Define and identify ethos, pathos, and logos in a persuasive speech, using Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" and a brief comparison to the Gettysburg Address.
Ethos, pathos, and logos, introduced briefly inside a novel in Week 30, get their full formal treatment here. Ethos is an appeal to the speaker's own credibility, character, or authority. Pathos is an appeal to the audience's emotions. Logos is an appeal to logic, evidence, and reasoning. Nearly every effective persuasive text uses more than one, often working together rather than separately.
Patrick Henry's 1775 speech to the Virginia legislature, urging armed resistance, models all three within a few short minutes: his own long record as a patriot lends him ethos, his vivid, urgent language ("Give me liberty, or give me death!") supplies pathos, and his logical case that petitions and negotiation have already failed, leaving no options left but resistance, supplies logos. A brief comparison is useful: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered in under three minutes, leans far more heavily on quiet logos and dignified restraint than on Henry's urgent pathos, proving the same three appeals can be balanced in very different ways depending on the speaker's purpose and moment.
Mastery looks like: They can define ethos, pathos, and logos accurately and identify each at work in a specific historical speech, comparing how two speeches balance them differently.
Common stumbles: Confusing pathos with logos when a fact is stated in emotionally charged language; assuming a persuasive text uses only one appeal instead of looking for how multiple appeals work together.
See it visually
Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.