Forms of appeal

Three main forms of appeal are regularly used by senders to make their arguments more convincing: pathos (appeal to emotions), ethos (appeal to authority and shared values), and logos (appeal to logical reasoning).

Kevin O’Sullivan mostly uses pathos in “My Sons on Death Row”, and occasionally uses ethos.

Ethos

Ethos is only used at the beginning of the article when the author mentions the authority of the Supreme Court, statistics about Death Row, and the opinions of the two sides in the debate about televising executions:

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Pathos

Here are only some examples of emotional language from the text that the author uses with the purpose of making readers empathise with Jacqueline: “The shock so devastated her she suffered a heart attack. But her nightmare was just beginning. Three years ago Jacqueline’s...

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