Rhetorical appeals are strategies used to convince listeners, including ethos (speaker’s character), logos (logic and reason), and pathos (emotion). Ethos requires establishing authority, logos uses formal logic, and emotional appeals provoke a response. Different types are used in different settings, such as emotion in advertising and logic in academia and law.
Rhetorical appeals are argumentative strategies that are intended to convince a listener of particular points by arguing or appealing to certain aspects of the listener’s character or personality. The three main rhetorical appeals are ethos, or an appeal based on the speaker’s character; logos, or an appeal based on logic and reason; and pathos, an appeal based on emotion. These appeals are all used in a variety of different settings, although some types are more common in some settings than others. Emotional appeals, for example, are particularly common in advertising while logic is more commonly used in academia and law.
Ethos, or an appeal based on the speaker’s character, requires the speaker to establish himself as an authority on the topic of discussion. You can do this by mentioning that he has years of relevant experience or has published relevant research in a particular field. Rhetorical appeals based on reputation and character are often used to persuade large groups of people who have little or no knowledge of a particular field to make certain decisions. Politicians, for example, tend to entice voters by explaining how their past experiences and decisions make them good candidates. They hope to persuade potential voters to vote for them not on the merits of their plans for the future, but on their character and skills.
Appeals to reason, on the other hand, are based on a careful and often formal logic aimed at demonstrating the validity of a given statement. Rhetorical appeals based on logic are common in academic fields such as philosophy, in formal debates, and in law. Many scientific conclusions are also presented through rhetorical appeals based on a logical progression from evidence to a general conclusion. In many contexts, introducing rhetorical appeals based on emotion or authority into a logical argument is not considered appropriate, as logical appeals are usually evaluated strictly on the strength of logical progression toward a conclusion.
Emotional rhetorical appeals are usually intended to provoke a certain emotional response that ultimately drives listeners to a certain course of action. Advertisements, for example, often seek to induce feelings of fear and insecurity that lead listeners to purchase certain products or services. Similarly, charities often use emotional appeals in the form of descriptions and pictures of people suffering to persuade people to donate time or money to their causes.
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