Persuasive Techniques - Pathos Ethos Logos

We'll start today with a short discussion about persuasive strategies writers use to support their ideas and influence readers. Please click on this link to read about Pathos, Ethos, and Logos.

Here is another resource (from Purdue University) with even more information.

To try these out, you will write a blog post trying to convince an audience by using these different techniques. For example, if you wanted to speak to a teacher about your grade,

• When you tell your teacher that you should receive an ‘A’ on the assignment because you do better work than anyone else, you are using logos.
• When you carefully practice the words that you will say when you ask the teacher for that ‘A’ on the assignment and you dress particularly well that day, you are using ethos.
• When you tell the teacher how difficult it is for you to get along with your parents when you do not get ‘A’s’ on assignments, then you are using pathos. 

Here's what you will do:

1. Choose a topic from this list
1. Convincing your parents / guardians to let you borrow the car for the weekend.
2. Convincing your friends about what to do on a Saturday night.
3. Convincing a person to hire you for a job.
4. Convincing a person to eat a more healthy diet.
5. Convincing a person to see a particular movie.
6. Convincing a person about a particular political position or view on a controversial issue.
7. (other - name your own!)
2. In your blog post, write four separate arguments. The first argument should use logos. The second argument should use ethos. The third argument should use pathos. The fourth argument, your best, should use logos, ethos, and pathos. Each argument should be about two-three sentences long. Remember to be as convincing as possible.
3. We will be visiting each other's blog to comment on their arguments. I'll explain how we will do that.

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