ARCS Ch 6

Ethos dominates the beginning of Chapter 6, and although I have heard of ethos before I found this definition to be new to me. Ethos can be described as the character assessed and determined of the speaker by their audience. How can speakers overcome this? Certainly this type of character assessment by your audience can be good if you have a good reputation, or are an expert in an issue, but what if you are speaking on a topic new to you? How can you overcome obstacles in the ethos that other people perceive of you? These are questions I found myself asking after reading about this. It shows the importance of research and knowledgeability required to be a good rhetorician - and I think that is really the most fundamental thing rhetoricians master. Someone can only become a good rhetorician by examining all the issues, and their stases - not to mention the sides of an issue as well. They ugh be open to conversation about an issue and be able to use all the information given to formulate the best outcome or truth out of an argument. None of this possible without being well versed on a topic, oand thorough in research - with this as a rhetoricians greatest strength they can be spared in less skilled areas like presentation or reputation, because real knowledge about a topic come across confident and intelligent.