Abstract
While traditional rhetorical theory places that ethos is situated in a rhetor and pathos in an audience, research suggests both—like logos—are cached within the text itself, which alone is rhetorical. Much of this scholarship stems from sophistic rhetorical theory from John Poulakos, Richard Katula and James Murphy. However, it is John Ward’s theory of rhetoric as magic that explains how the text can create the illusion of authority and cast a spell on those perceiving it. Ultimately this only works so long as the audience accepts the subjective rhetoric as objective reality. Thus, all of this profoundly impacts the teaching of writing specifically and the art, practice, and study of human communication in general.