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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 3 of 20

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7R8; 7SL3; 7W1 · 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 3 of 20 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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 sentence is a claim, not evidence?

    • 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.
    • The city's two bike lanes each carry about 800 riders a day.
    • Our city should build more bike lanes.

  2. Question 2

    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)
    • False cause
    • Bandwagon
    • Either-or (false dilemma)

  3. Question 3

    Which persuasive technique is used here?

    Do we really want our children breathing dirty air every day?

    • Rhetorical question
    • Personal anecdote
    • Statistic
    • Expert opinion

  4. 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.

    • Either-or (false dilemma)
    • False cause
    • Hasty generalization
    • Bandwagon

  5. Question 5

    Which persuasive appeal does this mostly use?

    Dr. Chen, who has studied children's teeth for more than thirty years, recommends brushing for two full minutes.

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

  6. Question 6

    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.

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

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