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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.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.1.7.1; 7.2.4.2 · claims, evidence and sound reasoning in an argument

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 Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 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.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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 logical fallacy does this argument use?

    I met two rude drivers today, so all the drivers in this city must be rude.

    • Hasty generalization
    • Bandwagon
    • False cause
    • Attacking the person (ad hominem)
    • Slippery slope

  2. Question 2

    Which logical fallacy does this argument use?

    Everyone in our grade already has the new game. You should get it too.

    • False cause
    • Bandwagon
    • Slippery slope
    • Attacking the person (ad hominem)

  3. Question 3

    Which logical fallacy does this argument use?

    Millions of people use this app, so it must be the best one.

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

  4. Question 4

    Which logical fallacy does this argument use?

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

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

  5. Question 5

    Which is the strongest evidence for this claim?

    Our school should start a recycling program.

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

  6. Question 6

    Which persuasive technique is used here?

    We will learn. We will grow. We will succeed together.

    • Counterargument
    • Statistic
    • Expert opinion
    • Repetition

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