Question

Please answer the questions accurately and complete not short and not related to the topic.

• What kinds of rhetorical appeals do you see in your daily life? Give an example of one that you see the most often. Is it effective?
• As a person who is on the receiving end of rhetorical appeals, in your opinion, what posture should you have towards these appeals (open, optimistic, skeptical, cynical, etc.)? Why?

Answer 1

Rhetorical appeals are some modes of persuasion which are used by humans to have a convincing influence on their audience.

Most commonly used in daily life are

• Logos- This refers to the persuasion which is based on logic and reason. This incorporates using our cognitive abilities of Inductive and deductive reasoning. For Example, people who eat fruits every day tend to maintain a well-balanced diet, thus we should eat fruits every day.
• Ethos- This refers to an appeal made to the audience in order to convince them through the form of authority or a source of credibility. For Example, A famous actress promotes a shoe brand. I like that actress and I should buy shoes from that brand.
• Pathos- This is a mode of persuasion which is based on some emotional expression or some affective appeal towards audience needs, beliefs and values. For example, This cat is alone on the streets, let's provide her shelter or she might not survive.

The rhetoric appeal of Pathos is quite effective. this is because it is an appeal made in an emotional way and people are generally driven by emotions. this appeal is also backed by some logical reason. This mode of persuasion directly targets the peoples need, values and beliefs. For example, We should maintain family relationships or there would be negative feelings. Another example, I am a social worker and I love to eradicate all sorts of discrimination and bring out love, care and affection in each community.

Receiving appeals should maintain certain postures. Humans should take appeals in a logical way, they should understand what the influencer is saying and what is hi/her stand. This will help us in understanding the appeal and then make our decisions. Secondly, we can be optimistic and sceptical about different things. If our common sense says that appeal will bring out positive benefits to oneself and society then it should be taken in an optimistic way and on the other hand if it brings out negative consequences then it should be taken in a sceptical way.

What decisions to take to the coming appeals is very complex. People learn from their experiences.