Identifying Rhetorical Strategies: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos

Rhetoric: The art of using language persuasively and effectively

Logos = Logic Pathos = Emotion Ethos = Ethics and Credibility
The use of logic, rationality, and critical reasoning to The use of emotion and affect to persuade. Pathos The ongoing establishment of a writer’s or speaker’s
authority, credibility, and believability as he/she speaks or
persuade. Logos appeals to the mind. Logos seeks to appeals to the heart and to one’s emotions.
writes. Ethos appeals to ethics and character. Ethos
persuade the reader intellectually. Pathos seeks to persuade the reader emotionally.
seeks to persuade the reader that the writer/speaker can
be trusted and believed due to his/her noble character or
ethical ways in which he/she is presenting ideas.

Some Examples of Logos

Some Examples of Pathos Some Examples of Ethos
 Appeal to the mind/intellect
 Appeal to the heart/emotion  Appeal to the writer’s/speaker’s believability,
 Draw from philosophy and logic
 Draw from spirituality or religious traditions qualifications, character; relevant biographical
 Facts
 Stories or testimonials information
 Statistics
 Personal anecdotes or stories  Use of credible sources (experts, scholars)
 If, then… statements
 Personal connections  Accurate citation of sources: gives credit where
 Definitions of terms
 Imagery and figurative language that provokes credit is due
 Explanation of ideas
an emotional response  Experience and authority: person knows the
 Cause and effect
 Visual images or words that inspire you to issues and has experience in the field
 Details that come from objective reporting
empathize or have compassion towards the  Appropriate language: uses language of the
 Logical reasons and explanations
idea/topic discipline
 Powerful words, phrases, or images that stir up  Appropriate tone: knows the audience and
emotion context of situation
 Details that come from subjective reporting  Humility: is not arrogant
 Uses tentative yet authoritative language; avoids
sweeping statements like “Everyone is doing
this,” “This is the only way,” “This will
always work.” Instead says, “The research
suggests that,” “Some experts believe,” “In
my
experience,” etc.
“How to Speak so that People Want to Listen”
by Julian Treasure

The human voice: It's the instrument we all play. It's the most powerful sound in the world, probably. It's the only one that
can start a war or say "I love you." And yet many people have the experience that when they speak, people don't listen to
them. And why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?

What I'd like to suggest, there are a number of habits that we need to move away from. I've assembled for your pleasure
here seven deadly sins of speaking. I'm not pretending this is an exhaustive list, but these seven, I think, are pretty large
habits that we can all fall into.

First, gossip, speaking ill of somebody who's not present. Not a nice habit, and we know perfectly well the person
gossiping five minutes later will be gossiping about us.

Second, judging. We know people who are like this in conversation, and it's very hard to listen to somebody if you know
that you're being judged and found wanting at the same time.

Third, negativity. You can fall into this. My mother, in the last years of her life, became very, very negative, and it's hard
to listen. I remember one day, I said to her, "It's October 1 today," and she said, "I know, isn't it dreadful?" (Laughter) It's
hard to listen when somebody's that negative.

And another form of negativity, complaining. Well, this is the national art of the U.K. It's our national sport. We complain
about the weather, about sport, about politics, about everything, but actually complaining is viral misery. It's not spreading
sunshine and lightness in the world.

Excuses. We've all met this guy. Maybe we've all been this guy. Some people have a blamethrower. They just pass it on to
everybody else and don't take responsibility for their actions, and again, hard to listen to somebody who is being like that.

Penultimate, the sixth of the seven, embroidery, exaggeration. It demeans our language, actually, sometimes. For example,
if I see something that really is awesome, what do I call it? (Laughter) And then of course this exaggeration becomes
lying, out and out lying, and we don't want to listen to people we know are lying to us.

And finally, dogmatism, the confusion of facts with opinions. When those two things get conflated, you're listening into
the wind. You know, somebody is bombarding you with their opinions as if they were true. It's difficult to listen to that.

So here they are, seven deadly sins of speaking. These are things I think we need to avoid. But is there a positive way to
think about this? Yes, there is. I'd like to suggest that there are four really powerful cornerstones, foundations, that we can
stand on if we want our speech to be powerful and to make change in the world. Fortunately, these things spell a word.
The word is "hail," and it has a great definition as well. I'm not talking about the stuff that falls from the sky and hits you
on the head. I'm talking about this definition, to greet or acclaim enthusiastically, which is how I think our words will be
received if we stand on these four things.

So what do they stand for? See if you can guess. The H, honesty, of course, being true in what you say, being straight and
clear. The A is authenticity, just being yourself. A friend of mine described it as standing in your own truth, which I think
is a lovely way to put it. The I is integrity, being your word, actually doing what you say, and being somebody people can
trust. And the L is love. I don't mean romantic love, but I do mean wishing people well, for two reasons. First of all, I
think absolute honesty may not be what we want. I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning. Perhaps that's not
necessary. Tempered with love, of course, honesty is a great thing. But also, if you're really wishing somebody well, it's
very hard to judge them at the same time. I'm not even sure you can do those two things simultaneously. So hail.

Also, now that's what you say, and it's like the old song, it is what you say, it's also the way that you say it. You have an
amazing toolbox. This instrument is incredible, and yet this is a toolbox that very few people have ever opened. I'd like to
have a little rummage in there with you now and just pull a few tools out that you might like to take away and play with,
which will increase the power of your speaking.
Register, for example. Now, falsetto register may not be very useful most of the time, but there's a register in between. I'm
not going to get very technical about this for any of you who are voice coaches. You can locate your voice, however. So if
I talk up here in my nose, you can hear the difference. If I go down here in my throat, which is where most of us speak
from most of the time. But if you want weight, you need to go down here to the chest. You hear the difference? We vote
for politicians with lower voices, it's true, because we associate depth with power and with authority. That's register.

Then we have timbre. It's the way your voice feels. Again, the research shows that we prefer voices which are rich,
smooth, warm, like hot chocolate. Well if that's not you, that's not the end of the world, because you can train. Go and get
a voice coach. And there are amazing things you can do with breathing, with posture, and with exercises to improve the
timbre of your voice.

Then prosody. I love prosody. This is the sing-song, the meta-language that we use in order to impart meaning. It's root
one for meaning in conversation. People who speak all on one note are really quite hard to listen to if they don't have any
prosody at all. That's where the world monotonic comes from, or monotonous, monotone. Also we have repetitive prosody
now coming in, where every sentence ends as if it were a question when it's actually not a question, it's a statement.
(Laughter) And if you repeat that one over and over, it's actually restricting your ability to communicate through prosody,
which I think is a shame, so let's try and break that habit.

Pace. I can get very, very excited by saying something really, really quickly, or I can slow right down to emphasize, and at
the end of that, of course, is our old friend silence. There's nothing wrong with a bit of silence in a talk, is there? We don't
have to fill it with ums and ahs. It can be very powerful.

Of course, pitch often goes along with pace to indicate arousal, but you can do it just with pitch. Where did you leave my
keys? Where did you leave my keys? So slightly different meaning in those two deliveries.

6:55 And finally, volume. I can get really excited by using volume. Sorry about that if I startled anybody. Or, I can have
you really pay attention by getting very quiet. Some people broadcast the whole time. Try not to do that. That's called
sodcasting, imposing your sound on people around you carelessly and inconsiderately. Not nice.

7:19 Of course, where this all comes into play most of all is when you've got something really important to do. It might be
standing on a stage like this and giving a talk to people. It might be proposing marriage, asking for a raise, a wedding
speech. Whatever it is, if it's really important, you owe it to yourself to look at this toolbox and the engine that it's going to
work on, and no engine works well without being warmed up. Warm up your voice.

7:46 Actually, let me show you how to do that. Would you all like to stand up for a moment? I'm going to show you the
six vocal warmup exercises that I do before every talk I ever do. Anytime you're going to talk to anybody important, do
these. First, arms up, deep breath in, and sigh out, ahhhhh, like that. One more time. Ahhhh, very good. Now we're going
to warm up our lips, and we're going to go ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. Very good. And now, brrrrrrrrrr, just like when
you were a kid. Brrrr. Now your lips should be coming alive. We're going to do the tongue next with exaggerated la, la, la,
la, la, la, la, la, la. Beautiful. You're getting really good at this. And then, roll an R. Rrrrrrr. That's like champagne for the
tongue. Finally, and if I can only do one, the pros call this the siren. It's really good. It starts with "we" and goes to "aw."
The "we" is high, the "aw" is low. So you go, weeeaawww, weeeaawww.

8:53 Fantastic. Give yourselves a round of applause. Take a seat, thank you. (Applause)

8:58 Next time you speak, do those in advance.

9:01 Now let me just put this in context to close. This is a serious point here. This is where we are now, right? We speak
not very well into people who simply aren't listening in an environment that's all about noise and bad acoustics. I have
talked about that on this stage in different phases. What would the world be like if we were speaking powerfully to people
who were listening consciously in environments which were actually fit for purpose? Or to make that a bit larger, what
would the world be like if we were creating sound consciously and consuming sound consciously and designing all our
environments consciously for sound? That would be a world that does sound beautiful, and one where understanding
would be the norm, and that is an idea worth spreading.
Speech Analysis for “How to Speak so that People Want to Listen”
By Julian Treasure

Claim:

Types of Evidence/ Appeals with Examples (lines):

Ethos:

Logos:

Pathos:

Does the speaker make a good argument?

Identify Types of Appeals

1. Product Review Invicta Men's 0555 Russian Diver Collection Black Rubber Watch
Hottest Watch I've EVER owned. I've collected many. November 2, 2010 by PMNOrlando

"This is definitely the hottest watch I've ever owned and I've owned many as I used to collect Men's watches.
I just received it today and I have to say it had the biggest WOW factor straight out of the box. If you're a big
man like I am you need a nice, classy, masculine watch like this. For the price I paid I feel like I stole it."

Circle what types of appeals are evident: Ethos Logos Pathos

2. Product Review Tuscan Whole Milk Replicant Heaven May 23, 2011 by Roy Batty

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-
beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
But the creamy yumminess of Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz will be praised across the galaxy forever
more. Time to die."

Circle what types of appeals are evident: Ethos Logos Pathos

3. Cary W tweeted, “Drive is such an amazing film, went in with a crush on Carey Mulligan. Left with a
crush on Ryan Gosling." [Twitter post discovered by eonline.com]

Circle what types of appeals are evident: Ethos Logos Pathos

4. The following passage is an example of :

"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.

5. The following passage is an example of :

"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.

6. The following passage is an example of :

"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