Ethos, pathos and logos
Rhetoric is the art of persuasive speaking. Its foundation is three appeals, named long ago by Aristotle, that describe the three ways a speaker can win you over. Most strong speeches weave all three together.
- Rhetoric
- The craft of using language to persuade an audience, especially in speeches. Its techniques are called rhetorical devices.
| Appeal | Persuades by | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Ethos | Trust and credibility of the speaker | "As a doctor of thirty years, I have seen..." |
| Pathos | Emotion, stirring how you feel | "Picture a child who goes to bed hungry tonight." |
| Logos | Logic, reason, facts and figures | "The data shows a clear thirty percent rise." |
When you analyse, name the appeal and then the device that delivers it. A tearful anecdote is pathos; a run of statistics is logos; a reminder of the speaker's experience is ethos. Naming the appeal shows you understand the strategy, not just the surface trick.
Tricolon, anaphora and repetition
Speeches are written to be heard, so they lean on sound and rhythm. Three devices come up again and again, and you should be able to spot and name all of them.
- Tricolon
- A series of three parallel words or phrases, also called the rule of three. It sounds complete, balanced and memorable, as in "education, opportunity and hope".
- Anaphora
- Repeating the same word or phrase at the start of successive lines or sentences, which builds rhythm and drives a point home.
Repetition in general fixes an idea in the memory and adds emphasis, while anaphora is the special case where the repeated words open each line, building a rising, chant-like momentum a crowd can feel. A tricolon gives a line a satisfying, finished shape that is easy to remember and to quote.
Hear it in your head
Rhetorical devices are built for the ear, so read the speech aloud in your mind. If a phrase has a beat, a build or an echo, you have probably found repetition, anaphora or a tricolon, and you can then explain the rhythm it creates.
Rhetorical questions and direct address
A rhetorical question is a question asked for effect, not for an answer, because the answer is already obvious or is left hanging for the audience to fill in. It pulls listeners in and makes them feel they have reached the conclusion themselves, as in "How much longer can we wait?"
Speakers pair this with direct address, using "you", "we" and "our" to close the gap between stage and crowd. The word "we" is especially powerful: it folds speaker and audience into a single team, so the cause feels shared rather than handed down. Watch for how these small pronouns build unity.
Where this is assessed
Explaining how rhetorical devices create effects on an audience is Criterion A (Analysing). Building your response with clear topic sentences and links is Criterion B (Organizing), and if you write and deliver your own persuasive speech that is Criterion C (Producing text), with your accuracy and register judged under Criterion D (Using language).
Writing about a speech
A reliable analysis sentence follows a simple chain: name the device, quote it briefly, name the effect, and link it to the audience or purpose. For example: "The tricolon 'peace, justice and freedom' gives the demand a memorable, complete rhythm that unites the crowd behind a single goal." Device, quotation, effect, purpose. Repeat that shape and your analysis stays sharp.
Avoid the two common traps. Do not merely list devices without effects, and do not retell what the speaker said. The marks live in the how and the why, never in the summary.
A modelled analysis
Here is a short model built around an invented speech so you can see appeal, device, effect and purpose joined together.
A student closes a speech to their school: "We can plant the trees. We can clean the river. We can hand our children a greener town. So I ask you tonight: will we act, or will we wait?"
Check yourself
1. Match each appeal to what it persuades by: ethos, pathos, logos. +
Ethos persuades by the speaker's trust and credibility; pathos persuades by emotion; logos persuades by logic, reason and evidence.
2. What is the difference between anaphora and a tricolon? +
Anaphora is repeating the same word or phrase at the start of successive lines to build rhythm. A tricolon is a group of three parallel words or phrases that sounds balanced and complete. A line can use both at once.
3. Why do speakers use the word "we" so often? +
Because "we" is inclusive direct address: it folds the speaker and the audience into a single team, so the cause feels shared rather than imposed. This builds unity and makes listeners more willing to act.
Part of the English L&L library. Spotted an error or want a topic added? That feedback makes the notes better.