Rhetorical Language THE ART OF PERSUASION

The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories: Ethos, Pathos, Logos.

The Rhetorical Triangle Aristotle taught that a speaker's ability to persuade is based on how well the speaker appeals to his or her audience in three different areas: ethos (ethical appeals), pathos (emotional appeals), and logos (logical appeals). These areas form something that later rhetoricians have called the Rhetorical Triangle.

Logos (Greek for ‘word’) the logic used to support a claim (induction and deduction); can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument.

ARGUMENT: Smoking is detrimental to not only health, but appearance as well, and therefore, everyone who smokes should quit.

Logos example Compared to nonsmokers, men who smoke are about 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer and women who smoke are about 13 times more likely. In the elderly years, the rate of mental decline is up to five times faster in smokers than in nonsmokers, according to a study of 9,200 men and women over age 65. Smoking increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, a European analysis shows Smoking cigarette can hasten the usual aging process of your bones and skin, resulting to early wrinkles. These actual skin manipulations may take place not later than 10 years of just smoking cigarette and will always be irreversible.

Ethos (Greek for 'character') the source's credibility, the speaker's/author's authority

Ethos Example

Pathos the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language and numerous sensory details.

Pathos Examples

Source Info. http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html