Forms of appeal

Forms of appeal are defined as rhetorical strategies used with the purpose of making the speaker’s arguments resonate with the public, by appeal to reason (logos), emotions (pathos), or trust and authority (ethos).

The first part of Donald Trump's Republican nomination acceptance speech is dominated by logos, but as the speech progresses he also begins to use ethos and pathos quite extensiv…

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Logos

Donald Trump appeals to reason to demonstrate the audience that he is the best choice in the presidential elections, but also to argue for his views. For example, he uses facts and statistics that are meant to show that the situation in the US is getting worse, particularly since the Obama administration came to power: “Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in Amer…

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Ethos

As the speech progresses, the speaker appeals to trust and authority extensively, when he clearly attempts to present himself as trustworthy and skilled —so that the audience perceives him as a reliable authority figure, like in the following two examples: “But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor th…

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Pathos

Throughout most of the speech, Donald Trump appeals to negative emotions such as fear and sadness, in an attempt to make American society reject the current government (as the cause of these negative feelings): “Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our 60 country, are tonight roaming f…