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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 3 of 13

Persuasive Power

Ethos, pathos, logos and fallacies

What your child practices

Identifying appeals to credibility, emotion and logic; spotting weak reasoning like bandwagon, false cause and slippery slope; and judging which evidence and rebuttals are strongest.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.5; 7.12 · persuasive appeals and logical fallacies

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Ethos appeals to credibility (trust me, I’m an expert). Pathos appeals to emotion. Logos appeals to logic, facts and numbers.
  2. Fallacies are weak reasoning: bandwagon (everyone does it), false cause, slippery slope (one step leads to disaster).
  3. The strongest evidence is specific, relevant and from a reliable source.

Example: A speaker mentions years of coaching experience so the audience will trust their advice. Which appeal is this? The speaker is building trust, not using feelings or numbers. Trust in the speaker is credibility. Answer: Ethos (credibility)

Persuasive Power in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 3 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Tone & Mood and before Clauses & Sentences.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which persuasive appeal does this mostly use?

    Imagine a puppy shivering alone in the cold, waiting for someone who never comes. You can give a dog like this a warm home today.

    • Pathos (emotion)
    • Logos (logic and evidence)
    • Ethos (credibility)

  2. Question 2

    Which logical fallacy does this argument use?

    Everyone in Grade 7 is switching to this study app, so it must be the best way to learn.

    • Bandwagon
    • Either-or (false dilemma)
    • Attacking the person (ad hominem)
    • False cause
    • Slippery slope

  3. Question 3

    Which is the strongest evidence for this claim?

    Our school should start a recycling program.

    • Everyone recycles at home, so we should too.
    • My teacher recycles his bottles.
    • Last year our school sent 4 tonnes of paper to the landfill, enough to fill a classroom.
    • Recycling is cool.

  4. Question 4

    You're writing an essay arguing for a longer lunch break. Which counterclaim is most important to address?

    • Lunch is a meal eaten in the middle of the day.
    • Lunch breaks have existed for a long time.
    • Some students prefer sandwiches to soup.
    • A longer lunch might make the school day end later.

  5. Question 5

    Which logical fallacy does this argument use?

    I wore my blue socks and our team won. The socks must be lucky.

    • False cause
    • Attacking the person (ad hominem)
    • Either-or (false dilemma)
    • Bandwagon

  6. Question 6

    Which sentence is a claim, not evidence?

    • The city's two bike lanes each carry about 800 riders a day.
    • Our city should build more bike lanes.
    • A survey found that 62% of residents would bike more if lanes were safer.
    • Bike traffic on Elm Street doubled after a lane was added.

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