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Rhetorical Appeals in Persuasive Writing: Ethos, Pathos and Logos — Answers

Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 11 persuasive writing worksheet.

Success TutoringWorksheetsAnswer sheetYear 11 · English · Persuasive Writing

Rhetorical Appeals in Persuasive Writing: Ethos, Pathos and Logos — Answers

Part A: Name the appeal

Ethos persuades through the writer's credibility and character, pathos through the reader's emotions and values, and logos through reasons, evidence and logic. Circle the main appeal in each sentence.

1.As a nurse who has worked night shifts for twenty years, I know what exhaustion does to decision-making.
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: ethos (credibility)

The writer builds authority by referring to professional experience.

2.Picture a child shivering in a classroom with a broken heater, too cold to hold a pencil.
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: pathos (emotion)

A vivid, sympathetic image is designed to make the reader feel.

3.If each household saved one bucket of water a day, the city would save enough to fill its reservoir every year.
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: logos (logic and evidence)

The argument follows a chain of reasoning based on a calculation.

4.I have changed my own mind on this issue, and I understand why many readers will disagree.
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: ethos (credibility)

Admitting a change of view and respecting opponents makes the writer seem fair and trustworthy.

5.Three independent studies reached the same conclusion: shorter shifts reduce accidents.
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: logos (logic and evidence)

Consistent evidence from several sources is a logical appeal.

6.Do we really want to be the generation that let the last of these forests fall silent?
  1. Aethos (credibility)
  2. Bpathos (emotion)
  3. Clogos (logic and evidence)

Answer: pathos (emotion)

The image of forests falling silent and the appeal to legacy target the reader's emotions and conscience.

Part B: Appeals in an opinion column

Read the extract, then answer in full sentences.

The Quiet Carriage (original opinion column extract)

I have spent eleven years as a train driver, and I can tell you exactly when a carriage goes quiet. It happens just after the doors close in the evening, when commuters finally stop talking and start scrolling. It is not peace. It is a kind of shared absence.

Transport authorities measure everything: punctuality, fare revenue, passenger numbers. Last year, our network carried more than forty million trips. Yet no one measures the number of conversations that did not happen in those carriages, or the strangers who never quite met.

I am not asking anyone to throw away their phone. I use mine to check timetables like everyone else. But I would like the network to trial one carriage per train where screens stay in pockets and people are free to read, look out the window or, heaven forbid, talk. A modest experiment costs almost nothing. If nobody uses it, we will know. If people do, we may find out something important about what we have been missing.

Last month an elderly passenger thanked me at the end of the line. She said it was the first time all week anyone had spoken to her. She had been talking, she said, to the young man in the seat beside her, whose phone had died.

7.How does the writer establish ethos in the first paragraph? Quote and explain.[2 marks]

Answer: "I have spent eleven years as a train driver". The writer's first-hand experience gives authority to observations about passengers, so the reader trusts the claim about carriages going quiet.

8.Identify an example of logos in the second paragraph and explain how the writer turns it to their own purpose.[2 marks]

Answer: "Last year, our network carried more than forty million trips." The writer uses an official statistic, then points out that what really matters (conversations, connection) is not measured, which turns the authorities' own logic against them.

9.How does the third paragraph make the proposal seem reasonable?[3 marks]

Answer: The writer concedes that phones are useful ("I use mine"), asks only for one carriage, calls it "a modest experiment" that "costs almost nothing", and accepts that it may fail. This measured tone reduces opposition and strengthens ethos.

10.Explain how the final paragraph uses pathos, and why the writer places it at the end.[3 marks]

Answer: The lonely elderly passenger makes the issue human and moving, and the detail of the dead phone adds gentle irony. Ending with the anecdote leaves the reader with an emotional image that lingers after the reasoning.

11.The phrase heaven forbid, talk creates a tone that is:
  1. Aangry and bitter
  2. Bgently ironic
  3. Cformal and technical
  4. Dfearful

Answer: gently ironic

The writer mocks, lightly, the idea that talking to strangers has become shocking.

Part C: Evaluate the appeals

12.When does pathos become manipulation? Give an example of an emotional appeal that would be unfair.[2 marks]

Answer: Pathos becomes manipulative when the emotion replaces or distorts the evidence, for example an exaggerated or invented sad story, or fear about a danger that is very unlikely. Example: claiming that without the new law, children will die every day, when there is no evidence for this.

13.Why do the strongest persuasive texts combine all three appeals rather than relying on one?[2 marks]

Answer: Logos alone can feel cold, pathos alone can feel manipulative, and ethos alone can sound like boasting. Together they make the reader trust the writer, understand the reasoning and care about the outcome.

Part D: Your turn

14.Your turn: write a persuasive paragraph (150–200 words) on one of these contentions, using all three appeals. Label each appeal in the margin. (a) Public libraries deserve more funding, not less. (b) Every workplace should offer a four-day week trial. (c) Young people should be represented on local councils.[10 marks]

Model answer: Public libraries deserve more funding, not less. I have volunteered at my local branch every Saturday for three years, and I have watched it become far more than a room full of books. (ethos) It is where a retired engineer teaches coding to teenagers, where job seekers print their job applications and where new arrivals take free language classes. Library visits in our region rose by a fifth last year, while funding fell, which means each dollar is now doing more work than ever. (logos) Cutting that funding would not save money so much as move the cost elsewhere, into unemployment and isolation. (logos) Last winter, a man who had lost his home came in every afternoon simply to sit somewhere warm and read the paper. One day he told me the library was the only place where nobody asked him to leave. (pathos) A city that cannot keep that door open has lost something it will struggle to buy back.

Success criteria:

  • Clear contention stated early
  • Ethos: credible voice, relevant experience or fair-minded tone
  • Pathos: an emotional appeal that is fair and relevant, not exaggerated
  • Logos: reasons and evidence linked logically to the contention
  • Appeals woven into a cohesive paragraph rather than listed
  • Controlled, precise language and accurate expression
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