Rhetorical Analysis

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Ethos is defined as establishing the author’s credibility and trustworthiness to the reader, also known as an “ethical appeal”. This can be established in a number of ways, including; the author’s own identity and their credibility as an author in today’s society, use of textual evidence to support their claim from credible resources, or having strong sound opinions behind the author’s topic. In “Impact of Domestic Violence on Children”, and article written by Martha Markward, an argument is established that there is a direct correlation between witnessing of domestic violence on spouses and children and negative behaviors of the children who witnessed the abuse. Markward conducts a study among a group of sheltered women and their children…show more content…
The author states, “Study’s findings are limited by women’s underreporting of violence at intake,”(Markward 67) showing that she understood that idiosyncrasies in her data may have affected the end result and skewed the defense of her statement. Markward appears credible by being willing to identify her mistakes to her reader so that they can further understand her steps to coming to the conclusion, helping them to make the same conclusion. A person seems entirely more credible when they are willing to point out their own flaws in writing, then someone who just assumes that they were correct and under perfect…show more content…
Markward takes a particular section of the discussion in the article to make implications and suggest steps for social workers to take with the victims as well as steps to take for prevention. “In terms of prevention, social workers might align themselves more closely with public and community health officials,” states Markward. (69) Including examples for each of her implications Markward actually makes change seem possible to the reader when it comes to this serious issue. Credibility can be asserted by making someone believe that they care about the future of the topic, which Markward makes apparent she

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