Question

read this excerpt from a students college application:

in addition to academic and extracurricular achievements in school, i am an involved member of my community. i volunteer at the local animal shelter every saturday morning, and i help build houses for a nonprofit organization a few times a year with my family.

which of these rhetorical devices is most clearly used here?

a. parallelism

b. text structure

c. ethos

d. inductive logic

Explanation:

To determine the rhetorical device, we analyze each option:

• Option A: Parallelism involves using similar grammatical structures. The excerpt does not have repeated parallel structures.
• Option B: Text structure refers to the overall organization (e.g., compare - contrast, cause - effect), which is not the focus here.
• Option C: Ethos is an appeal to credibility/character. The student is highlighting their community involvement (volunteering at an animal shelter, building houses) to establish their good character, which is an ethos appeal.
• Option D: Inductive logic involves reasoning from specific to general, which is not present here.

Answer:

C. Ethos