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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.
Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 7.RI.8; 7.SL.3 · persuasive appeals and logical fallacies
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Ethos appeals to credibility (trust me, I’m an expert). Pathos appeals to emotion. Logos appeals to logic, facts and numbers.
- Fallacies are weak reasoning: bandwagon (everyone does it), false cause, slippery slope (one step leads to disaster).
- 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 Arizona
In the Arizona Academic Standards, 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.
- 7th grade guide for Arizona parents
- Printable 7th grade English Language Arts sheet
- Arizona report cards explained
Source: Arizona Department of Education
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Which sentence is a claim, not evidence?
- A survey found that 62% of residents would bike more if lanes were safer.
- The city's two bike lanes each carry about 800 riders a day.
- Our city should build more bike lanes.
- Bike traffic on Elm Street doubled after a lane was added.
Our city should build more bike lanes.
Hint: A claim is the opinion being argued (often with “should”). Evidence is facts or data that support it.
Question 2
Which logical fallacy does this argument use?
- Attacking the person (ad hominem)
- Either-or (false dilemma)
- Bandwagon
- False cause
Bandwagon
Hint: Being popular doesn't make something the best. Arguing from popularity is the bandwagon fallacy.
Question 3
Which persuasive technique is used here?
Do we really want our children breathing dirty air every day?
- Expert opinion
- Statistic
- Rhetorical question
- Personal anecdote
Rhetorical question
Hint: The speaker doesn't expect an answer; the answer is obvious. That's a rhetorical question.
Question 4
Which logical fallacy does this argument use?
You're either with us on the new uniform plan, or you don't care about the school at all.
- Hasty generalization
- False cause
- Bandwagon
- Either-or (false dilemma)
Either-or (false dilemma)
Hint: It pretends there are only two options when there are many more. That's a false dilemma.
Question 5
Which logical fallacy does this argument use?
You can't trust Ravi's idea for the science fair. He's always late for class.
- Attacking the person (ad hominem)
- Slippery slope
- False cause
- Bandwagon
- Either-or (false dilemma)
Attacking the person (ad hominem)
Hint: The argument attacks the person instead of the idea. That's ad hominem.
Question 6
Which evidence best supports the claim “Our school should start a composting program”?
- Lots of cool schools are doing composting these days.
- A waste audit found that food scraps make up about a third of the school's garbage.
- If we don't compost, the whole planet will be ruined by next year.
- Our principal really enjoys gardening.
A waste audit found that food scraps make up about a third of the school's garbage.
Hint: Strong evidence is specific and relevant. Watch for bandwagon appeals and exaggeration.