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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Rhetorical Appeals

In Friday's class we covered rhetorical appeals. Here are the basics:


Aristotle was the first to discuss the way rhetoric is a part of ALL speech, and in doing so, he identified three types or modes of rhetorical appeal:


Pathos Appeal-  Appeal to the emotions of an audience


Example- "Terrorists can and will take advantage of a society based on personal freedoms."


Ethos Appeal- Appeal to shared assumptions between speaker/writer and audience in order to establish credibility with an audience


Example- "We all know what it is like to go through a bad relationship, but I'm here to tell you that you really can find your soul-mate."


Logos Appeal- Appeal to logic; offering logical proofs


Example- "Only 14% of the U.S. populace supports gun control; therefore, no gun legislation is needed in the U.S."


Remember, speech can contain more than one type of appeal simultaneously, and sometimes all three.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)
Apparently, Aristotle also invented the "comb-over"

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