Rhetoric
The Art of Persuasion
LOGOS
LOGOS is an appeal to reason
or logic. This reasoning
begins with a generalization
based on reliable evidence.
“Genetically modified
seeds have caused
poverty, hunger, and a
decline in bio-diversity
everywhere they have
been introduced, so there
is no reason the same
thing will not occur when
genetically modified corn
seeds are introduced in
Mexico.”
"Does
this place look like
I'm . . . married? The toilet
seat's up, man!"
(The Dude in The Big Lebowski, 1998)
ETHOS
ETHOS is an ethical appeal
based on the character,
credibility, or reliability of the
writer.
• Use reliable and
credible sources
• State opposing views
• Establish common
ground with reader
• Acknowledge your
personal interest in
the topic
"The personality of the orator
outweighs the issues."
(John Leopold)
"I'm not a doctor, but I
play one on TV."
(1960s TV commercial for Excedrin)
PATHOS
• These appeals sometimes
use interview sources and
individual stories to paint a
PATHOS is an emotional
picture. Personal stories
appeal. It appeals to an
illuminated the truth and put
audience’s needs, values, and
a face on a problem.
emotional sensibilities.
• Be careful not to DISTRACT
from the truth with an
emotional appeal.
"A brilliant young woman I know was asked
once to support her argument in favor of social
welfare. She named the most powerful source
imaginable: the look in a mother's face when
she cannot feed her children. Can you look that
hungry child in the eyes? See the blood on his
feet from working barefoot in the cotton fields.
Or do you ask his baby sister with her belly
swollen from hunger if she cares about her
daddy's work ethics?"
(Nate Parker as Henry Lowe in The Great Debaters,
2007)
Typical Teenager Argument
“Everyone else can go”
“But we’re not even doing
anything this weekend.”
“You never let me do
anything!”
“It’s not hurting anything.”
“He has been driving for a
long time and has never
had an accident.”
Why do you hate me? You
are ruining my life!
“Even Albert Einstein got a
D on the test.”
Logic
“A negro mother wept in the street
Sunday morning in front of a Baptist
Church in Birmingham. In her hand
she held a shoe, one shoe, from the
foot of her dead child. We hold that
shoe with her.”
from the Atlanta Constitution
The sad truth is that despite its success as a
sportswear slogan, “Just Do It” isn’t a terribly
popular idea in real American life. We’ve
become a society of rule-followers and
permission-seekers. Despite our can-do self
image, what we really want is to be told what
to do. When the going gets tough, the tough
get consent forms.”
~David Brown riffing on Nike’s slogan
“At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the
morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at
the moment when the atomic bomb flashed
above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk
in the personnel department of the East Asia
Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the
plant office and was turning her head to speak
to the girl in the next desk."
Hiroshima
by John Hersey
"I thought about something Rahim
khan had said just before he
hung up... There is a way to be
good again."
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
"His hangover was visible. It
heaved itself to his shoulders and
sat there like a bag of wet
cement."
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
"His hangover was visible. It heaved
itself to his shoulders and sat there
like a bag of wet cement."
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
His reasoning was transparent. It transformed
itself to the jury like a caterpillar into a
butterfly.
Really, it is most unreasonable to
demand that a man should think
of other people so much better
than he is able to think of himself.
Joseph Conrad
Really, it is most unreasonable to demand that
a man should think of other people so much
better than he is able to think of himself.
Joseph Conrad
Really, it is most unreasonable to demand
that a man should understand other
people so much better than he is able to
understand himself.
"I accept the salt of tears evoked
by sweet onions and betrayed
love."
- Maya Angelou, "A Song to Sensuality", an
selection in the book of collected essays, "Even
the Stars Look Lonesome", (p.37)
"I accept the salt of tears
evoked by sweet onions
and betrayed love."
I embrace the comfort of silence
caused by the storm’s devastation
and love’s departure.
"My worries seemed to be piling
up, one on top of the other, like
bricks on a wall.
How To Steal A Dog (p..11)
Patricia O'Conner
"My worries seemed to be
piling up, one on top of the
other, like bricks on a wall.
My anger seemed to ignite, each
flame licking the wound, like
gasoline on the inferno.
"When she shut the engine off,
we got swallowed up in quiet."
How To Steal A Dog (p.11)
Patricia O'Conner
"When she shut the engine
off, we got swallowed up in
quiet."
When I plugged the headphone in, I
got fired up by Eminem’s rage.
"The best day of my life
happened when I was five and
almost died at Disney World."
Going Bovine
Libba Bray (p.1)
“It’s been 84 years, and I can still
smell the fresh paint. The china had
never been used; the sheets had
never been slept in. Titanic was
called, ‘The Ship of Dreams’—and it
was, it really was.”
From the Movie: Titanic
"Reality has become so
intolerable, she said, so bleak,
that all I can paint now are the
colors of my dreams."
Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi, (p. 11)
The three bodies hang there, even with the
white sacks over their heads looking
curiously stretched, like chickens strung
up by the necks in s meatshop window;
like birds with their wings clipped, like
flightless birds, wrecked angels.
The Handmaids Tale
Margaret Atwood (p. 177)