Rhetoric

Rhetoric (n) - the art of speaking or writing effectively (Webster's Definition).

According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion."

Forms of Rhetoric

Ethos Logos Pathos

Ethos
Ethos: the source's credibility, the speaker's/author's authority and Ethics We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

Ethos Example- Athletes Endorsing Nike

Logos

Logos: the logic used to support a claim; can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument. Ex. The book has been on the NY Times Best Seller List for 43 weeks.

Logos Example

Idea: Students should be allowed to use cell phones during school hours.

List three supporting facts and/or statistics that will support the aforementioned idea.

Pathos

Pathos Appealing to emotions

Ex. Charity ads about starving children

Pathos

Ethos

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940

Logos

Best Seller List

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Persuasive Writing Activity

In groups you will receive a product Make a pro-con list Write a thesis explaining why people should use your product Write a persuasive paragraph Focus: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Create a commercial