Rhetoric and the Power of Persuasion

Chapter Two of “Envision” describes the different parts of rhetoric: logos, pathos and ethos. Much of chapter two focuses on how companies use logos, pathos and ethos in their advertisements in order to persuade potential customers to buy their product. According to the authors, writers use logos to “construct an essay around facts and reason” and “an argument based on logos will favor the use of logic, statistical evidence and proven facts”. When the audience reads something, they are more likely to agree with it if it is supported by facts as opposed to something that is not. When I read this, I realized that I do this with nearly everything from articles to merchandise that I buy at the store; if it does not have some kind of fact to back it up, I will not buy it. Chapter two also brought up the idea that writers use false logos to get people to believe what they are saying. It’s the foundation that advertisement is built on and nearly every company is guilty of using false logos to get people to think a certain way. Even now, as I type this blog post, I experience how false logos can alter someone’s view on a topic or product. As I sat down to type, I opened a bottle of Ice Mountain and took a drink. It did not taste right and I attributed the taste to the fact that it was “natural spring water” and not purified water like Aquafina. The Ice Mountain water did not taste as clean as Aquafina water did. I had believed that Aquafina was somehow better because it had been purified. Writers can also use it when the true facts go against the point that they are trying to persuade people into believing.

Chapter two also describes how pathos, a technique that “writers use as a tool of persuasion to establish and intimate connection with the audience by soliciting powerful emotions.” By using pathos, authors and companies are able to use the audience’s emotions to get them to think a certain way about a topic. Because emotions have such a large impact on the way we think about various topics, pathos is the most powerful of the three parts of rhetoric. If an author can get the audience worked up enough about a topic, they will throw logic out the window and have an opinion based solely off of emotions. The “Gathering Storm” television ad (see link below) produced by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is the perfect example of how an author or organization can use pathos to persuade people to thinking a certain way without offering any logical facts. Nowhere in the ad did NOM offer any real facts about how same-sex marriage would ruin society; most of what the people in the ad was an opinion or a complete lie. In the ad, one woman says that her “freedom will be taken away.” What freedom is she talking about? Nothing about Proposition 8 would have affected her in anyway. It would have offered the freedoms that she is so worried about to everyone. NOM played on the public’s lack of understanding and fears to get them to vote yes on Proposition 8, which took away same-sex couples’ right to marry. When used in the wrong way pathos (also logos and ethos) can be a tool of hate, which is why it is important to understand how it works. Chapter two went on to explain ethos which “works as a rhetorical strategy by establishing the goodwill or credibility of the writer and speaker.

By understanding how logos, pathos and ethos work, we as the audience will be able to tell what the author is trying to get us to think. We will not be convinced by scare tactics and false information, instead we will be able to step back and evaluate the message being presented to use and form a logic based opinion about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoI