Read the information below that details the purposes for and components of a narrator's ethos argument. You may want to take notes and return to these lecture notes as you compose this assignment. Knowing the characteristics of an effective narrator's ethos argument will help you write a better narrator's ethos thesis statement and narrator's ethos essay as well.

Why know how to write these arguments?

Arguments about a narrator's ethos are analytical. As it pertains to an argument or debate, the definition of an analysis is the examination of details, events, or elements. However, in analytical writing, such as your narrator's ethos argument essay, you are examining a single topic which is the narrator's credibility or uncredibility. So you must consider several details such as what the narrator says, what the narrator does, and whether or not the narrator's words match the narrator's actions. You are trying to break down the narrator's character to determine if the narrator is trustworthy.

Analytical arguments are used in law, public affairs, and politics, but they are also used in everyday life to help you make important life decisions, to improve your own health, and to solve complex problems at work and home.

Explain Ethos to Me:

Ethos (Greek for character) refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer. One of the primary functions of ethos is to build trust. When writers convey honesty and integrity, readers are more likely to accept their viewpoints. When you write an essay, you want people to believe what you write is accurate and fair and reliable. To demonstrate your ethos, you must use appropriate language for the audience, document all borrowed ideas, and acknowledge differing views. Keeping a consistent tone so that the subject of your essay is not in conflict with your attitude toward your subject is another way to demonstrate your ethos in writing. Trying to be humorous and sad and then serious all in one essay is difficult to manage and confusing to your audience; in fact, your audience will think you are uncertain about your subject and ultimately unreliable as a writer. Some people might perceive such an inconsistent tone as being "scatterbrained" or unfocused. In slang, people might say, "They were all over the place!"

Then what is a Narrator's Ethos?

Now apply the previous explanation to narrators. In short stories, poetry, and other literature, authors often use narrators to tell stories. Narrators are persuasive because they "profess" impartiality or objectivity to earn readers' trust in their reliability to tell a story. This encompasses their values, expertise, and integrity, influencing how the audience perceives their storytelling. Essentially, a narrator's ethos is about the narrator’s character—how they present themselves and how trustworthy they appear to the reader. You should be at least a little skeptical of narrators generally, but you should be even more skeptical of first-person narrators specifically. First-person narrators are notoriously the most untrustworthy. Why? First-person narrators tell a story from their perspective, what they "see" and what they "hear." These narrators tell stories from their point of view, through their own eyes. First-person narrators filter the events and details of a story through their own experiences, values, and biases. Sometimes first-person narrators deliberately lie to readers.

So I Will Be Writing about the Author's Ethos Then, Right? No. Keep reading.

Narrators and Authors Must Be Kept Separate:

According to the textbook authors Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, "[t]he narrator of a work of fiction is not the same as the writer" (12-1a "Point of View"). So you must write about the narrator's ethos and not the author's ethos. The author wrote the story, and the narrator "tells" the story to readers. Just because the author uses words like "I" and "me" and "we" does not mean the story is told from the author's perspective. The author has invented a narrator to tell the story from her or his perspective.

For example, Edgar Allan Poe is the author of the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," but Edgar Allan Poe himself does not kill the old man with the pale eye and then tell readers how and why he did it. Edgar Allan Poe's real life is well documented, and he never killed anyone (so far as the historians and experts know). Edgar Allan Poe does not confess to a murder in this story. Poe had a wild imagination, and he used his imagination to write this fictional story. No, the unnamed narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" commits this crime and then tells readers how and why he commits this murder. It is the narrator, not the author, who "tells" this story.

Think about it another way. Movies are a good example. In movies, actors portray characters, and we understand that. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are famous actors who star in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In this movie, they assume the roles of wife and husband who happen to be assassins for rival agencies. They spy on each other and shoot at each other in the movie. In real life, these actors have never spied on each other or shot at each other (so far as we know). Also, they are not the authors of the movie; instead, they are the actors in the movie. And they are not Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the movie; rather, they are Jane Smith and John Smith in the movie. You can separate the actors from their characters in movies. Similarly, you must separate authors from their narrators in literature. Remember, the authors are not writing biographical accounts of their lives; they are writing fictional stories that probably sound very real. So refer to the "narrator's ethos" in your essay.

Characteristics of an Effective Narrator's Ethos Argument:

Analysis:

Your narrator's ethos argument essay must be an in-depth examination of the narrator's reliability or unreliability. You do not need to conduct any research for this essay. Instead, concentrate on just the narrator's storytelling. To help you accomplish this goal, you should prewrite or draft a list of what the narrator says and does. Categorize what the narrator says and does as either objective or subjective. This list is a prewriting or drafting tool to help you think through a narrator's ethos. Do not submit any prewriting or a rough draft. Instead, submit a finished essay.

Thesis Statement:

This assignment requires a thesis statement that clearly states your argument. Your opinion is your argument. Is the narrator reliable? Or, is the narrator unreliable? Your opinion is all that matters. So state your opinion in the form of a one-sentence thesis statement that argues that the narrator is either trustworthy or untrustworthy.

Evidence:

Your essay also requires well-supported evidence. Again, do not conduct any research for this assignment. The only evidence you need, and the only evidence your professor will accept for this essay, is evidence from the story itself.

So what do I look for? If you think the narrator is unreliable, then use what the narrator says and does that demonstrates a lack of trust or a lack of credibility. The narrator's words and actions might conflict with each other, for example. Look for these inconsistencies.

Also, the first-person narrators typically do not have any actual dialogue with the other characters, so the narrator's point of view is usually one-sided. In these cases, the narrator tells you only what he or she wants you to know; you might not be able to determine with certainty if the narrator is reporting facts, being unintentionally forgetful, or deliberately lying.

So what should I look for? Look for an absence of basic information such as names, dates, places, and chronological order. These items might be omitted to protect a character's identity or because the narrator forgets, or these items might be omitted because the narrator does not want you to know. If the narrator withholds such basic details, the narrator might be withholding or distorting other details.

A good example of this is the narrator of the "The Tell-Tale Heart." He never divulges his name, the old man's name, the location of their house, or any other basic information. However, the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" does provide a detailed account of the murder and dismemberment of the corpse. So readers have to decide if the narrator just wants to maintain his anonymity and is a reliable narrator or if the narrator is withholding and distorting these details and is an unreliable narrator. You must reach your own conclusion based on the evidence in the story you select.

Explanation:

Evidence by itself is insufficient to persuade readers why the narrator is either credible or uncredible. It is not enough to provide evidence to support a claim. Simply telling readers what the narrator "says" and "does" or even what the narrator "omits" is just pointing out parts of the story that you think supports your opinion. You must do more than just extract a few details from the story to try to prove your point about the narrator. You have to show your readers what you want them to understand about that evidence. In other words, you have to explain it.

If I argue that the narrator in Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" is reliable even though he does not reveal basic information about himself, the old man, or even his location, then I need to explain what that means to me. I could explain the absence of names, locations, and dates as a deliberate withholding of basic information because the narrator is not delaying these details; no, the narrator never reveals these details. If the narrator had been delaying this information, then the narrator might have just been building suspense or trying to keep readers' attention. Such an absence of basic details is neither frustrating nor confusing; instead, the absence of this basic information is suspicious, especially considering how detailed the narrator is about the murder and the dismemberment of the corpse. The narrator specifies every move he makes before, during, and after the murder, describing how he stalked, killed, and disposed the victim. The narrator reveals the murder weapon and the location of the dead body. The narrator even admits to killing the old man. So the narrator deliberately chose to reveal some details but omit others. The narrator's decision to reveal certain details this way is on purpose, so the narrator is not forgetful. The narrator wants readers to know exactly what he did but does not want readers to know who he is or where to find him. So the narrator is bragging about getting away with murder all while maintaining his anonymity. Yes, the narrator is credible, in my opinion, because of the way I explained how the evidence supports my opinion.

But I can go in the opposite direction. If I argue that the narrator in Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" is unreliable because his words and his actions are inconsistent, then I still have some explaining to do. I could explain the narrator's professed affection for the old man that conflicts with the narrator's premeditated murder of the old man as an inconsistency. If the narrator really does like the old man, then the murder of the old man does not make any sense. If people truly care for their family and friends, then they do not harm them; instead, they care for their loved ones and nurture them and help them if they can. The narrator, in this case, goes out of his way to kill the old man for no other reason than the old man's eye. The narrator repeatedly states his reason for killing the old man is because one of the old man's eyes is different from his other eye. Yes, some of our family and friends have unusual or distinguishing features that everyone can see, but we do not kill them for it. Most of the time we ignore or overlook these features because we like the person anyway. The narrator has already killed the old man before he tells us how he did it. So the narrator has been deceiving readers about liking the old man for the duration of the story. Yes, the narrator is uncredible, in my opinion, because of the way I explained how the evidence supports my opinion.

Your explanation is so important because it shows your thought process. Your thought process is the bridge between your opinion and the evidence from the story.

Without your explanation, one-third of your essay is missing. That means your essay will be incomplete. That also means your essay will not be persuasive. So you must include your own explanation, but if anyone else's explanation appears in your essay, then your essay will be incorrect.

Preparing

To prepare an effective narrator's ethos argument, you need to know the story thoroughly to be able to reach an informed decision about the narrator's credibility and to find evidence that confirms the narrator's credibility or disproves the narrator's credibility.

Read the story. Then read it again.
Record your first impressions. Do not submit your first impressions. This is just for you. Hopefully, the professor-approved story you select is one that you have never read before. That's good. Even if you have read any of these stories before, do not allow yourself to be influenced to think about them from outside sources like the internet or the fake writing from ol' Al (also known as artificial intelligence). So think for yourself.
Keep track of the points you want to use as evidence. Extract these points from the story as you find them.