Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Worksheet
If you are writing about equal rights to a predominately white audience, you could try to place your audience in the shoes of someone who is being discriminated against. After you have drawn upon your audience’s sympathy, you could show them why policies about equal rights are important.
Logos is the logical development of the message, pathos is the emotional appeals employed by the speaker, and ethos is the moral character of the speaker as perceived by the audience. Our focus on credibility relates to ethos, the ethical character and competence of the speaker. To build credibility you want to focus on three stages: (1) Initial credibility is what the audience knows and their opinion prior to the speech, (2) Derived (during) credibility is how the audience perceives you while delivering the speech, and (3) Terminal is the lasting impression that the audience has of you as they leave the speech. The language you use matters. Persuasive writing should be assertive and confident. Use strong verbs and clear sentences to drive your point home. Techniques like rhetorical questions, repetition, and analogies can also make your writing more engaging. For example, in an essay about the benefits of school uniforms, a rhetorical question like, “Should students really be judged by their clothes rather than their character?” can make your reader think more deeply about the issue. Here we look at who you are as a person; what the audience knows about your expertise and whether the audience thinks you are trustworthy. You may think about initial credibility as your personal branding: who you are and what you audience knows about you. Your reputation may precede you but if it does not, you may rely on an introduction prior to the speech. Often a host or moderator will introduce you and provide relevant information about your background. If there is no moderator to provide an introduction, you may include a brief self-introduction about yourself as it relates to the topic and your motivation for speaking. Building initial credibility helps prepare the audience for what is to come during the speech. When you acknowledge the other side of the argument, you show that you’ve considered all perspectives. Then, you can refute those opposing views with logic and evidence. Moreover, if your professor interrogates your topic further, you can easily support your claim and position yourself as an outstanding student. A great persuasive essay doesn’t ignore opposing viewpoints — it addresses them. To address the counterarguments, you first need to identify them. For this, extensive research is required, so get help from your college’s or school’s library, academic journals, and reference materials. Students often forget to comment on the facts they present, and tend to believe that quotations or facts speak for themselves. It is by interpreting (tolke) information and explaining the effect of something that you create a convincing argument. You have to draw conclusions from the information you present. Which of these two examples achieves this?
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Advertising
Without getting too philosophical, the key takeaway here is that logos, pathos and ethos are all tools that you can use to present a persuasive argument. However, how much you use each tool needs to be informed by careful consideration of who your audience is and what message you’re trying to convey to them.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Worksheet
Logos, pathos and ethos combine to form the rhetorical triangle, also known as the Aristotelian triangle. As you’d expect, the three sides (or corners) of the triangle reflect the three appeals, but there’s also another layer of meaning. Specifically, the three sides symbolise the relationship between the speaker, the audience and the message.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Movies
No matter how strong your argument is, you need solid evidence to back it up. Facts, statistics, expert opinions, and real-life examples make your essay more convincing. For example, if you’re arguing that schools should offer more extracurricular activities, include data showing how students involved in clubs or sports have better academic outcomes. The more concrete your evidence, the stronger your argument becomes which will eventually help you in securing better scores.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Speeches
Ethos can also overlap somewhat with pathos in that positive emotions and feelings toward a specific person can oftentimes be extended to someone else’s argument. For example, a brand that has nothing to do with sports could still benefit from the endorsement of a well-loved athlete, just because people feel positive feelings about the athlete – not because of that athlete’s expertise in the product they’re endorsing.
Here is an example of ethos being used in writing:
As you can see, using ethos in an argument is largely about emphasising the credibility of the person rather than the logical soundness of the argument itself (which would reflect a logos-based approach). This is particularly helpful when there isn’t a large body of evidence to support the argument.