Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse

This article is a great example of Ethos. The author uses word choice to make his sources sound credible.

For example, the first sentence of the second paragraph reads, “Psychologists and neuroscientists conducting well-designed studies are beginning to shed light on the actual effects of video games.” The key words of ethos in this sentence are “psychologists and neuroscientists” and “well-designed studies”. Using these words instead of more vague words such as “science” or “research” makes the sources sound more official and reliable.

The second paragraph under the title “Games May Teach Skills – or Desensitize Us to Violence” is swarming with references to “authority”. It mentions a report from the US Department of Education. Is there any authority higher than that on the subject of education? Most people would say there isn’t. The very next sentence mentions a “neuroscience study published in Nature”. If the author had simply said “a study from a scientific magazine”, his words would not have had the same effect. The next sentence’s mention of Nature Neuroscience has a similar effect.

The fourth paragraph of the same section talks about “a study involving 33 laparoscopic surgeons”. Though the source of the author’s knowledge of the study is not mentioned, the very phrase, particularly the word “laparoscopic”, makes the knowledge obtained from the study seem credible.

These are just a few very good examples of how an author can create a feel of ethos through word choice and proper mention of sources.