Post 4 – Persuasive Messages

What is a persuasion?

A persuasion is ‘making someone do something that benefits you’. It has elements of logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos appeals to logic. It is a way of persuading an audience with reason, using facts and figures. “Doctors all over the world recommend this type of treatment.” is an example. Pathos appeals to emotion. It convinces audience by creating an emotional response to an impassioned plea or a convincing story. “If we don’t move soon, we’re all going to die!” can be an example. Ethos are sometimes called an appeal to ethics. It is used as a means of convincing an audience via the authority or credibility of the persuader. That is, you sound fair by demonstrating your expertise or pedigree. “As a doctor, I am qualified to tell you that this course of treatment will likely generate the best results.” is an example (Examples, n.d.).

In the workplace, various forms of persuasion like favor requests, claim letters., or sales letters are used. You don’t have to balance logos, pathos, and ethos in such persuasive messages. Furthermore Logos, pathos, and ethos can help us do two things in business situations:

1. Determine why an argument isn’t currently persuasive. For example, if you show a sample ad campaign to a client and they don’t find it trustworthy, you can examine how you’re using ethos. If your Powerpoint presentation is boring, you can think about how pathos could be used to help your audience take your message seriously.
2. Identify how others are trying to persuade us: Ethos, pathos and logos can be useful tools for information literacy. When a salesperson comes into your office to give you a slick pitch about a new piece of software that’s going to change your working life, you can think about how they’re trying to persuade you. Is it all pathos with very few facts to back it up?

References

Persuasive Messages. (n.d.). Open Library Publishing Platform-Pressbooks for Ontario’s Postsecondary Educators. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/professionalcomms/chapter/4-7-persuasive-messages/

Examples of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. (n.d.). YourDictionary. https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-ethos-logos-and-pathos.html

The Rhetorical Triangle: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. (n.d.). Kwantlen Polytechnic University. https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/businesswriting/chapter/the-rhetorical-triangle-ethos-pathos-and-logos/