Ethos, pathos or logos?

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.9-10.6CCSS RI.9-10.8England: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q3England: AP LanguageEngland: A-level English Language

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Ethos, pathos or logos?.

I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
I can explain each step and say why it works.
I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes…; Rhetoric and persuasive techniques

Leads to: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 5 min

Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes…; Rhetoric and persuasive techniques). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

Which persuasive technique matches this description? A question asked for effect, not to get an answer. (expert opinion / statistics / rhetorical question / direct address) → rhetorical questionPrompt: Think of how each technique works on the reader.
Which persuasive technique is used here? Over 70% of residents support the new cycle lane. (statistics / direct address / expert opinion / rhetorical question) → statisticsPrompt: Is it a question, a number, a story, a quotation from an expert, a list of three, strong feelings, or 'you'?
Type the persuasive technique (in English) that matches this description. Numbers and data used to make a point seem factual. → statisticsPrompt: Think of how each technique works on the reader.

Hook · 5 min

Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
Share the objective: Ethos, pathos or logos?. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 10 min

Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
Example: Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Drivers on phones are four times more likely to crash, according to road-safety research.
Step 1: Aristotle's three appeals: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (logic). Strong arguments often combine all three.
Step 2: It uses statistics and evidence.
Step 3: So the answer is: logos (logic and evidence)
Answer: logos (logic and evidence)
Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 10 min

Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones. (ethos (credibility) / pathos (emotion) / logos (logic and evidence)) → ethos (credibility)Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?
Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: ethos (credibility)? (Do we really want our grandchildren to know coral only from old photographs? / I've coached this team for ten years and never seen such dedication. / Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.) → I've coached this team for ten years and never seen such dedication.Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?

You do: independent practice · 10 min

Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 5 min

Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? As a scientist who has studied coral reefs for a decade, I can tell you they are in serious trouble. (ethos (credibility) / pathos (emotion) / logos (logic and evidence)) → ethos (credibility)Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?
Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: ethos (credibility)? (As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones. / Since the lanes opened, cycling injuries have dropped by 30%, so extending them is the logical next step. / Drivers on phones are four times more likely to crash, according to road-safety research.) → As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones.Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?

Watch out for

Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

Review first: Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes….
Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

Move on to: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal.
Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-10.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Ethos, pathos or logos?

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The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

1
Question 1
Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". Which appeal is MOST prominent in 'these honored dead… gave the last full measure of devotion'?
- A. pathos
- B. none
- C. logos
- D. ethos

2
Question 2
Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: logos (logic and evidence)?
- A. Reef cover in the area has fallen by half since 1990, according to repeated surveys.
- B. Think of the lonely pensioner for whom the library is the only warm, friendly place left.
- C. I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.
3
Question 3
Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Since the lanes opened, cycling injuries have dropped by 30%, so extending them is the logical next step.
- A. ethos (credibility)
- B. pathos (emotion)
- C. logos (logic and evidence)
4
Question 4
Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: pathos (emotion)?
- A. Since the lanes opened, cycling injuries have dropped by 30%, so extending them is the logical next step.
- B. Do we really want our grandchildren to know coral only from old photographs?
- C. I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.
5
Question 5
Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones.
- A. ethos (credibility)
- B. pathos (emotion)
- C. logos (logic and evidence)
6
Question 6
Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Drivers on phones are four times more likely to crash, according to road-safety research.
- A. ethos (credibility)
- B. pathos (emotion)
- C. logos (logic and evidence)
7
Question 7
Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.
- A. ethos (credibility)
- B. pathos (emotion)
- C. logos (logic and evidence)
8
Question 8
Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Think of the lonely pensioner for whom the library is the only warm, friendly place left.
- A. ethos (credibility)
- B. pathos (emotion)
- C. logos (logic and evidence)

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Answer key: Ethos, pathos or logos?

1. A. pathos
2. A. Reef cover in the area has fallen by half since 1990, according to repeated surveys.
3. C. logos (logic and evidence)
4. B. Do we really want our grandchildren to know coral only from old photographs?
5. A. ethos (credibility)
6. C. logos (logic and evidence)
7. A. ethos (credibility)
8. B. pathos (emotion)