Three Types Of Ethos Pathos Logos

Writing is one of the most popular ways to get information to others. Aristotle, a classical rhetorician, said there are three types of “appeals to the audience that are necessary for successful persuasive or argumentative communication.” (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23). Those three types of appeals are ethos, logos and pathos. Ethos focuses in on the writer’s credibility (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23). Is this author someone who can be trusted, who gives credible information, etc (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23)? Logos is bringing proof to the information brought by the writer (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23). Is the information credible evidence? Is this evidence supporting the author’s ethos? The final type of appeal is Pathos. Pathos is appealing to the audience’s

Think of popular sources from the reader’s point of view, the authors use a lot of pathos to gain the audience’s attention and appeal to their emotions. The article from Psychology Today, for example, “Prescriptions for Happiness-Are antidepressants helping, or is it the power of positive thinking?” (Fisher, S. 1995.). In the title alone, it hits some emotional pressure points for some by asking is it really a medication or does it come down to something one can handle on their own. The article does not even touch on the well known fact that depression is a disease of the mind that comes down to a hormonal imbalance. That lack of information could also play an unintentional appeal to the ethos of the authors (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23). Surprisingly when this article was revised in June 2016, the authors did not add in anywhere the hormonal imbalance that causes depression is not something easily over powered by “positive thinking” (Fisher, S. 1995.). That

This article is an explanation, or report rather, of a group of experimenters’ research. The article goes on for four pages with a break down of the information the researchers found (Algars, M. 2014. pg. 19-22). That breakdown of the information into the separate categories, such as, Introduction, Method, which also breaks down further, Results, Discussion, etc is not only part of the APA requirements, it makes the already complicated and scientific information easier for the readers to digest. That is an example of the authors’ ethos and logos as well (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23-24). This specific article also has a number of tables as diagrams within it to make the numbers that go along with the research more concrete and easily absorbed by the readers (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23-24; Algars, M. 2014. pg. 19-22). This specific article used thirty-seven resources to be written as well and well informed as it is (Algars, M. 2014. pg. 19-22). When the authors who write these articles do their own research and use a horde of resources of their own, and cite them all, it is yet another way to provide the ethos and logos appeals (Smith, T. 2014, pg. 23-24; Algars, M. 2014. pg. 19-22). Using all thirty-seven of the sources and having them listed for the readers to find is almost an appeal at their emotions, or pathos, because it gives them access to the information themselves, and gives the sources credit,