3 Pillars of

Persuasion
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Silent Reading
20 minutes
On your post-it, write one active
sentence and one passive sentence.
Give it to me for credit! (15 points for
Progression)

Ethos (Credibility)
Before you can convince an audience to accept
anything you say, they have to accept you as credible!
Does the audience respect you?
Does the audience believe you are of good character?
Does the audience believe you are generally
trustworthy?
Does the audience believe you are an authority on this
topic?
Keep in mind that it isnt enough for you to know that
you are a credible source. Your audience must know
this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived by
your audience.

Pathos (Emotional)
Pathos is the quality of persuasive presentation which
appeals to the emotions of the audience.
Do your words evoke feelings of love, sympathy, or
fear?
Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? Envy?
Does your characterization of the competition evoke
feelings of hate? Contempt?
Emotional connection can be created in many ways by
a speaker, perhaps most notably by stories. The goal
of a story, anecdote, analogy, simile, and metaphor is
often to link an aspect of our primary message with a
triggered emotional response from the audience.

Logos (Logical)
Logos is synonymous with a logical
argument.
Does your message make sense?
Is your message based on facts,
statistics, and evidence?
Will your call-to-action lead to the desired
outcome that you promise?

Of the forms of rhetoric,

which primarily uses logic
to persuade?

Logos
Ethos
Pathos

Of the forms of rhetoric,

which primarily uses
emotion to persuade?

Ethos
Pathos
Logos

Of the forms of rhetoric,

which relies solely on the
reputation of the speaker?

Pathos
Logos
Ethos

Which is an example of
Ethos?
Send us money or youre killing children
in Africa!
Weve been doing business for 200
years. . .
Our planes are designed with speed in
mind; they can travel the speed of light!

Which is
example

most likely an
of Pathos?

A beer commercial that has nothing to do

with beer.
A company document
A research paper

Which is
example

most likely an
of Logos?

A beer commercial that has nothing to do

with beer.
Weve been doing business for 200
years. . .
This new technology is the best because
of its versatility, usability, etc. . .

In what rhetorical appeal

category does each
persuasive technique belong?

Scare tactic?
Facts, Statistics, Science?
Nostalgia?

Which is most
important? Ethos?
Pathos?
Logos?
Suppose two Or
speakers
give speeches about a
new corporate restructuring strategy.
The first speaker-a grade nine student-gives a
flawless speech pitching strategy A which is
both logically sound and stirs emotions.
The second speaker-a Fortune 500 CEO-gives
a boring speech pitching strategy B.
Which speech is more persuasive?

Assignment
Read two articles from Upfront Magazine.
For each article, answer the following questions:
1) What is the purpose of each piece?
2) In your own words, explain ethos, pathos, and
logos. Then, find an example of each persuasive
appeal in both articles and explain why each is
an example of that persuasive appeal.
3) Turn this in for credit before you leave!
4) Also, make sure you turn in your first draft of
your literary analysis!b