Pathos and Logos Claims

A worksheet I hand out early in my Comp/Rhet classes to help students think about the kinds of pathos/logos claims they can make…

An unexpected upside? It gives them a way of articulating what OTHER writers are doing too. It works as a diagnostic tool as much as a creative one…

Four Kinds of Pathos and Logos Claims

Claims from Authority: relying on others to tell us what we need to know

Michael Jordan says The Jimmy Wiseguy Basketball Camp is the best in the country.

Unspoken claim: Michael Jordan is the best basketball player who ever lived.

He is a trustworthy source on all matters relating to basketball.

Argument: You should attend the Jimmy Wiseguy Basketball Camp.

Claims by Example: one or more specific instances that support a generalization

The Beatles played lots of cover songs early in their career.

The first Rolling Stones studio album only featured one song they had written.

The first Jackson Five album didn’t have a single song written by a group member.

Argument: Great rock musicians start their careers by playing other people’s songs.

Claims by Analogy: arguing from one specific case to another specific case

            From the September 23, 1973 copy of the Miami Herald: “An interesting switch waspulled in Rome yesterday by Adam Nordwell, an American Chippewa chief. As he descended his plane from California dressed in full tribal regalia, Nordwell announced in the name of the American Indian people that he was taking possession of Italy ‘by right of discovery’ in the same way that Christopher Columbus did in America. ‘I proclaim this day the day of the discovery of Italy,’ said Nordwell. ‘What right did Columbus have to discover America when it had already been inhabited for thousands of years? The same right I now have to come to Italy and proclaim the discovery of your country.’

Nordwell claims that discovering Italy is LIKE discovering America in that

both countries have both been inhabited for thousands of years.

Argument: Nordwell’s claim shows how ridiculous Columbus’s claim was.

Claims about Causes: a conclusion that based on the cause/effect relationship of two events

People who text frequently have less legible handwriting than those who hardly                 text.

Unspoken claim: the two activities are related.

Argument: texting causes people’s handwriting to get worse.