Often, when one party is trying to persuade another party, they will use rhetorical appeals to try and persuade the second party to agree with the point that they are trying to make. Whether their argument is accepted or rejected by the other party can often be affected by how well the first party uses the three types of rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos. These three types of appeals can help a speaker achieve their goals of having the audience listen to them and side with their cause. There have been a number of times when each of these rhetorical appeals have personally impacted my own life, and these scenarios have all helped me to better understand just how effective these appeals can be in an argument.
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The rhetorical appeal pathos refers to the “emotional” side of your argument that can make your audience feel for your cause, or become angry to the opposition to your cause. I can remember one distinct moment that I started to care a lot about something that I would likely not have bothered to pay attention to had it not been for the use of pathos in the argument. Back in the seventh grade, sometime after the 2008 election, Obama said “I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.” He went on to say how they needed to get spending under control. This argument really spoke to me, as his argument mentioned how my future children and grandchildren would likely be in debt. It was really crazy to think about, as I was so young, and way in the future my kids would still be in debt because of the spending that occurred during George Bush’s presidency. I might never have cared about the national debt, and I would have likely continued the “it doesn’t affect me mentality,” had it not been for pathos. The same could be said for my views on global warming, I might have gone my whole life not caring about simple things such as recycling, as it doesn’t affect my life much right now. By bringing in pathos by mentioning the word “children,” President Obama made me agree with him that things needed to change and that reckless spending by Republicans needed to be stopped. In hindsight, the national debt hasn’t decreased at all since then, as he continued the same economic policies as his predecessors, but at the time I felt like it was really important that people vote for him so that a new party could take over the country’s economy and bail the United States out of debt for the sake of future children.
If you are like most …show more content…
The rhetorical appeal pathos refers to the “emotional” side of your argument that can make your audience feel for your cause, or become angry to the opposition to your cause. I can remember one distinct moment that I started to care a lot about something that I would likely not have bothered to pay attention to had it not been for the use of pathos in the argument. Back in the seventh grade, sometime after the 2008 election, Obama said “I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.” He went on to say how they needed to get spending under control. This argument really spoke to me, as his argument mentioned how my future children and grandchildren would likely be in debt. It was really crazy to think about, as I was so young, and way in the future my kids would still be in debt because of the spending that occurred during George Bush’s presidency. I might never have cared about the national debt, and I would have likely continued the “it doesn’t affect me mentality,” had it not been for pathos. The same could be said for my views on global warming, I might have gone my whole life not caring about simple things such as recycling, as it doesn’t affect my life much right now. By bringing in pathos by mentioning the word “children,” President Obama made me agree with him that things needed to change and that reckless spending by Republicans needed to be stopped. In hindsight, the national debt hasn’t decreased at all since then, as he continued the same economic policies as his predecessors, but at the time I felt like it was really important that people vote for him so that a new party could take over the country’s economy and bail the United States out of debt for the sake of future children.