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The King S Essay 1
The King S Essay 1
Najeal Young
English 3310
In my essay, I chose to discuss the pathos, ethos, and logos within Stephen King's
Memoir to show how he formed his own writer's voice with these three rhetorical strategies
within his writing. My main focus is to explain to freshmen students how these strategies not
only strengthen their writing but it also helps them develop their own distinct writing voice that
will appeal to a certain audience. My audience for this paper are freshmen students and I will go
into great detail what pathos, ethos, and logos are as well as give them two examples for each
from Stephen King's memoir. I'm very excited yet anxious to write this piece simply because I
enjoy sharing my views with others, yet I tend to be my biggest critic considering that I find
myself obsessing over the perfection of my writing. Reading Stephen King's memoir was more
interesting and enjoyable than I expected, yet I was flabbergasted by the amount of pages we had
to read in so little time and was discouraged because I had convinced myself that I wouldn't be
able to finish in time. Surprisingly though, I maneuvered through the reading at such a quick
pace and was able to finish the book on schedule. As far as my writing goes, I tend to catch
writer's block fairly quickly to the point where I have to stare at a blank page for hours on end
before I can actually become satisfied with my thought processes. Once I finally do figure out
exactly how I want my paper to go, my writing flows to the point where I can finish a paper
within hours. For this paper, it was hard trying to pinpoint exactly how I wanted my writing to go
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simply because I want to give enough details and a thorough explanation of my topic. I do
believe that my paper will reach every requirement and will be more than satisfactory.
Stephen King's book On Writing is his memoir/how-to that gives the audience an insight
on his life and how certain aspects of his life has shaped his writing techniques. In his book,
King refers to events in his childhood and young adulthood that not only shaped how he is as a
person but how it also had a great influence on his writing. He touched upon being raised by a
single mother, having to move constantly, missing a years worth of school due to ear and throat
problems, how his passions for writing became more prominent in high school as he was a writer
for his school's newspaper, how he helped his brother publish a family newspaper, and actually
got into trouble for selling is own work. After college he wrote about how he became a high
school English teacher in order to provide for his growing family, yet his passion has always
been writing. He began writing a piece on a young girl that had telepathic powers, yet discarded
the piece because he felt he didnt know enough to make the piece great. Yet, his wife influenced
him to keep writing the piece, which turn out to be one of his best selling novels Carrie. After
this he focused his time on his writing and developed an addiction to alcohol and cocaine,
believing that it made his writing better. Yet again his wife influenced him to get his life together
Further into his memoir, King began to give his advice on what makes a better writer. He
explained what a "writer's toolbox" was and how a writer should focus more on grammar instead
of vocabulary. He explained how a writer can use complex or simple vocabulary in his/her
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writing, yet they must focus more on grammar in order to avoid any common mistakes. He also
went into detail on his own process when he writes novels. He explained how one should write
the complete first draft of a novel at once and that it should take no more than three months to
write it. He went on to say that once the novel is done to keep it in a drawer for no more than six
weeks in order to distance yourself from the novel. Afterwards he suggested reading the novel
throughout and make the appropriate changes and edits to pull the whole piece together. He then
suggests to give the writing to multiple friends in order to get their perspective on the final draft
King used the three rhetorical strategies (pathos, ethos, and logos) all throughout his
memoir. The strategy pathos is where a writer uses the quality of an experience in order to evoke
emotions such as pity, sympathy and sorrow. This strategy can be used through words and/or
pictures. The first section of King's memoir used a vast amount of pathos as he used his
childhood to evoke the emotions of his audience in order to show those events influenced his
writing. Near the beginning of his memoir, from chapters five to eight, Stephen King wrote about
how he missed a year of school due to ear and throat complications. He explained the amount of
pain he went through due to measles and complications with his tonsils. Yet, he was able find
comfort by reading comic books and rewriting them while also adding his own details to the
stories. "Most of that year I spent either in bed or housebound. I read my way through
approximately six tons of comic books...At some point I began to write my own stories.
Imitation preceded creation; I would copy Combat Casey comics word for word in my Blue
Horse tablet, sometimes adding my own descriptions where they seemed appropriate... (pg. 27)."
He explained how he showed his mother his work and how she became disappointed when he
told her that his writing was not his original work. She went on to encourage him to write his
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own story, saying "Those Combat Casey funny books are just junkhes always knocking
someones teeth out. I bet you could do better. Write one of your own (pg. 28). From there on
Another example of pathos in King's writing was when he was hit by a car, almost
costing him his life. He went into great detail of what he went through that day when Bryan
Smith hit him with his car. His injuries were so severe that it was believed that he wouldnt
survive. He suffered from multiple injuries: a broken leg in nine places, an acetabular fracture in
his right hip along with an open femoral intertrochanteric fracture in the same area, a spinal
injury, four broken ribs, a head laceration, and a broken pelvic. He explained his struggles
through physical therapy as well as how he lost his desires to write. "I didnt want to go back to
work. I was in a lot of pain, unable to bend my right knee, and restricted to a walker. I couldnt
imagine sitting behind a desk for long, even in my wheelchair...(pg. 266)." He used this incident
to show how his writing, although it took a while, helped him get through one of his most
traumatic experiences. He wanted to show his audience that writing was his outlet as well as his
passion and used this experience to show how much writing actually affected his life.
The second strategy King used in his writing was ethos. Ethos is the writer's ethical
appeal which is meant to convince the audience of the writers credibility or character. King does
this throughout the beginning of his memoir in his three forewords. This is his attempt to show
his readers that what he says throughout this book is credible given his years of successful
writing. Not only this but the language used (I.e., cursing, slang) made him more relatable to the
readers which made his advice easier to comprehend and digest. In the first foreword he
explained why he choose to write this book on writing and that his purpose was not to write
simply because he was a good writer, but because he wanted to give his insight and advice to
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other writers. "...why did I want to write about writing? What made me think I had anything
worth saying? The easy answer is that someone who has sold as many books of fiction as I have
must have something worthwhile to say about writing it, (pg. 8)." He included his success in
order to show readers that he does have credibility but he also uses it to show that it's not his
only reason for writing and that he's not writing simply because he has multiple best sellers.
Another example of King's usage of ethos falls within the first foreword as well, where
he explains that language is one of the most important aspects of a book and that people tend to
not ask about the language of the content. "What follows is an attempt to put down, briefly and
simply, how I came to the craft, what I know about it now, and how its done. Its about the day
job; its about the language (pg. 9)." Throughout his book he uses relatable, everyday language
in order to come across as approachable in his writing. He curses, uses slang, and writes as if he
is speaking in person. His work is more relaxed and flows as if it were regular verbal story
The final rhetorical strategy that King used in his work was logos. Logos is the appeal
to one's logic and is meant to persuade an audience through use of logic or reasoning. An
example of King's usage of logos is when he explains the toolbox. The toolbox is one's
writing mechanisms and King suggests that every writer should have a toolbox. "I want to
suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and
then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you... (pg. 114)." According to King
every writer's toolbox should have at least four levels and should consist of vocabulary and
grammar so that their writing can be strengthened, that once faced with a difficult writing
task the writer could use their "toolbox" for help. Another example of his logos use was
when he explained that in order to be a good writer one must read and write. "If you want to
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be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Theres no
way around these two things that Im aware of, no shortcut... (pg. 145)." He goes on to
explain that reading can give one insight and teach them lessons and that, in fact, the bad
Stephen King's book On Writing is his memoir/how-to that gives the audience an insight
on his life and how certain aspects of his life has shaped his writing techniques. In his writing he
gave his audience insightful advice based on his own experiences and used the three rhetorical
strategies (pathos, ethos, and logos) in order to make his advice more relatable. King's writing
was meant to be as realistic as possible given he is telling his life story and he wanted to show
that everyday aspects do, in fact, influence one's writing and that one should take these aspects
Bibliography
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. London: Hodder, 2012. Print.