball was made with the intention for all to enjoy. When Taylor finally states "Also families like to play together" shows is emotional side where he also concerns himself about the importance of family time. Whether you're a weekend paintball warrior or a conservative mother of three, after reading Taylors argument, you gain a complete better understanding of the sport and are able to view it with the respect of any other sport. Using Logos, Ethos, and Pathos he was able to persuade his audience to look at paintball as a healthy fun sport.