Ethos, Pathos, and logos are language features that help convince an audience of a point. They can be used to help subtly force someone to agree with a given point using their own emotions against them. Due to their convincing capabilities they are a good fix for advertising and persuasive writing.
Ethos uses someone's trust of somebody else to convince them of something they may not have cared about. For example who would you listen to? A man off the streets saying the world is flat or an Astronomer that says its round. Likely the Astronomer because he is more credible and trustworthy.
Pathos uses someone's empathy, sympathy, and other feelings to get them to agree. It uses things like a puppy that survived when nobody thought it would as fuel for their argument. if you watched a program about how sad life is at the pound for dogs you would most likely want to go and get a dog from the pound. Like in this paragraph a the tragic tale of a cute faced dog will convince some people.
Logos is the use of logic and reason to convince people, mainly through facts and statistics. "Studies show that...," is a form of logos used in reports, "studies show that drinking water is a great way to stay hydrated". It uses convincing facts, even skipping out on some of the negative ones, to create a sense of trustworthiness. For example a phone company may say 'it has a great camera' but will skip out on 'it has a terrible battery life'. You may then go and buy the phone knowing about the camera and not the battery.
All three language features are a good way to get people on your side of the argument. You should think about who benefits from your agreement or purchase, is it you or the company. Tip of advice, if something seems too good to be true then you should make sure you know all the reasons behind the advertising.
(If you were convinced by this blog post you have been duped)
Hi Thomas.
ReplyDeleteI like how you have added an introduction telling us what these language features are. Your examples are clear especially the pathos example. Next time maybe add some pictures of some ads which show these language features. Therefore others may get a better idea of how they are used.
Hi Thomas,very informative blog post you have written. I like how you gave an introduction to what you were learning about. The examples you have provided are good evidence of the techniques being used.
ReplyDeleteThis is very good work, Thomas. I liked the way you showed examples in your explanations and went well in depth. Maybe next time, you should have some headings so it's easier to read to make it even better. Good post.
ReplyDelete