Video: An introduction to rhetoric: pathos

﻿Hello, and welcome to the lesson today. This is our final lesson of the unit and introduction to rhetoric. So we've looked at ethos how to build trust and show that we are credible with an audience so that they appreciate the fact that what we're talking about is really important to us and means something. We explored logos, which is to demonstrate how knowledgeable we are, and our proof of our argument. Today, we're going to have a look at pathos. So, if you can close down any distractions or conversations or apps that you might have running in the background, grab yourself a pen and something to write on, find yourself a quiet corner so that, you know, you won't be disturbed. And when you're ready, we'll get started. So for today's lesson, we're going to have a little bit of a rhetoric recap and see how much you've remembered from the previous lessons. We'll also remind ourselves of what rhetoric is. Then we're going to explore pathos so that we've got really secure understanding of what Pathos is. We'll consider how pathos is used, looking at various different methods in order to ensure that we've thought about pathos in our writing or speaking, and then we'll close the lesson with one question. Why should we use pathos? Why is it so important to rhetoric as a whole? So let's have a little bit of a recap. Rhetoric is the art persuasive speaking or writing. It's taken from the word rhetor: a speaker or a master orator. Now remember, orater is a professional speaker. Somebody that's really familiar and confident speaking to an audience. Rhetoric is so important for speaking or writing. It can be used in so many different ways to persuade other people, to agree with your views or opinions. It really is the secret weapon of the English language. Aristotle, who founded rhetoric as a whole and wrote an extensive book called 'The Art of Rhetoric'. Believed that to use rhetoric effectively, you're needed to encourage an emotional reaction from your audience. It isn't enough for us to bombard people with facts or figures or to share with them what it is that we think should change. We need to make sure that they feel something in response to what we're saying. That's what makes rhetoric really memorable. Remember our triad? So we've looked at Ethos, how trustworthy and credible you come across to your audience. Somebody who genuinely cares. We've looked at Logos or logic and reason or proof to back ourselves up. Today, we're going to look at Pathos. To what extent we have evoked, evoked means encouraged an emotional response from your audience. So how have you managed to get them to feel something as a result of what you're saying or writing? Pathos, means to cause pity or sadness. It's taken from the word pathos, which is Greek for suffering. Pathos is all about making your audience feel a particular emotion, usually pity or sadness. If we're sad, or if we feel sympathy or pity for somebody else that stays with us, unfortunately far more than happiness. Pathos is all about making your audience react emotionally as a result of listening or reading your rhetorical speaking or writing. Human beings are guided by emotions. We are so easily influenced by how we feel about something. Logos helps us because as we looked at last lesson, you can't argue with the facts. However, pathos makes the argument memorable. The statements that use pathos, stay with us and ultimately making the speaking or writing really quite powerful. So pause the video here and have a go at this multiple choice question. What is pathos? How did you get on? Don't worry too much if you didn't get it right. You've only just learnt about Pathos. Pathos is to cause pity or sadness. So we have various different ways of including incorporating pathos to strengthen an argument. We can directly address the audience to make them feel involved, using you or your. We can use anecdotes. So short interesting stories that make the audience feel involved because they can connect with them. They're similar to their own short stories or experiences. Or we can use emotive language, and that's quite simply the language, words, or phrases that cause the audience to emotionally react. So you can create a strong sense of pathos using these three elements. Direct address, an anecdote or emotive language. You might want to pause the video here and make a few notes. It's not enough to simply use one of these three methods in order to create pathos, meaning what you're saying or writing. If we constantly direct address the audience, you, your they're going to feel quite overwhelmed and like they've done something wrong. If we include lots and lots of anecdotes, lots of short, interesting stories about our own experiences. They're going to fit a little bit of a lack of connection because we're just talking about ourselves all the time. If we use lots of emotive language, rather than just selecting particular words or phrases and using them in a very kind of minute way. So very sparingly here and there. If we use lots, lots of them and don't do that, then it means that we're just going to make our audience feel awful. And they might not necessarily feel motivated to change or act on our advice or our ideas. We need a blend of all of these things in order to create really effective pathos. The power of pathos though, once you create that within a piece of writing or speaking is incredible to be able to emotionally impact your audience and raise awareness around a particular issue is really something special. So here's three statements. Pause the video here and have a go. Are they true or false? How did you get on? Pathos is not the proof of your argument. If you remember, last lesson we looked at logos. Logos is the proof of your argument. However, B and C are both true. Pathos is to cause pity or sadness. Pathos strengthens your argument. So pause the video here. And I'd like you to have a go at these two questions. Number one, in your own words, what is pathos? And number two, in your opinion, why does logos not work without pathos? So why can't we just have expert opinions and facts and figures and offer alternative ideas? Why do we have to include pathos as well? Have a go. I've given you some sentence starters in case you get stuck there. Don't forget to press play when you're finished up. Full sentences please. Best of luck. So let's have a look at these three different ways that we can use pathos within our writing. I'm going to give you the three different strategies. You might want to make notes. I'm going to give you some examples. So you know what they look like in practise. So our first example. First method is directly addressing our audience. So here we have an advert for example, for a homeless charity, asking people to donate money to help the homeless. The slogan is 'Do not ignore the homeless: you can help too' So the direct address, 'you can help' puts some responsibility onto the audience to act and do something. And it makes them feel a sense of guilt or responsibility. Notice as well that we've got imperatives here, 'Do not ignore the homeless' it's a little bit of an instruction. Next up, we have an anecdote. So this is an advert for, to help people not get evicted from their properties. So not get moved out of their homes and help support them financially to stay in their home. 'She doesn't know what will happen: her home could disappear tomorrow.' Now here, we're finding out a little bit about the face in the advert, the picture. She's not given a name, but we know that she feels uncertain. She doesn't know what will happen. We know that there's a possibility of her being made homeless. So it makes us feel this sense of connection with her because we know a little bit about her story, her background, that's an anecdote. Finally, have emotive language. You can always spot emotive language because it's quite powerful. So adjectives, verbs usually, but let's have a look at this example. 'They trust us and we do nothing but torture them.' So this adverb is talking about animal testing in science, whether it's right or not. Obviously this advert is campaigning about stopping animal testing in science. Uses the word trust this idea that the animals are relying on us, to be honest and tell the truth. And we do nothing, but torture them. It makes us feel bad. It makes us feel a sense of guilt at the fact that we're not helping them. When they believe that we are the people that are there to look after them. So it's not real kind of pull on emotions, particularly that pity and guilt. So what I'd like you to do, is just have a think over those three adverts. And think about how they have attempted to use pathos. You may want to use quotations from those adverts. You may want to skip back and have a look. And and you may want to use the words of the particular methods devices that have been used such as direct address, anecdotes, emotive language. And just put a few sentences together to explain how they've used pathos. Don't forget to press play when you're done. So here's a really incredible answer that you might have had what I will do once I've read through and explained why it's excellent. And you can pause the video, and you can add to your own answer. So the adverts use a range of ways to encourage pathos for their audience. Using direct address makes the reader feel as though they are responsible for the suffering of others. This makes them feel guilty as a result. The use of anecdote makes the suffering feel real and relatable. The person mentioned could be someone we know, for example. This makes us more likely to want to help. Finally, the use of emotive language like 'torture' makes us really think about the awful offence we might have upon the animals. So this person has used pathos. So it's outlined in the first sentence, what we're going to be talking about. And then they include all three of the different methods that you can use to build up pathos. If you want to, pause the video and you can add it to your own response. Let's have a look at some other examples in writing as to how we can explain pathos. I'm going to read each one through for you. And I want you to pause the video and decide which one is more effective. So which one is the most effective and why? Example one. Climate change isn't just my problem, it's your problem. We have punished this planet for too long. Example two. As you stand and do nothing, animals are suffering every day in the hands of human beings they trust. Example three. The mother of the precious rhino thought we would protect her. As her home is torn from her, you need to act now to save her and her babies. Which is more effective and why? Make a few notes to explain your reason. Brilliant work. Let's see how much pathos you can apply to this particular scenario. I've given you a brief for a short speech that you're going to put together to convince someone to take action on saving the planet. So are we doing enough to save the planet? No. Create a short speech to convince someone to take action on saving the planet. Use pathos to convince them. So this is where you're making real use of direct address, you and your. Anecdotes, short interesting stories that will make it relatable to the audience. And last but not least, emotive language. I've given you a couple of sentence starters to get started. You might want to just have a quick look for some ideas around why we need to save the planet, make some notes before you get started on your short speech, pause the video here, and then don't forget to press play when you're finished up. Best of luck. Okay. So let's finish up today, by thinking about why we should use pathos. Why is it so important that we make our audience feel most of the time, pretty awful about their actions or behaviour in order to persuade them to agree with what we're thinking or what we're proposing? Well, we can't just bombard people with facts and figures. They'd probably get quite bored. They'd think that maybe we were just trying to impose our own ideas on them. And yes, we've got lots of proof to back us up, but they need to feel a connection with what we're saying. They need to feel that what we're saying and what we're convincing them to do or believe relates to them in some way that is relevant to their life. So it might be a fact, if we talk about saving the planet that we need to make it relatable to their everyday life, maybe how many toilet rolls we use the house? how awful our recycling is in order to make it more believable. So through our use of anecdotes. Pathos is absolutely essential because our audience needs to go away feeling a particular emotion so that they remember what we've said. And more importantly, they act on it. Fantastic work. You've reached the end of the introduction to rhetoric unit. You've got a thorough understanding of ethos, logos and pathos. How to use them when you're speaking or writing in order to make sure that you are convincing people in quite a subtle way to agree with what you think or, or your opinions. Hopefully, you'll start to interweave them through your everyday language. And people won't even realise that you are using it as a little bit of a secret weapon. I'd like you to do two things for me. Firstly, write down three things that you've learned over the course of this unit. And as a challenge, can you explain them perhaps if it is the fact that you're using the try out to do that. The second one is to complete your quiz, to see how much you've learned. Thanks for a brilliant lesson today.

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Completed: An introduction to rhetoric: pathos

In the final lesson of the unit, we will explore the use of pathos within the art of rhetorical speaking and writing. We will secure our understanding, how to create a sense of pathos so that your audience feel an emotional reaction to what you say and how pathos is a key way to strengthen your argument when speaking or writing.

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An introduction to rhetoric: pathos

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