Morphing Textbook ~ Rhetoric Tools

The Rhetorical Triangle: Logos, Ethos and Pathos

Appeals are how a writer/speaker tries to convince his or her intended audience. Three of the “biggies” are logos, ethos and pathos. Logos = an appeal to reason. There are two types of appeal to reason, deductive and inductive. *Think-does the logic follow? Are the statistics skewed or unrepresentative?* Deductive argument-begins with a generalization and moves toward a specific conclusion. A famous example used by Aristotle himself: All men are mortal. (Generalization) Socrates was a man. (Specific case) Socrates is mortal. (Conclusion about the specific case) Inductive argument-begins with pieces of specific evidence and draws a general conclusion from this. ex. Senator Kennedy argued, “in Georgia, blacks who killed whites received the death penalty 16.7 percent of the time, while whites who killed blacks received the death penalty only 4.2 percent of the time.” (A warning about statistics. You may have heard reference to a politician “stacking the cards.” This means they use statistics to sway an audience, but are not entirely truthful in using these statistics. There is even a book by Darrell Huff called How to Lie with Statistics. For instance, a writer may commit the ‘sin of omission’ in reporting a statistic: “Ninety percent of Americans agree with President Clinton.” What they’ve omitted is, “that take-out pizza is a wonderful thing.” This is an extreme example, but you get my drift. While statistics seem to report a concrete truth, they can be angled to one’s advantage.  Your should be skeptical in reading statistics and cautious in reporting them.) Ethos = an ethical appeal is based on the nature of the person making the appeal. *Think: is the source credible?* ex. Jerry McCready, an American independent gubernatorial candidate said, “As a self-employed businessman, I have learned firsthand what it is like to try to make ends meet in an unstable economy being manipulated by out-of-touch politicians.” Pathos = an appeal to emotion. *Think- is the writer simply “playing” me?* There is nothing wrong with using an emotional \appeal, but you would not want your argument described as “nothing but” an emotional appeal. (Think of political commercials in which candidates are depicted petting stray dogs and reading to their kids.) An example of an activity with which to practice these appeals is Ad Analysis.

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