Let’s start with a classic I share a name with… Jane Austen’s Emma.

We all know (or at least should, by now!) that ethos is the appeal to an audience’s value or character – the good, the just, the credibility, the reputation, you get it. If we are susceptible to an ethos persuasion, we might be more likely to relate to a character who is of a social status or wealth that we find attractive or appealing. Ethos, as it relates to rhetoric, is when a speaker (or writer!) must work to understand the values of her audience in order to persuade most effectively (Ethos in Austen’s Emma). I think one of the fascinating parts of the way Emma is written is that “instead of demanding that the reader simply ‘learn this,’ the narrator implies, “Of course you (reader) alread know this (whether the reader knows it or not) because you share in my ethos'” (Ethos in Austen’s Emma). Again, there’s this connection to the audience…

In order to write a book, a story, a poem, a speech, what have you – one of the first steps is to know who your audience is. The universal audience? An audience of one? Yourself? (shout out Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca! IYKYK) 

So, if I understand what you value, what you find reputable, I’ll be able to make you feel whatever I want you to feel… Interesting. You know, I have a friend who is in the midst of writing an incredible book about a world similar to ours but also…immensely dissimilar? The world he has created is beautiful and magical, without going anywhere near Harry Potter magic. It’s the feeling of magic, more than the doing of magic. Whenever we get a chance to talk deeply about his book (which is not as often as I’d like!) he says his one goal with his book, if nothing else, is to be able to make the reader feel exactly what he wants, when he wants. He wants those feelings to be universal. I’m curious to find out which modes of persuasion he ends up using to accomplish this… But alas, a task for another day!