English 2150 Blog

Ethos – appealing to ethics and convincing based on character and credibility.

Pathos – appealing to the emotions and convincing an audience based on emotional response.

Logos – appealing based on logic, and using reasoning to backup a claim.

Ethos example: Lebron James advertising himself to sell his new Nike sneakers, showing these sneakers will help you be a great basketball player.

Reason: Lebron James is a famous basketball player, so he has credibility when it comes to basketball gear.

Pathos example: A Six Flags commercial where they show people are thrilled and excited to ride their roller coasters.

Reason: In this commercial if you see people are excited and thrilled to be at this amusement park it will make you believe that you will also be excited when you go to Six Flags.

Logos example: An article that states global warming is a big issue we are facing right now, and their is scientific data to support the claim.

Reason: The claim is that global warming is a big issue that we are facing in today’s world, and some of the facts would be ice melting in the hemispheres and some of the natural disasters were are facing based on high temperatures and abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For logos, pathos, and ethos, deciding which one to use is based on your audience. For example the Lebron James sneakers, if you want to appeal to teens and children you can use Lebron as credibility, but there may be some adults that want reasoning behind what makes this sneaker better than others, you can use logos, and talk about some of the material that is used on the sneaker, and how it helps you play better on the court.