Answer:
Explanation:
Defining Emotional Appeal
An emotional appeal is used to sway the emotions of an audience to make them support the speaker’s argument.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Break down the components that make up an emotional appeal
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Key Points
Pathos represents an appeal to the emotions of an audience.
An emotional appeal uses the manipulation of the emotions rather than valid logic to win an argument.
Emotional appeal is a logical fallacy, whereby a debater attempts to win an argument by trying to get an emotional reaction from the opponent and audience.
In debating terms, emotional appeals are often effective as a rhetorical device, but are generally considered naive or dishonest as a logical argument, since they often appeal to the prejudices of listeners rather than offer a sober assessment of a situation.
Key Terms
logical fallacy: A fallacy; a clearly defined error in reasoning used to support or refute an argument, excluding simple unintended mistakes.
Emotional Appeal Defined
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric (where it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos), and in literature, film, and other narrative art.
Emotional appeal can be accomplished in a multitude of ways:
By a metaphor or storytelling, common as a hook
By a general passion in the delivery
By an overall emotion
By the sympathies of the speech or writing as determined by the audience
The pathos of a speech or writing is only ultimately determined by the audience.
The Purpose of an Emotional Appeal
An emotional appeal is directed to sway an audience member’s emotions and uses the manipulation of the recipient’s emotions rather than valid logic to win an argument. An emotional appeal uses emotions as the basis of an argument’s position without factual evidence that logically supports the major ideas endorsed by the presenter. In an emotional appeal, persuasive language is used to develop the foundation of an appeal to emotion-based arguments instead of facts. Therefore, the validity of the premises that establish such an argument does not prove to be verifiable.
A US soldier holds his daughter and his son.
Emotional Appeal: A picture like this could be used as an emotional appeal for a charity campaign to increase funding for soldiers’ families.
Emotional appeal is a logical fallacy, whereby a debater attempts to win an argument by trying to get an emotional reaction from the opponent and audience. It is generally characterized by the use of loaded language and concepts (God, country, and apple pie being good concepts; drugs and crime being bad ones). In debating terms, emotional appeals are often effective as a rhetorical device, but are generally considered naive or dishonest as a logical argument, since they often appeal to the prejudices of listeners
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