RHETORIC
List as many “tools” as
you can think of for that
can help sway your
audience:
PERSUADING
AN AUDIENCE
SITUATION AND CONTEXT
PARTS TO CONSIDER
SPEAKER/WRITER
AUDIENCE
MESSAGE
THE
“APPEALS”
• Ethical appeals (credibility)
• Pathetic appeals (feeling and
emotion)
• Logical appeals (logic, order,
evidence)
• Style and aesthetics
KNOW YOUR
AUDIENCE!
How does a communicator know
what to use?
Ask these questions:
• What values do you share with
your audience?
• Do you have any common
ground with them?
• How can you remind them of
common ground?
AUTHOR’S CREDIBILLTY
(AKA ETHICAL APPEAL)
The authority of experience
(SITUATED CREDIBILITY)
This is authority that comes
by virtue of a certain status
or experience. (I.e. a doctor
can talk credibly about
medicine but not tennis. )
The authority that writer’s
build through their writing
itself (INVENTED
CREDIBILITY)
This comes from the way
that a piece is written
(author’s tone, use of
references, apparent
research, knowledge of
subject, etc).
WHICH IS
WHICH?
• https://www.wyff4.com/arti
cle/doctor-talks-abouthow-the-covid-19-boostercan-affectmammograms/38425146
EMOTIONAL
APPEALS—
(AKA PATHOS )
Emotional appeals are powerful
stuff. Emotions appealed to can
include sympathy, fear, and pity.
An appeal taken to an extreme
becomes a FALLACY. If you are
asked to vote for a mayor because
of his great suffering, the emotion
is irrelevant and misleading.
USING EMOTION TO
SELL INSURANCE
USING HUMOR TO APPEAL
BE
REASONABLE!
Logos is linked to the
terms LOGIC and
LANGUAGE. Writers
can appeal to reason:
Giving evidence
Organization
Using logic
QUALITATIVE
EVIDENCE
Case studies
Oral histories
Testimonials
Narratives
QUANTITATIVE
EVIDENCE
Statistics
Surveys and polls
(quantitative)
1950S
CAMEL CIGS AD
https://indymotorspeedway.com/
cigs/1950s.html