This document discusses rhetorical appeals, including logos, ethos, and pathos. It defines each appeal and provides examples. Logos appeals to logic and reason through facts, statistics, and logical arguments. Ethos appeals to credibility and authority through the reputation and expertise of the source. Pathos appeals to emotion through stories, anecdotes, and the elicitation of feelings like love, pity, fear, and anger. The document suggests analyzing arguments to identify which appeals are used and how effectively, and provides exercises for students to practice using and identifying appeals.

1. Week 1 Rhetorical
Appeals
DR. RUSSELL RODRIGO

3. Outline
Argumentation
Rhetorical Appeals:
1. Pathos
2. Logos
3. Ethos

4. What is an argument?

6. What is an argument?
 An argument is not a contradiction.
 Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any
statement the other person makes.
 Argument is an intellectual process.
 An argument is a connected series of statements intended
to establish a proposition.

7. Argument
 An argument tries to convince readers to think or act in a particular way.
 Advertisement
 Letter from the bank
 Travel brochure
 Movie poster
 Websites
 Campaigns etc.
 An argument is not a fight. It does not need to involve conflict.

8. Debatable statement
 Your claim about the issue you are writing about should be debatable.
 Debatable = possible to (dis-)agree with
 Are the following claims debatable? (D / ND)
1. Cigarettes are taxed.
2. The tax on cigarettes should be increased.
3. I don’t like cigarettes.
4. Smoking is harmful to people’s health.
5. It is necessary for the government to increase their anti-smoking ad campaigns.
6. Some animals are endangered.
7. Endangered animals are more beautiful than animals that are not endangered.
8. Hunting endangered animals must be banned.

9. Argumentation
a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of
persuading others that an action or idea is right or
wrong.

10. Key Terms
1. Claim
 When a belief (judgment, opinion) is asserted in a declarative sentence, the result is a claim, statement,
or assertion
2. Objective claim VS Subjective claim
 An objective claim is true or false regardless of whether people think it is true or false. Claims that lack
this property are said to be subjective.
3. Fact VS Opinion
 People sometimes refer to true objective claims as “facts” and use the word “opinion” to designate any
claim that is subjective.
4. Factual Claim
 An objective claim. Saying that a claim is “factual” is not the same as saying it is true. A factual claim is
simply a claim whose truth does not depend on our thinking it is true.

11. What is Rhetoric?
 Rhetoric (n) - the art of speaking or writing effectively (Webster's
Definition).
 According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the
available means of persuasion." He described three main forms of rhetoric: Ethos,
Logos, and Pathos.
 In order to be a more effective writer and analytical reader, you must
understand these terms.

12. Activity: Debate
1. Love can be faked.
2. Intelligence depends more on the environment than genetics.
3. Age does not matter in a relationship.

13. Aristotelian Appeals: Logos, Ethos, and
Pathos
 Whenever you read an argument you must ask yourself, “Is this
persuasive? If so, why? And to whom?” There are many ways to
appeal to an audience. Among them are appealing to logos, ethos,
and pathos. These appeals are identifiable in almost all arguments.

14. Logos (Greek for “word”)
 Logos: the logic/reasoning used to support a claim; the facts and
statistics used to help support the argument
 Examples:
 Case studies
 Cause and effect reasoning
 Facts and statistics
 Analogies

15. Logos
 Logos or the appeal to reason and it relies on logic.
 Logos often depends on the use of inductive or deductive reasoning.
 Inductive reasoning takes a specific representative case or facts and then draws
generalizations or conclusions from them. Inductive reasoning must be based on a
sufficient amount of reliable evidence. In other words, the facts you draw on must
fairly represent the larger situation or population.
 Deductive reasoning begins with a generalization and then applies it to a specific
case. The generalization you start with must have been based on a sufficient amount
of reliable evidence.
 Logos can be developed by citing facts and statistics (very important), using
advanced and well developed language, using historical incidents, analogies,
and by constructing logical arguments.

16. 2. Ethos (Greek for “character”)
 Ethos: the source's credibility / authority
 Is the source trustworthy, educated, reliable, credible, honest, fair, and
respectable?
 Examples:
 Client testimonials
 Success stories
 Celebrity endorsements
 Personal anecdotes

17. Ethos
 Ethos is the appeal based on credibility or authority. – the character
reputation of the writer The audience asks themselves, "What does this
person know about this topic?" and "Why should I trust this person?"
 There are two kinds of ethos:
extrinsic (the character, expertise, education, and experience of the
rhetor), and
intrinsic (how the rhetor writes or speaks).

18. Pathos (Greek for “suffering” or
“experience”)
 Pathos: appeals to the audience’s capacity for empathy; wants you to care
about the subject matter
 Typical Emotional Appeals:
 Love
 Pity
 Patriotism
 Hope
 Jealousy
 Anger
 Fear

19. Pathos
 Pathos is the appeal based on emotion.
 It is often done by telling a story or an anecdote.
 Example Let's say a rhetor is trying to convince an audience of middle-class Americans to donate money
to a hurricane relief fund. The rhetor can make pathetic appeals to an audience's feelings of love, pity,
fear, and perhaps anger. (The extent to which any of these emotions will be successfully engaged will
vary from audience to audience.)
 "Love" will be felt if the audience can be made to believe in their fundamental connections to other
human beings.
 "Pity" will be felt if the plight of the homeless hurricane victim can be made very vivid to the
audience.
 "Fear" will be felt if the audience can be made to imagine what they would feel like in that
homeless victim's place.
 "Anger" will be felt if the audience realizes how little has been done by those who are responsible
for helping.

21. Review your arguments.
 Which of the rhetorical appeals did you use?
 Were they effective? Why or why not?
 How can you improve your arguments?

22. Pair Work: Choose one topic and outline your arguments
using logos, pathos and ethos.
Choose one of them and defend (or oppose!) it using a logos, pathos and/or
ethos.
1. Movies and Novels promote affairs outside marriage.
2. Daughters are more of an asset than sons, for parents
3. All women are irrational and use intuition instead of logic.
4. Students should combine work and studies to start their careers earlier.
5. Poorer families are happier high-income earners.

24. Social Media Examples
1. "Learn more about how WWP is serving wounded veterans and their
families at http://bit.ly/WWPServes. By 2017, the WWP will serve
100,000 of our nation's veterans with an additional 15,000 family support
member/caregivers.“
2. Police @BANGORPOLICE in Bangor, Maine, posted this public service
informational tweet after an ice storm:
"Clearing the GOYR (glacier on your roof) allows you to avoid saying,
'hindsight is always 20/20' after the collision. #noonewilllaugh"

28. Worksheet

29. Week 1 Assignment
Find posts on social media where the written information, pictures or
links reveals any of the following:
1. Ethos
2. Logos
3. Pathos
Post ONE example on Blackboard with brief description of the
appeals used.
Comment to TWO other posts to get a full mark.