Pathos refers to appealing to emotions to influence others what to believe or think. People have emotions and make decisions that rely solely on them. I feel it is the most powerful form of persuasion. There are so many emotions that can be played on like happiness, sadness, insecurity, fear, hate, hope, empathy, etc. The best examples I can think of are the Humane Society commercials that show homeless, beaten and neglected animals. It is clear that they are trying to appeal to the emotion of sadness and sympathy and a person may be more inclined to donate or adopt. Orators can use pathos by using humor or personal experiences to appeal to the audience. Although pathos is a very powerful form of persuasion, it needs to be used with caution or else the audience may be offended.
Ethos refers to bringing sufficient and appropriate credibility, authority, and motives to a subject that is being argued. The use of ethos determines whether a reader or listener will pay attention to what you are saying. An arguer needs to establish character, show their credibility, and come clean about their motives in order for anyone to listen to them. The best example I can think of for ethos is Presidents trying to win a campaign and demonstrating ethos through their speeches to the American people. They pick stances on issues to build character and show motives as well as gain credibility from all their years in the government.
Your piece was very well written. The introduction brought in the reader and was interesting. Most readers tend to read articles that are short and to the point. Readers do not always look for “to the point” pieces, but look for articles that are easily understood and easy to follow. Your essay exemplified one of these articles. I enjoyed the examples you used in your writing. The Humane Society commercials are a very popular piece of visual argument (very effective example). Like you said, the commercial is clear in trying to appeal to its audience’s emotion. I personally know a lot of people who have donated large amounts of money to that charity after watching that commercial. Orators do use pathos by using humor or personal experience (also present in the Human Society commercial). What I thought was extremely unique in this piece was the way you organized it. You gave a definition of each of the terms and then followed it by modern day examples. Another effective part in this blog post was the pictures you used. The dog photo is a popular form of a visual argument. The photo can be easily understood and linked to animal abuse prevention campaigns. But the one I personally liked was the basketball shoe photograph. I see these all over the place: in magazines, commercials, on flyers. They are everywhere and extremely effective in convincing people to buy air jordans. Overall, your piece had minimal flaws. The mistakes were not major enough to bring up.
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