The impact of logos on an audience is sometimes called the argumentвЂ™s logical appeal.Д®thos (Greek for вЂcharacterвЂ™) refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer or speaker. Logos (Greek for вЂwordвЂ™) refers to the internal consistency of the messageвЂ“the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence. WeвЂ™ll study the types of support you can use to substantiate your thesis, and look at some of the common logical fallacies, in order to avoid them in your writing. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough. WeвЂ™ll look at deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your claims. This will be the most important technique we will study, and AristotleвЂ™s favorite. Logos (Logical)В means persuading by the use of reasoning. Language choice affects the audienceвЂ™s emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Pathos (Emotional)В means persuading by appealing to the readerвЂ™s emotions.

One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect. We tend to believe people whom we respect. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categoriesвЂ“ Ethos, Pathos, Logos.Д®thos (Credibility),В or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. Within the TriviumВ the goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone elseвЂ™s.

Logos ethos and pathos