Ethos - Pathos - Logos
After this lesson you should understand how ethos, pathos, and logos can be used as persuasive techniques to make an argument more convincing.
Landmarks
In this lesson, students explore how writers use the rhetorical devices of logos, ethos and pathos to appeal to an audience. They then try out their own use of rhetoric to make a persuasive argument.
Analyze the use of rhetorical strategies like ethos, pathos and logos.
Ethos (ethical appeal): Appeal to the credibility and authority of a speaker. Using ethos, a writer can convey trustworthiness through tone and style as well as by establishing his/her credentials in a field. An author’s reputation can also influence pathos. (ex. As a dentist I see this problem a lot.., She knows her dinosaur fossils; as a palaeontologist...)
Pathos (emotional appeal): Appeal to an audience’s heart and emotions. An author or speaker using pathos seeks to persuade someone emotionally using personal connections, stories or testimonials, and maybe spirituality. Pathos can aim to evoke hopes and fears and often employs figurative language. (ex. If the puppy is not adopted, he might never find a home.)
Logos (rational appeal): Appeal to the audience’s logical reasoning ability. Examples of logos include facts, statistics and anecdotes. (ex. Statistics show that avid readers have larger vocabularies)
More examples of these three strategies.
The video, “What Aristotle and Joshua Bell Can Teach Us About Persuasion,” can help us understand more about these strategies.
Write your own persuasive argument using rhetorical devices to convince an audience. Choose any topic that interests you, and write a speech or editorial that employs logos, pathos and ethos.
Convince me:
Phones should (or should not) be banned in schools.
Grades should (or should not) be eliminated.
We need (or don't need) more holidays.
Students will share examples of their writing of how they used ethos, pathos, and logos in their arguments.