Mrs. Pelletier

 verbal and non-verbal messages  more or less intentionally influence social attitudes, values, beliefs, and actions

 Before Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), a Greek philosopher, rhetoric was viewed only descriptive language that made words sound pretty, but was not important.  Aristotle changed this view. He was the first to define rhetoric as “the art of persuasion.”  Today, there are many focuses in the study of rhetoric, but the most important is the study of how to effectively communicate with one another.

VERBAL  Newspaper/magazine  Television  Billboards  Advertisements  Stories  Text messages  / internet  Etc. NON-VERBAL  Gestures  Facial expressions  Images/pictures  Sign language  Etc.

 Aristotle reviewed many great speeches of his time and discovered that the speakers appeal to the audience in 3 ways:  EMOTION  LOGIC  SPEAKER’S CHARACTER/ETHICS  Aristotle thought that the use of logic or reason was most important, but recognized that human beings needed emotion to be persuaded.

1) Ethos (credibility) - persuading by using the good/ethical character of the speaker *character - who the person is and anything that makes him/her look good in front of others (a degree, many years of experience, good morals, etc.) *Ex.: A Coke commercial that emphasizes how long the company has been around.

2) Pathos (emotion) - persuading by appealing to the audience’s emotions *Ex.: A Hallmark commercial that shows a mother crying out of happiness over a Hallmark Mother’s Day card.

3) Logos (logic) - persuading by the use of logic or reasoning (evidence such as facts and statistics) *Ex.: A Crest toothpaste commercial that states, “4 out of 5 dentists recommend Crest.”

Speaker audiencemessage CONTEXT