RHETORICAL STRATEGIES
Aristotle identified three main means of persuasion used by
speech makers and other users of rhetoric: ethos, logos, and
pathos..
Ethos – authority
Pathos - emotions
Logos – logic
VOCABULARY
a mode of rhetoric appealing to authority or
reputation
 Logos - a mode of rhetoric appealing to logic
 Pathos - a mode of rhetoric appealing to sympathy
 Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds in
text
 Deductive - a kind of reasoning from the general to
the specific
 Fallacy - a rhetorical error or falsehood
 Inductive - a kind of reasoning from the specific to
the general

Ethos -
RHETORIC: THE ART OF PERSUASION…
OR USED-CAR SALESMANSHIP

Rhetoric is nothing more than the art of persuading people to agree
with you.

This can be through writing, speech making, or any other form of
communication.

As anyone who has seen a presidential speech or watched a late-night
infomercial can agree, there are good and bad ways to go about this.

Whether you're a student trying to persuade your parents to let you
stay out later, an essay writer arguing in favor of one interpretation of a
play, or a political leader trying to move a nation to action on behalf of
justice, the principles of rhetoric are the same.
SO HOW DO I GET YOU TO DO
WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO?

Aristotle identified three main means of
persuasion used by speech makers and other
users of rhetoric: ethos, logos, and pathos.
Effective rhetoricians use at least one of these,
and often all three.
ETHOS: BECAUSE I'M A DOCTOR

Ethos is a means of persuasion that relies on the
audience members recognizing that the speaker
or writer knows what he or she is talking about.

The president discussing gun control legislation,
for example, has more authority on the subject
than some random person on the street.
ETHOS
Ethos includes more than just authority, though;
it also includes your trust in a person good
character, in their intelligence, or even just your
sense that I am someone to whom you can
relate.
 Ethos is at work even when the speaker doesn't
have any particular authority.
 It's still their job to make you feel like they do,
and to make you buy what they're saying as a
result.

ETHOS
I’m going to use ethos to persuade you to buy this
cough medicine!
Hello! I’m here in this commercial to try to
persuade you to buy a new cough medicine.
I’m actually an actor, not a doctor, but I sure
look like I have authority! You might even
recognize me from that old TV show,
Handsome Emergency Room Surgeons. Don’t
you feel like you can trust my opinion on
medicines for some reason? Look, I’m even
wearing a white coat! That’s authority if ever
I’ve seen it. Casting me in this commercial to
tell you about medicine instead of some actor
who was in a comedy about racecars, that’s
ethos.
NOW LOOK AT THIS EXCERPT FROM
A SPEECH BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

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
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It is with reluctance that I rise to express a disapprobation of
any one article of the plan, for which we are so much obliged
to the honorable gentlemen who laid it before us.
From its first reading, I have borne a good will to it, and, in
general, wished it success.
In this particular of salaries to the executive branch, I
happen to differ; and as my opinion may appear new and
chimerical, it is only from a persuasion that it is right, and
from a sense of duty, that I hazard it.
--Benjamin Franklin, "Speech in the Constitutional
Convention on the Subject of Salaries," June 2, 1787
LOGOS: BECAUSE YOU'RE SMART
The means of persuasion known
as logos appeals to the listener's or reader's
sense of logic.
 This can include statistics, identifying causes
and correlations, or drawing analogies to other,
similar situations.

TWO MAJOR FORMS OF LOGICAL REASONING WITHIN
LOGOS: INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE

In inductive reasoning, the speaker presents a
specific example and then claims that what is
true in this specific case must be true in all
cases.

In deductive reasoning, the opposite is true: the
speaker presents a general case and assumes
that the same must be true for a specific case
as well.
DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?
Inductive reasoning is unreliable. Not all fruits can be assumed to be sweet just because
an orange is. Think about a lemon, for example!
Inductive reasoning is often used in speeches to make associations that are not really
there.