Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson EMOTIONAL APPEAL Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson

PERSUASION Persuasion is writing that attempts to convince readers to accept a specific viewpoint about an issue and to take a particular action. A good persuasive writer generally uses a combination of logical and emotional appeals, involving the audience both intellectually and emotionally in order to persuade them thoroughly. -- Logical Audience – facts, just the facts to make a decision -- Emotional Audience – use the heart to make decisions.

ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are modes of persuasion used to convince audiences.  They are also referred to as the three artistic proofs (Aristotle coined the terms), and are all represented by Greek words

Ethos Ethos or the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character. An author would use ethos to show to his audience that he is a credible source and is worth listening to. Ethos is the Greek word for “character.” The word “ethic” is derived from ethos. Ethos can be developed by choosing language that is appropriate for the audience and topic (also means choosing proper level of vocabulary), making yourself sound fair or unbiased, introducing your expertise or pedigree, and by using correct grammar and syntax.

Pathos Pathos or the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. Authors use pathos to invoke sympathy from an audience; to make the audience feel what what the author wants them to feel. A common use of pathos would be to draw pity from an audience. Another use of pathos would be to inspire anger from an audience; perhaps in order to prompt action. Pathos is the Greek word for both “suffering” and “experience.” The words empathy and pathetic  are derived from pathos. Pathos can be developed by using meaningful language, emotional tone, emotion evoking examples, stories of emotional events, and implied meanings. 

Logos Logos or the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. To use logos would be to cite facts and statistics, historical and literal analogies, and citing certain authorities on a subject. Logos is the Greek word for “word,” however the true definition goes beyond that, and can be most closely described as “the word or that by which the inward thought is expressed, Lat. oratio; and,  the inward thought itself, Lat. Ratio. (1) The word “logic” is derived from logos. Logos can be developed by using advanced, theoretical or abstract language, citing facts (very important), using historical and literal analogies, and by constructing logical arguments.

Persuasion Persuasion is writing that attempts to convince readers to accept a specific viewpoint about an issue and to take a particular action. A good persuasive writer generally uses a combination of logical and emotional appeals, involving the audience both intellectually and emotionally in order to persuade them thoroughly. A logical appeal uses a chain of reasoning to establish the validity of a proposed argument. Whether reasoning from particular examples to a general conclusion, or from the general to the specific, writers use evidence to persuade their audiences intellectually. Notice how Paine moves from specific evidence to more general remarks in the chain of reasoning he presents here. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth.  An emotional appeal seeks to stir the reader’s feelings. It relies not so much on reasoned arguments as on charged words and symbols that evoke sympathy or distaste. Among the strongest emotional appeals are anecdotes or examples that dramatize a situation. For instance, Paine’s story of the Tory tavern keeper and his nine-year-old child makes a strong appeal to the human desire to ensure a good future for one’s children.

Charged Words – Denotation & Connotation Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition."¨ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles, having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions.“ Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

Denotation vs Connotation

Charged Words Charged words evoke an emotional response that can make writing more memorable. Charged words are especially useful in making persuasive writing more forceful. In The Crisis, for example, Thomas Paine uses many negatively charged words to attack the British monarchy: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism…” “He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” “I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who had nobly stood, and are yet deter- mined to stand the matter out.”

Example – What type of Persuasion? "I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future." Democratic Presidential Candidate Acceptance Speech by Barack Obama. August 28th, 2008. Ethos - Ethical

Example – What type of Persuasion? "I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed." I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. August 28th, 1963. Pathos - emotional

Example – What type of Persuasion? "However, although private final demand, output, and employment have indeed been growing for more than a year, the pace of that growth recently appears somewhat less vigorous than we expected. Notably, since stabilizing in mid-2009, real household spending in the United States has grown in the range of 1 to 2 percent at annual rates, a relatively modest pace. Households' caution is understandable. Importantly, the painfully slow recovery in the labor market has restrained growth in labor income, raised uncertainty about job security and prospects, and damped confidence. Also, although consumer credit shows some signs of thawing, responses to our Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices suggest that lending standards to households generally remain tight." The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy by Ben Bernanke. August 27th, 2010. Logos - Logical

Rhetoric – Figures of Speech Hyperbole (sometimes called overstatement) occurs when you exaggerate a point that you are trying to make. If you say that the lights in our classroom are too bright because they are brighter than ten thousand suns, you are using an example of hyperbole. Or if you say that you're so hungry you could eat a million cookies and six gallon of ice cream, you're using hyperbole. Understatement is related to hyperbole in that understatement is the opposite of hyperbole: understatement implies more than is actually stated. Let's say on the exam over short stories, you receive a grade of 100 when the class average is 71. If one of your classmates ask you how you did on the test and you reply, "I did okay," that is understatement

Rhetoric – Figures of Speech A sentence that contains a paradox seems initially to have contradictory elements in it but after some reflection those elements later make sense. To say, for example, that morning is the darkest time for me is paradoxical since mornings are bright and full of light but they seem mentally "dark" to me because I'm a night-person. A pun is a play on words that occurs when one word is used that reminds you of another word or words. You can, for example, use a word that looks like or sounds like another word. For example, if my dad says, "he is the son and all the world to me," there is a pun on the words son and sun. 

Rhetoric – Pictorial Figures of Speech Poets often deviate from the denotative meanings of words to create fresher ideas and images. Such deviations from the literal meanings are called figures of speech or figurative language. If you giddily whisper to your classmate that the introduction to literature class is so wonderful and exciting that the class sessions seem to only last a minute, you are using a figure of speech. If you say that our textbook is your best friend, you are using a figure of speech. There are many different kinds of figures of speech, such as metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, understatement, paradox, and pun. It's important that you understand several kinds of figures of speech.  

Rhetoric – Pictorial Figures of Speech A simile is a comparison between two dissimilar objects using a word like as or like to connect them. For example, if you say, "my boyfriend is like a watermelon in the summer,"¨ you are creating a simile that compares your boyfriend with a watermelon. If on the other hand you are mad at your boyfriend and say, "he's like a typhoon in the house," you're comparing your boyfriend with a typhoon.   A metaphor is similar to a simile, except that a metaphor compares two dissimilar objects without using a word like as or like. If you write, "my boyfriend is an angel" or "my motorcycle is a bomb on wheels," you are creating metaphors.   If you present an inanimate object, animal, or abstraction with human qualities and characteristics, as though it were a person, you are using personification. If you tell yourself that you have to put your new pencil back in the pencil box because it's lonely and wants to go home, you are personifying your pencil. If you say that you have to talk sweetly to your computer because it is temperamental, you are personifying your pencil.