ETHOS, LOGOS, AND
PATHOS
COMPOSITION
AP English Language
Mr. Gallegos
Abraham Lincoln High School
SOAPS Warm-Up
For today’s warm-up, you are gong to re-read the article you
annotated last night and complete the SOAPS activity. This
activity will help us create a focused, well-written introduction
that includes a T.A.G. statement and thesis statement.
Subject
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Speaker
Learning Objectives
• Content Objective: Students will
be able to identify and analyze the
use of ethos, pathos, and logos in
an essay.
• Language Objective: Students
will read the Jody Heyman essay
and annotate the text.
• Language Objective: Students
will write an essay where they
analyze how the author uses
rhetorical appeals to achieve her
purpose.
Key Vocabulary
• Ethos is an appeal to character by
demonstrating that the speaker is
trustworthy and credible. Ethos often
stresses shared values between the
speaker and the audience.
• Logos is an appeal to logic or reason
by offering clear and rational ideas to
back up your thesis, or claim.
Key Vocabulary
• Pathos is an appeal to emotion. An
argument should never be based
solely on pathos. Figurative language,
personal anecdotes, and vivid images
are commonly used.
• Thesis statements reveal the central
idea in a work and the position of the
writer in certain contexts.
Annotating the Text
• Language Objective: Students will read
the Jody Heyman essay and annotate the
text.
• Underline examples of logos.
• Circle examples of ethos.
• Place a star next to words or phrases
that create pathos.
Use SOAPS to Write Your Introduction
• Your introduction needs to consist of a T.A.G. statement
and thesis. You need to use the components of the
SOAPS graphic organizer to write your introduction.
• T.A.G.- Title, Author, Genre
• Thesis Statement- In analysis essays, you always want
to address what techniques you are analyzing and how
those techniques are used by the author to achieve a
specific purpose.
Sample Introduction
• Jody Heyman is the director of the McGill
University Institute for Health and Social Policy
and the author of the editorial titled “We Can
Afford to Give Parents a Break.” In the editorial,
she uses rhetorical appeals to persuade
lawmakers, business leaders and families that
new mothers need adequate maternity leave in
order to attend to their newborns for an
appropriate amount of time, thus making it
necessary to revise current maternity leave
policies.
Reminders For Your Essay
• 1. Make sure you have a solid thesis. Make sure your
thesis addresses author’s purpose and how the rhetorical
appeals were used in order for her to achieve her
purpose.
• 2. Remember that effective writers justify their thesis
statements (positions) by using examples to back up their
point.
• 3. Make sure you effectively structure your paper and that
you have well-constructed paragraphs with topic
sentences that let the reader know what that specific
paragraph is going to be about. This means you need an
introduction, body, and conclusion.
Homework Assignment
• We will be working on
your essays tomorrow. I
highly recommend you
get a head start on your
essays. Go back through
the essay and think
about your thesis
statement. Remember,
your thesis statement
needs to address
author’s purpose.