Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Rhetorical Appeals

What are Ethos, Pathos, Logos? What are they used for?

• 3 techniques of persuasion

• A compelling argument, sales pitch, speech, or commercial ideally uses elements of all three strategies. 

• They are a means of swaying the intended audience to believe a particular point of view.

Ethos (credibility)

• convincing an audience of the author’s credibility or authority

• Why? We tend to believe people whom we respect and trust. An author who showcases their knowledge/authority on a subject will appear as more trustworthy for the audience to believe.

• showing expertise, knowledge, a degree

Ethos Examples (Cont.)

• “My three decades of experience in public service, and my tireless commitment to the people of this community make me the ideal candidate for your mayor.”

• An elderly man providing his age when preaching life wisdom.

• Michael Jordan as the face of a Gatorade commercial (https://youtu.be/liKnJ-ejztw).

Pathos (emotion)

• appealing to the audience's emotion

• often used to invoke sympathy or pity from an audience; also used to inspire anger from an audience to prompt action. 

• Pathos can be developed by using meaningful language, emotional tone, emotion evoking examples, stories of emotional events.

Pathos Examples (cont.)

• A teenager tries to convince his parents to buy him a new car by saying if they cared about their child's safety they'd upgrade him.

• A boyfriend begs his girlfriend to stay with him, claiming "If you really love me, you'll give me time to change my ways."

• Chevy Commercial: https://youtu.be/3t6bLugtJkQ

Logos (logic)

•  persuading by the use of reasoning

• uses reasoned discourse and logical arguments to convey a point of view and win over the audience.

• statistics, facts, data, research, evidence, charts, and graphs.

Logos Examples (cont.)

• An iPhone commercial that highlights the latest features and specs (use of evidence).

• A Dole fruit juice commercial that hypes vitamin and calorie stats (use of statistics).

• Verizon shows a map to prove it has better coverage than AT&T (use of chart/graph).