Forms of appeal

There are mainly three forms of appeal that a speaker can use to connect with their audience and make their arguments more convincing. They can appeal to emotions (pathos), logic (logos), or to shared values and authority (ethos). Next, we will focus on the forms of appeal present in “Teach girls bravery, not perfection” by Reshma Saujani

Ethos

Ethos is first constructed by the speaker establishing herself as a credible sender. She has the authority to speak on the topic because she has acted bravely herself in the past, she has professional experience as a politician and business woman, and she works with girls on a regular basis: “So a few years ago, I did something really brave, or some would say really stupid. I ran for Congress.” (l. 1); “So in 2012, I started a company to teach girls to code, and what I found is that by teaching them to code I had socialized them to be brave.” (ll. 46-47)

...

Logos

Logos is used when the speaker draws logical conclusions based on experience or scientific studies, conclusions that come across as explanatory: “What’s going on? Well, at the fifth grade level, girls routinely outperform boys...

...

Pathos

Pathos is used when the speaker talks about feelings like bravery, humiliation, or fear of challenges, particularly when speaking from her own experience:

...