Review of Rhetorical Appeals

There are three rhetorical appeals. The first is Ethos, which relies on the credibility/authority of the author. You would do this in a fashion similar to this: “Because I have a PHD from Harvard University and am a doctor at the worlds most renowned nutritional center, you can trust me when I say that you just need to eat an apple a day to maintain your health.”

The next is Pathos. It makes its appeal by playing on emotion. For example, pathos would be saying “If you really loved and cared about helpless animals all over the world, you would donate 10 cents a day to fund our organization that helps save abandoned kittens.”

Logos uses logic to reason with the reader. An example of this would be: “If the grass is green,  then the sky must be blue.”

An advertisement using all three rhetorical appeals would look something like this:

ALL NEW!!! MUST HAVE!!!! Brand new, completely refurbished VHS player, originally from 1996! The greatest model of it’s year, with all new flashing lights! Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, just got his and states that “Buying this has been the best thing I have done this year!”. If you love your country and want to help bring our troops back, then you need to buy this! If you order within the next 3 days then we will throw in a complete collection of Mel Gibson tapes, including “Braveheart”, “Patriot” and “Pocahontas”!!! In case you need even more of a reason to buy this revolutionary product, a study was done last year that proves that watching 3 hours of TV a day on this VHS player will improve cognitive function, therefore it is an investment in your health! If you still have doubts about whether or not this is the right product for you, you clearly have not been emotionally, logically or authoritatively persuaded by this advertisement, and we want you to call us at (678) 999-8212 and tell us what reasons you have for not buying this! You do not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to own such a radical, life-changing inanimate object!!!!

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