Persuasive Devices & their uses in Propaganda
ETHOS
(ethics)
credibility
authority
PATHOS
(emotions)
reliability
emotion
imagination
LOGOS
(logic)
sympathy
logic
reason
rationality
Examples include:
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Using established social ideals
Generalizations
Values (love, truth, justice, freedom,
etc)
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Emotive language
Flattery
Hyperbole
Connotation
Use of pronouns
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Statistics and figures
Assertions / Facts / Evidence
Opinion
Rhetorical question
Other Persuasive Devices include:
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Talking Triples: using three points to support an argument
Listing: using multiple points to support an argument
Alliteration: Repetition of the first consonant sounds in order to highlight certain words and make them easier to remember.
Anaphora: Successive lines or phrases beginning with the same word(s)
Allusion: an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Bias: The presentation on only one side of an issue or viewpoint used to personally influence an audience.
Imperatives: starting sentences with command terms such as, do, don’t, move, etc
What devices are present in the following passage? Consider the speaker’s purpose as you read. Consider the effect the words
and phrases have on the listeners.
Annotate by underlining devices which seem crucial to what the speaker is trying to convince his audience to think or
feel. Label the device you underline and briefly explain the effect it would likely have on the audience.
“We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news I react not as a President, but
as anybody else would -- as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel
the same overwhelming grief that I do.
The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their
entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers -- men and
women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.
So our hearts are broken today -- for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families
of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their
children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words
that will ease their pain.
As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in
Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago -- these neighborhoods are our
neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to
prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.
This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we’ll tell
them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who
cannot do that tonight. And they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as
Americans. And I will do everything in my power as President to help.”
Extract from the Briefing Room statement on the shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut by Pres. Barack Obama, 114 December, 2012
Option 2:
"If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the
other in 1964. It isn't that time is running out -- time has run out!
1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year
when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white
political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and
their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an
explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today -- I'm sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't intend to turn
the other cheek any longer.
Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million
Chinese. If you can be brave over there, you can be brave right here. These odds aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will
at least know what you're fighting for."
An extract from, "The Ballot or the Bullet" by Malcolm X
April 3rd, 1964, Cleveland Ohio
TO WHAT EXTEND DOES RHETORIC INFLUENCE US?
● There is a difference between persuasion and propaganda but both are geared to influence their ‘readers’.
● Something to consider: these current students are hardwired or plugged in most of the time. How much
of their interactions are they being influenced or trained by consciously or unconsciously?
Activities and assessments
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Annotations and reading guides
Discussion groups
Analysis and analytical writing
Creating persuasive texts