Persuasive strategies

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• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Persuasive strategies

Language and politics

Writing

Today

- Three ways to persuade

- Logos, Pathos and Ethos in politics.

- How would you convince someone?

- An important party

- Finishing up 

Goals

- You know the difference between arguments relying on logos, pathos, and ethos.

- You can recognize these persuasive strategies in an authentic context 

- You can use the different persuasive strategies we discuss to create more compelling argumentation.

Three ways of persuasion

The greek philosopher Aristotle made a 

distinction between three types of arguments:

- Those that rely on the words themselves, Logos

- Those that rely on emotion or a feeling, Pathos

- Those that rely on the speaker being trustworthy, Ethos

Pathos

Logos

Ethos

A celebrity tells you a new face cream works miracles for them.

Studying helps you get better grades.

Logos, Pathos, Ethos in politics

Logos, Pathos, Ethos in politics

For your next assignment, go will go online and find a video of a political speech (in English). How do they use these different methods to address their audience? Does that make them convincing? 

You will have a minute to find a video. Tell me what you have found and share it with the group, that way, everyone watches a different video, which will give us more interesting results.

Logos, Pathos, Ethos in politics

You are going to write down examples of arguments they give and whether they are relying on logos (words), pathos (emotion), or ethos (trustability). 

After watching the video, write down some information about the speech given. Where was it? Who were the intended audience? Does this change the way the arguments are given? 

How do you convince someone?

In this next exercise, you will get a question like: 

'Why should you not be punished for being home late?' 

Consider what we have discussed, and give me one convincing argument relying on either logos (words), pathos (emotion), or ethos (trustability). 

For example: I should not be punished because dad thought you would not mind me being later. 

Should we go to France this summer?

Do we really need to bring an umbrella?

I promised I would be home by eleven, I should go (convince them to stay)

Why have you not finished your homework?

An important party

Your school is canceling the end-of-year party you have been looking forward to for months, because it costs a lot of money and they think the pupils don't really care about it anymore. 

Write a letter to the principal of your school to convince him the party should still be held. Use at least one argument relying on words, emotion and trustability each. Write about 100-150 words. 

Tip: Plan out your arguments before writing your letter!

Looking back

- You know the difference between arguments relying on logos, pathos, and ethos.

- You can recognize these persuasive strategies in an authentic context

- You can use the different persuasive strategies we discuss to create more compelling argumentation.

Homework

For next lesson, finish your letter and send it to me by email, so I can check you work. Next lesson we will see which arguments everyone has come up with.