Ethos — English definition
Defined in 4 courses:
- An appeal to credibility or character — why the audience should trust the speaker. (English 9: Experience, Perspective & Inquiry)
- An appeal to credibility or character — the reason an audience should trust the speaker. (English 10: Choices, Conscience & Consequences)
- A persuasive appeal based on the speaker's credibility, authority, or character. (English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory)
- An appeal to the speaker's credibility, authority, or character — the reason an audience should trust them. (English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory)
Where it is taught
- Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Pathos & Logos — Argument & Rhetoric, English 9: Experience, Perspective & Inquiry, Grade 9
- Rhetorical Appeals — Argument, Rhetoric & Tragic Choices, English 10: Choices, Conscience & Consequences, Grade 10
- Analyzing Seminal Texts — Close Reading & Literary Analysis, English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory, Grade 11
- Rhetorical Analysis — Public Argument, Rhetoric & Competing Accounts, English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory, Grade 11
In use
The three appeals are ethos, pathos, and logos, and the sharpest way to understand them is to ask what each one does to an audience.
Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Pathos & Logos
The deliberate art of using language to persuade like this has a name — rhetoric — and its three great tools are ethos, pathos, and logos.
Rhetorical Appeals
The most useful toolkit for the 'how' is the trio of classical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos.
Analyzing Seminal Texts
Questions using ethos
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
Each appeal does something different: ethos earns trust, pathos creates emotional investment, and logos provides logical proof. Combining them reaches readers who respond to facts and readers who respond to feeling, while establishing the writer's credibility throughout.
Problem 2
Answer and explanation
The supervisory role supports relevant ethos; the proposed attendance trial uses logos. The observed waiting illustrates a need but does not establish schoolwide demand. A complete response supplies context, a focused claim, a brief supporting detail, explanation, and a relevant qualification. Do not simply repeat this model.
Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.
Response criteria
- Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
- Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
- Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.
Problem 3
Answer and explanation
Each appeal does a different job: ethos earns trust, pathos creates emotional investment, and logos supplies logical proof. Combining them reaches listeners who respond to facts and listeners who respond to feeling, while keeping the speaker's credibility present throughout — so the argument is convincing on more than one level at once.
Problem 4
Answer and explanation
Brought ethos is authority a speaker already has, like a doctor's credentials. Built ethos is credibility earned within the writing itself — for example, fairly summarizing the opposing view before answering it, or admitting the limits of one's own evidence, which makes the writer seem trustworthy and fair-minded.