Reading Response 4

When reading the article “Backpacks and Briefcases” I learned that rhetoric is a very useful and important way to persuade someone or even use in an argument. They went over an ad and also addressed the three main rhetoric types: Pathos, Logos and Ethos, each bring a diverse and unique way of presenting information or arguing a point. Out of the rhetorical triangle I believe that most ads appeal to Pathos, which is the appeal to emotion. For example you see an ad on TV for a new car and it shows a good looking person getting into it and they take off and go to their nice house and you think about your car and how much of a piece of garbage it is and it makes you want a new car immediately. You see this a lot of the time with the sad pet commercials where the dogs and cats are in the pound, behind bars, with the sad piano music playing in the background. This is clearly appealing to your emotions and makes you want to donate to the pound or stop whatever you are doing and go adopt one. The second, Logos, relates mostly to logic and facts, you can see this in documentaries. They just provide you with the facts to let you make the decision on your own. They can also just provide one sided facts too, which doesn’t allow you to see the full picture. The last, Ethos, results to using authority. You can commonly find this in speeches and presidential debates. They use the power they have to persuade people onto their side. No matter what persuasion you come across you can mostly categorize it one of Aristotle’s three rhetoric types: Pathos, Logos, Ethos.