Last Updated on 06/24/2026 by Ethan Sawyer

Guide to Understanding and Using Ethos, Pathos, Logos

By Jessica B.—PhD English teacher

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are things you already have some intuitive sense of. Because we all argue. (Even if you have friends who say they never argue. They definitely try to build arguments.)

Whether it’s about simple stuff like what to have on a pizza (pineapple?) or what to watch, all the way up to things like what foreign policy should be, you’ve found yourself trying to convince someone that your opinion is the right one.

And in order to persuade someone to see our side of things, we utilize all sorts of strategies, probably without even realizing that we’re being strategic. Enter logos, pathos, and ethos.

In the guide below, we want to help you build a clearer understanding of these argumentative strategies and tools, so you have a much clearer way of thinking about them and how to use them well.

So let’s dive in.

What are pathos, logos, and ethos?

Ethos, pathos, and logos are Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion (sometimes called “the rhetorical triangle”), used to convince an audience by appealing to

• credibility (ethos)
• emotion (pathos)
• and logic (logos).

Ethos builds trust, pathos evokes feelings, and logos uses facts to create a compelling argument.

We guarantee that even if you’ve never heard the terms logos, pathos, and ethos you’ve used them in an argument, especially when writing a persuasive essay, say for your English class.

Aristotle believed that any effective argument needed to strike a balance between the persuasive strategies of logos, pathos, and ethos. And we think of these as a triangle because no one element is more or less important than the other. So below, we’ll dive into detail.

What is Logos?

Logos is, quite simply, an appeal to the audience’s logic and reason. No matter how compelling an argument might be, your audience won’t be inclined to persuasion if you rely on faulty logic, (or even worse, on no logic at all). So, with logos, think facts, statistics, data, research, graphs and tables.

Logos also refers to the construction and structure of your argument. Effective use of logos means the writer creates clear connections between ideas and that the progression of ideas from one to the next makes logical sense.

Writers who effectively employ logos also avoid things called “logical fallacies,” which are basically just flaws in reasoning that weaken the logic of an argument (sometimes this happens by accident, and sometimes writers use these to intentionally distract their audience by relying on emotional appeals instead of logical ones).

Some common logical fallacies are

• ad hominem (when someone attacks their opponent’s character instead of their argument)
• slippery slope (when someone knowingly exaggerates the end result of their opponent’s argument)
• and false dichotomy (when an arguer suggests there are only two possible outcomes or perspectives, when more are possible).

(Side note that we’d strongly recommend studying logical fallacies and how to avoid them in your own thinking and writing.)

What is Pathos?

Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions. While logos is essential to building any effective argument, pathos is just as necessary in trying to persuade because so many of our decisions and perspectives are guided by our emotional responses to a topic or issue.

Pathos can appeal to an audience’s values, belief systems, and range of emotions, and as the writer, you can employ several strategies to evoke the emotions that will be most helpful in persuading your readers about your specific argument.

Instead of the “hard facts” that are a part of logos, pathos employs things like

• personal anecdotes
• vivid and symbolic language
• and a reliance on the human connection between writer and reader.

What is Ethos?

Ethos relates to the writer themselves and has to do with the writer’s credibility. If we don’t believe in someone’s qualifications to make an argument, we’re probably not going to be open to being persuaded by them, so ethos is just as vital as logos and pathos.

Writers who are able to establish their credibility

• use credible sources
• illustrate their awareness of the purpose of the argument and who their audience is
• employ appropriate language and tone (if your audience is a group of teachers, for example, you should probably use different word choices than you would with your friends—so, no slang, friends)
• consider any counterarguments to show they’ve considered all sides of an issue
• and share their own professional qualifications if those are relevant to the argument (who’s going to listen to an argument about, say, the effectiveness of vaccines from someone who has zero background in vaccinology, immunology, or at least some aspect of biology?)

How to assess if an author is using ethos, pathos, or logos

While logos, pathos, and ethos can each be effective strategies for constructing your own arguments, they are also useful tools for determining the effectiveness of someone else’s argument, especially if you’re on the receiving end of someone trying to convince you of their perspective.

Using the rhetorical triangle as an audience member can help you identify the strengths and holes in the argument you’re being presented, which means you’ll be even more prepared to spot an argument worth listening to and ones that aren’t worth your time.

For each corner of the triangle, there are questions you can ask to help you recognize AND utilize these persuasive strategies:

Spotting Logos

• Is there a thesis?
• Are you able to clearly identify what the main argument is?
• Can you actually follow the argument?
• Do the structure and organization make sense?
• Has the writer avoided logical fallacies? (Politics is a good example for this one—in a debate, does one candidate zero in on the time their opponent cheated on a test in high school instead of focusing on their political platform?)
• Do you see any claims that are just clearly not true based on accepted knowledge about the issue or topic?

Spotting Pathos

• Is the writer able to connect to their audience?
• If so, how do they do this?
• Can you identify the specific emotions the writer is trying to appeal to?
• What language in the argument really draws your attention and makes you FEEL something?
• Do you see things besides data, research, and facts such as personal narratives, questions posed directly to the audience, and the use of the words “we” or “us” that put the writer and the audience on the same team?

Spotting Ethos

• How credible are the sources (i.e. an article from an academic journal vs. the writer’s little brother’s blog)?
• Has the writer considered viewpoints other than their own?
• Does the writer use language and tone that is audience-appropriate?
• Is the writer actually qualified to make the argument?
• How do they illustrate these qualifications?

Why and how these are important to understand, especially for AP Lang

You might be asking why it even matters if you know and understand logos, pathos, and ethos. After all, we started this blog by telling you that you probably already use these without having to even think about them.

But if you think about your day-to-day life, isn’t it helpful to know whether and when someone is trying to convince you of their perspective about something?

And once you can spot these strategies, doesn’t it help to know WHAT that someone is trying to do so you can decide if you’re open to their argument?

And if we’re thinking about the academic situations in which you need to make an argument, a clear understanding of what these concepts are and how you can use them will go miles in helping you craft persuasive writing that is effective and convincing.

For example:

Let’s say you’re writing an essay in History in which you must craft an argument about the most significant impact of World War II on family structures.

Your mind might immediately go to the emotional impact of families being separated by war (pathos), and you could certainly make a strong argument based just on this appeal to emotions.

But wouldn’t your argument be even stronger if you could include statistics about the number of children who spent the early years of their lives separated from one or both parents (logos)?

And wouldn’t your argument be bolstered even more if you found these statistics in an academic journal that focuses on child psychology (ethos)?

But let’s get even more specific!

Let’s say you’re a brave soul who’s taking AP Language and Composition (AP Lang, for short). The entire course is based on analyzing other people’s arguments and on constructing your own effective arguments.

The AP Lang exam contains multiple choice questions that ask you to read and then analyze non-fiction texts AND three free-response essays (see these links for full guides to the synthesis essay, the rhetorical analysis essay, and the argument essay) that are 100% about your ability to recognize effective argumentative writing and to then write your own solid, balanced, well-supported arguments based on sources provided to you.

So, how do you analyze someone else’s argument?

By asking and answering the questions in the sections above about logos, pathos, and ethos and about the ways in which the writer does (or does not) use all three in their attempts to persuade their readers.

And how do you write an effective argument?

No surprise here… by asking and answering the questions above about logos, pathos, and ethos and making sure you have paid close attention to how you incorporate each of these strategies in clear and balanced ways.

AP Lang exam readers will look closely at your ability to rely not just on emotion, but also on logic and reason. They will zero in on whether or not you rely on logical fallacies (again, really useful to study these), if you’ve opened your readers’ minds to your perspective by writing an argument that makes organizational sense, and if you’ve connected to your readers through an appeal to their emotions.

These are all reasons why knowing and understanding logos, pathos, and ethos is important. Special thanks to Aristotle for giving us the rhetorical triangle.

 

Jessica B. Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean. Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby.

 

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