Kairos

Unit Four Blog Two - Kairos

            The idea behind Kairos is all about placement. How do you fit your argument into a place where it will be heard, understood and able to reach its full effectiveness? The answer is timing. Ramage, Bean and Johnson describe the word “Kairo” to mean appropriate for the occasion (116).  

To take it one step further, it is about placing your argument in the best possible situation where the most optimum results will occur. For example, the argument about whether or not the United States military should receive pay raises would be best brought up at this time because Osama Bin Laden has just been killed by a division of the United States military. They have eliminated a person that brought great catastrophe and devastation to millions of people and because of their heroic actions, the kairos of the argument of whether or not they should receive substantial pay raises based on the degree to which they place their lives in danger would be best brought up now. Another example, maybe not so broad in terms, is the argument about smoking. From the perspective of kairos, the argument would fit right in after someone suffered a lengthy illness, like a heart attack, because of smoking cigarettes. Maybe the person’s doctor could bring up the argument at the check-up following the illness and though the person may not want to hear it, the doctor could create the kairotic moment by showing the evidence of what smoking caused and the pain the person went through because of smoking. If you carefully plan when and where to introduce the argument, the dynamics behind the kairos is used to the fullest extent and that is where the whole dramatic effect of the argument comes in to play.

Ramage, Bean and Johnson explain that there are no rules to help you determine the right kairotic moment for your argument, but being attuned to kairos will help you “read” your audience and rhetorical situation in a dynamic way (118). This is the situation where you have to have a keen awareness of the situation you are in before you present your argument. 

            Kairos are just as important to an argument as ethos, logos and pathos are. With the use of the three components of the rhetorical triangle along with kairos, the effectiveness of an argument is reached and goal of reaching and persuading your audience is accomplished.

                                                                                                                                   

Works Cited

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: a Rhetoric with Readings. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010. Print.