Transcript Rhetoric Appeals at Work - College of the Redwoods Home

Rhetoric Appeals at Work
Pathos: Arguments from the Heart
• Emotional Appeals are powerful tools
for influencing how people think and
believe and therefore need to be used
with caution
• A good argument will be more than just
pathos--it needs to include solid
reasons and credibility behind those
reasons
Use Pathos to:
• Build Bridges with the audience
• Keep an audience on edge emotionally
• Create an emotional tug to pull
audience into an argument (politicians
sitting with “regular people”--using a
specific example to speak to a general
issue {i.e. health care, unemployment})
When to use Pathos
• After establishing sound logic (logos), to
help discover a truth, consider using an
emotional appeal (pathos) to get an
audience to DO SOMETHING
Ethos--Arguments based on
Character
• Ethos--the presentation of self that a
writer or speaker brings to an argument
• Audiences pay attention to ethos.
“Before we’ll listen to others, we usually
must respect their respect their authority
(Cartman), admire their integrity, and
motives, or at least acknowledge what
they stand for” (61).
Audiences trust “experts”
• In your writing, if you present an
argument in a clear, academic fashion,
including the appropriate format and
spelling, you are, on one level, “claiming
authority.”
• In other words, if you respect your own
work enough to present it well, the
audience is more likely to believe you
Some Tips about Establishing
Credibility
• Admitting what you don’t know can be a
powerful way to connect with the audience.
• “Coming clean” admitting your own
slant/bias/conflict of interest (i.e. “As the
owner of a fine car stereo system,” or “As a
non-smoker, I . . . “)
• Use non-loaded language (i.e. “Only hussies
want to show their breasts in public,” or
“Stupid parents who smoke with their children
in the car . . .”)