{"id":22095,"date":"2014-01-27T12:18:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T17:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=22095"},"modified":"2014-01-27T12:18:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T17:18:45","slug":"logos-ethos-and-pathos-in-persuasive-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2014\/01\/logos-ethos-and-pathos-in-persuasive-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Logos, Ethos, and Pathos in Persuasive Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aristotle\"<\/a>In the second semester of their first year, students make the switch from objective to persuasive writing. It\u2019s a switch that some students welcome because they like the idea of arguing a position rather than having to be objective. As students learn, though, there\u2019s more to persuasive writing\u2014or at least more to good<\/i> persuasive writing\u2014than just arguing a position.<\/p>\n

At their core, objective and persuasive legal writing share many of the same traits, such as maintaining the small scale organizational paradigm we refer to as CREAC (a\/k\/a IRAC). Because lawyers use that paradigm to advance their arguments, students need to master it, which makes the structure of the argument look similar to objective writing. But students need to make other, subtler changes in their writing (and thinking) to persuade effectively. It\u2019s often challenging to succinctly explain these more subtle differences, but one easy way is to introduce the \u201cwhy\u201d behind the differences, which in turn helps explain those differences. Good persuasive writing argues a position by using a combination of three ancient rhetorical techniques: logos, ethos, and pathos.<\/b><\/p>\n

The first technique is logos, which means logic. Persuasive writing that uses logos uses, where appropriate, literal or historical analogies as well as factual and historical data. Such writing contains citations to authorities or experts. As scholars Ruth Anne Robbins, Steve Johansen, and Ken Chestek say in their new book, Your Client\u2019s Story: Persuasive Legal Writing<\/a> 21 (2013), \u201cLogos makes your audience think<\/i> you are right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logos is the easiest technique to understand when referring to legal writing.\u00a0 It makes sense that a persuasive legal document use logic to persuade readers, and logos is undoubtedly the starting point for a persuasive argument.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just the start.<\/p>\n

The second technique is ethos, which deals with the credibility of the writer. When we read something from someone we trust, we are more likely to believe what she is saying. As Professors Robbins, Johansen, and Chestek tell us, \u201c[E]thos makes your audience trust <\/i>you are right.\u201d Id.<\/i> Building ethos in legal writing means the writer must focus on providing substantively sound analyses and arguments, while appropriately acknowledging contrary law and counterarguments, but also focus on creating a professional and polished document that is error-free.<\/p>\n

The final technique is pathos, which deals with emotions\u2014specifically, with empathy.\u00a0 When a speaker or writer uses pathos, he is appealing to his audience\u2019s sense of empathy for his position or his client. He may use vivid, concrete language and examples.\u00a0 He might use figurative language, such as alliteration, similes, or metaphors. \u201c[P]athos makes your audience feel<\/i> you are right.\u201d Id.<\/i><\/p>\n

There are two kinds of pathos: emotional substance and medium mood control. The speaker or writer uses emotional substance when she is trying to elicit an emotional response from her audience. One example that I use to illustrate this idea is the ten-second public service announcement<\/a> popular in the late 1980s. The spot opens with butter sizzling in a hot pan. There\u2019s an ominous bit of music and a serious voice tells you, \u201cThis is drugs.\u201d We then see an egg cracked into the pan, which is so hot that the white of the egg cooks immediately. The voice returns. \u201cThis is your brain on drugs. [pause] Any questions?\u201d Here, it seems clear that the viewer is to feel fear and to act on that fear: Look what happens to your brain when you use drugs! Don\u2019t use drugs!<\/p>\n

In legal writing, we use the emotional substance pathos when we attempt to create empathy for our client and when we appeal to grander themes of fairness or justice.<\/p>\n

Another kind of pathos is medium mood control.\u00a0 \u201cMedium\u201d here applies to the mode of communication and how that mode of communication affects the audience\u2019s mood.\u00a0 Humor is an often used technique.\u00a0 When the reader feels happy, he is more likely to be receptive to (and, thus, persuaded by) the reader\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

Humor is quite difficult to use in legal writing.\u00a0 Instead, a legal writer effectively uses medium mood control by using an appropriate tone, carefully choosing words, and avoiding techniques that might irritate a reader (like poor citation or sloppy organization, among others).\u00a0 Most of the things a writer does to build her ethos apply here as well: a well-crafted, accurate brief is a joy to read, which makes a reader happy to read it.<\/p>\n

The trick with pathos is to use emotion appropriately.\u00a0 Heavy-handed pathos can make your reader feel manipulated, and no one likes to feel manipulated.<\/p>\n

Using all three techniques in concert helps create a strong persuasive piece.\u00a0 The example I like to use is Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s Letter from Birmingham Jail<\/a>.\u00a0 In that piece, Dr. King so brilliantly uses all three rhetorical techniques to create a compelling and persuasive document that explains why white clergy\u2019s call for gradualism in the early days of the civil rights movement was misguided. If you haven\u2019t yet read the Letter, I encourage you to do so and to locate for yourself how and where Dr. King uses logos, ethos, and pathos.<\/p>\n

How a reader responds to a writer\u2019s persuasive techniques depends on two things: what the reader\u2019s stock structures are and how the reader is being asked to respond.<\/p>\n

First, when people are asked to confront new situations or new information, they rely on their stock structures to make sense of that situation or information.\u00a0 See <\/i>Robbins et al., Your Client\u2019s Story 29-36. Stock structures (which are known by different names in different fields) are our stereotyped models of experiences. Stock structures provide useful cognitive short cuts because we can quickly assess a new situation and know how we should respond based on our experiences with that situation. But\u2014and it\u2019s a very important \u201cbut\u201d\u2014while there may be some commonality between them, stock structures differ for different people because our experiences differ.<\/p>\n

Second, readers can be asked to respond in one of three ways: response shaping, response reinforcing, and response changing.\u00a0 See id.<\/i> Where a reader has little knowledge or experience and is being persuaded to adopt a new position, the writer has a chance to shape the reader\u2019s response, to help build some stock structures, if you will. This situation does not occur frequently in law, mostly with issues of first impression. A reader who is being asked to simply reinforce what he already knows or has experienced may be easily persuaded. For example, when a trial judge is asked to simply apply precedent, she is being asked to simply reinforce what she knows she needs to do. More difficult is the reader who is being asked to respond by changing his existing beliefs in order to form new ones. Such a reader will need more persuasion.<\/p>\n

As our students begin their foray into persuasive writing, share with them some of your favorite persuasive pieces (legal or otherwise).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the second semester of their first year, students make the switch from objective to persuasive writing. It\u2019s a switch that some students welcome because they like the idea of arguing a position rather than having to be objective. As students learn, though, there\u2019s more to persuasive writing\u2014or at least more to good persuasive writing\u2014than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,44,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","category-political-processes-rhetoric","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}