Rhetorical Appeals (Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Kairos) (College Board AP® English Language & Composition): Study Guide

This study guide introduces you to rhetorical appeals in AP Lang. It explains how writers establish credibility through ethos, influence an audience’s emotions through pathos, appeal to reason through logos and take advantage of the right moment through kairos. It also shows how rhetorical choices create these appeals, how appeals respond to an audience’s beliefs, values and needs, and how you can analyze and use appeals effectively in your own writing. 

What are rhetorical appeals?

Rhetorical appeals are ways writers and speakers attempt to influence an audience. 

The three traditional appeals are:

• Ethos: an appeal based on credibility, character and trust

• Pathos: an appeal to emotion, values or the senses

• Logos: an appeal to logic, evidence and reasoning

A fourth appeal, kairos, refers to choosing the most suitable time, place and circumstances for presenting an argument. 

The appeals are important for you to understand because writers appeal through the rhetorical choices they make. Writers may select certain words, examples, stories, facts, sentence structures or sources because they believe those choices will connect with a particular audience. 

For example, a writer might:

• Establish ethos by citing a professional experience

• Create pathos by describing a family's hardship

• Develop logos by providing facts and cause-and-effect reasoning

• Invoke kairos by issuing a call to action immediately after an important event

Ethos: appealing to credibility

Ethos is an appeal based on the audience’s judgment of the writer’s credibility, character and trustworthiness. An audience is more likely to consider an argument as credible when the writer appears knowledgeable, honest, fair, experienced, informed and responsible. 

Ethos does not depend primarily on a writer’s or speaker’s job title or reputation: writers can also create credibility through the choices they make within the text. 

How writers build ethos

Demonstrating expertise:

• A writer may explain how their education, experience or knowledge is relevant:

  • For example: a school counselor who has worked with teenagers for twenty years discusses the effects of academic pressure

Using credible sources:

• Writers can strengthen their own ethos by drawing upon the authority of knowledgeable sources:

  • For example: a writer discussing bridge safety refers to professional engineers who understand how steel and concrete deteriorate when structures are not maintained

Showing fairness:

• A writer may acknowledge reasonable concerns before presenting a position:

  • For example: “Although later school start times may complicate transportation schedules, student health and readiness to learn should remain the district’s highest priority.” 

Establishing shared values:

• Writers may connect themselves to the audience through shared values:

  • For example: “As parents, teachers and students, we all want classrooms in which students feel safe enough to participate and challenged enough to grow in ability.”

Using an appropriate tone:

• A calm, understanding and respectful tone can strengthen ethos:

  • For example: “Supporters of the policy raise legitimate concerns about safety, but those concerns must be balanced against its effects on students’ independence.”  

Examples of ethos in real-world texts

Pathos: appealing to emotion

Pathos is an appeal to an audience’s emotions, values or senses. Writers may attempt to create emotions such as sympathy, fear, anger, pride, guilt, concern, compassion or moral outrage.

How writers create pathos

Telling stories:

• Stories allow an audience to experience an issue through a particular person or situation:

  • For example: instead of discussing hunger only as a statistic, a writer describes a student who quietly saves part of a school lunch to take home to a younger sibling

Using vivid or sensory details:

• Specific descriptions help an audience picture the consequences of an issue:

  • For example: to make the danger immediate and more visible, a writer describes cars falling into a river after a bridge “shuddered, buckled and collapsed.” 

Choosing words with strong connotations:

• Words carry emotional associations in addition to their literal meanings:

  • For example: to convey a strong sense of destruction and loss, a writer chooses “demolished” and “neighborhood” when writing “The town demolished the neighborhood", rather than neutral language such as "cleared the site"

Appealing to shared values:

• Writers may connect an issue to values such as freedom, family, justice, safety or responsibility:

  • For example: “No child’s access to a safe education should depend on the wealth of the neighborhood in which that child happens to live.”

Using repetition:

• Repetition can intensify an emotion:

  • For example: “We waited for answers. We waited for help. We waited while the damage continued.”

Using imagery or figurative language:

• Metaphors and imagery can make an abstract concern feel more noticeable or concrete:

  • For example: “The neglected building has become a wound in the center of the community.” 

Examples of pathos in real-world texts

Logos: appealing to logic

Logos is an appeal to an audience’s reasoning. Writers build logos by presenting ideas in a clear and logical way and by supporting claims with relevant evidence. 

How writers build logos

Providing relevant evidence:

• A writer may use facts, examples or testimony that directly supports the claim:

  • For example: responding logically to the concern that a later start would shorten the school day, a writer writes “If a school adds thirty minutes to the beginning of day but removes the same amount from the afternoon, the total instruction time remains unchanged.”  

Explaining cause and effect:

• Writers may show how one condition produces another:

  • For example: showing how phone access may interfere with concentration, a writer writes “When a student interrupts an assignment to check a notification, the student must shift attention away from the task and later reconstruct the interrupted thought.”  

Making comparisons:

• A writer may compare two policies, situations or outcomes:

  • For example: qualifying a position, the writer writes “A total ban would prevent emergency and teacher-approved uses, while a limited policy could protect instructional time without removing legitimate access.” 

Using analogies:

• An analogy explains one idea through comparison with another:

  • For example: “A school emergency plan is like a fire drill: its value depends on being established before a crisis occurs.” 

Defining important terms:

• Writers may clarify what they mean before developing an argument:

  • For example: “Digital literacy means more than knowing how to operate a device; it includes evaluating sources, recognizing manipulation and using information responsibly."

Developing a line of reasoning:

• A writer may move from claim to reason to evidence to conclusion:

  • Focusing on the line of reasoning, a writer writes “Students need sustained attention to complete difficult tasks. Immediate access to messages creates opportunities for interruption. Keeping phones out of reach reduces those opportunities. Therefore, limited phone policies can support focused classroom work.”

Examples of logos in real-world texts

Kairos: the timely fourth appeal

Kairos refers to the most suitable time, place and circumstances for making an argument. It is often called the “timely fourth appeal.” Perhaps it is more precise to think of it as an awareness of rhetorical opportunity. 

Kairos asks “Why is this the right argument for this particular moment?”  

How writers use kairos

Responding to a recent event:

• A writer may connect an argument to an event that has made the issue visible or urgent:

  • For example: following a serious accident at a dangerous intersection, a resident urges the city council to install a traffic signal before another person is injured

Emphasizing urgency:

• Writers may use deadlines, immediate consequences or time-sensitive language to show that an issue requires attention now:

  • For example: “Unless repairs begin before the next hurricane season, the damaged levee may leave thousands of residents vulnerable to flooding.” 

Recognizing the audience’s readiness:

• An argument may become more persuasive when the audience has recently experienced something that changes its understanding of the issue:

  • For example: after an e-bike collision injures both a student rider and a pedestrian on campus, parents may be more receptive to an argument for banning e-bikes on school property

Issuing a timely call to action:

• Writers may identify a limited opportunity during which the audience can act:

  • For example: “Because the school board will vote on the proposal next Tuesday, community members should submit their comments before Friday.”

Examples of kairos in real-world texts

How to identify rhetorical appeals in a text

1. Identify the rhetorical situation

2. Identify the writer’s specific choice of types of evidence, concessions, word choice and use of pronouns

3. Determine what the choice asks the audience to do, think or feel

4. Identify the main appeal

5. Connect the appeal to the audience

6. Explain how the appeal advances the purpose

How to use rhetorical appeals in your own writing

When constructing your own argument, begin with the audience in mind rather than immediately targeting an appeal. Ask yourself, what does this audience need in order to consider my argument?  

For example, imagine that you want your parent or guardian to extend your curfew after prom.

Worked example: analysis of ethos, pathos, logos and kairos

Context:

In May 1940, Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons shortly after becoming British prime minister. Britain was at war with Nazi Germany, fighting continued across Europe and Churchill had formed a new coalition government that included members of several political parties. 

In his speech, he asks Parliament to express confidence in the new government and prepares the nation for the struggle ahead. 

Directions:

• Read the following edited excerpt from Winston Churchill’s speech

• Identify and analyze the rhetorical appeals

I beg to move,

That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion.

On Friday evening last I received His Majesty's Commission to form a new Administration. It is the evident wish and will of Parliament and the nation that this should be conceived on the broadest possible basis and that it should include all parties, both those who supported the late Government and also the parties of the Opposition. I have completed the most important part of this task. A War Cabinet has been formed of five Members, representing, with the Opposition Liberals, the unity of the nation. The three party Leaders have agreed to serve, either in the War Cabinet or in high executive office. The three Fighting Services have been filled. It was necessary that this should be done in one single day, on account of the extreme urgency and rigour of events. A number of other positions, key positions, were filled yesterday, and I am submitting a further list to His Majesty tonight. I hope to complete the appointment of the principal Ministers during tomorrow. The appointment of the other Ministers usually takes a little longer, but I trust that, when Parliament meets again, this part of my task will be completed, and that the administration will be complete in all respects.

To form an Administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations have to be made here at home. In this crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

Common mistakes when analyzing rhetorical appeals

• Naming the appeal without identifying the choice

• Assuming that every fact or statistic creates logos

• Assuming that pathos signals sadness

• Treating ethos as a writer’s job title or profession only

• Ignoring the audience

• Ignoring the writer’s purpose

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between ethos and credibility?

Credibility is the audience’s judgment that a writer is trustworthy, knowledgeable or fair. Ethos is the rhetorical appeal created when a writer establishes or uses that credibility to influence the audience. 

Consider this example: when asked for a health recommendation, a doctor may begin with professional credibility. However, if the doctor exaggerates evidence or dismisses reasonable concerns, the doctor’s ethos may weaken. 

Can a writer use all four appeals at once?

Absolutely. In fact, writers frequently combine the appeals. 

For example, a firefighter speaking about smoke detectors may:

• Establish ethos through professional experience

• Create pathos by describing the consequences of a house fire

• Develop logos by explaining how detectors provide early warning 

The appeals may operate within the same paragraph or even within the same sentence. 

How are rhetorical appeals tested in AP Lang FRQs?

In the FRQ 2, the rhetorical analysis essay, you may explain how a writer’s choices create appeals that help achieve a purpose for a particular audience. In FRQ 1 and 3, the synthesis and argument essays, you create your own appeals through the evidence, tone, organization and language you select. Typically, you will not be tested on appeals in the multiple choice section. 

Is one appeal more important than the others?

No appeal is more important than another. The most effective appeal depends on the rhetorical situation; that is, the writer’s:

• Message

• Subject

• Context

• Audience

• Purpose 

• Exigence

Academic arguments often require strong logos, but they also depend on ethos because readers must trust the writer’s handling of evidence. Pathos may help the audience understand why the issue matters, while kairos may explain why action is needed now. The strongest arguments usually combine appeals strategically rather than relying entirely on one. 

Key terms and glossary

• Appeal: a method of influencing and audience’s judgment, emotions or actions

• Audience: the person or group a writer addresses or seeks to influence

• Call to action: a statement that urges an audience to think, feel or act in a particular way

• Concession: acknowledgement that an opposing perspective has some validity

• Credibility: the quality of being considered trustworthy, knowledgeable or fair

• Ethos: an appeal based on credibility, character and trust

• Evidence: information used to support a claim or line of reasoning

• Expert testimony: information or opinion provided by someone with specialized knowledge or experience

• Kairos: the use of an appropriate or opportune time, place and set of circumstances for an argument

• Logos: an appeal based on reasoning, evidence and logical relationships

• Pathos: an appeal to an audience’s emotions, values or senses

• Rhetorical appeal: a way a writer or speaker attempts to influence an audience

• Rhetorical choice: a decision involving language, evidence, structure, tone or other features used to affect an audience

• Rhetorical situation: the circumstances surrounding a text, including the writer, audience, purpose, context, exigence and message

• Shared values: principles or ideals recognized by both the writer and audience

• Testimony: a statement based on a person’s experience, knowledge or observation

• Tone: the writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience