Question

what is an example of pathos

Answer 1

the only thing i could think of would be the commercials for the christian children's fund. they use images of small children walking/playing amid dirty living conditions, while saying how the child has never attended school, hasn't received vaccinations to prevent childhood diseases, etc. they're hoping you will "pick up the phone" and sponsor a child. hope that helps! "ya"

Answer 2

Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Direct appeals to the reader to feel an emotion (e.q. 'You should be crying now') are rarely effective. Instead, creating an emotion with words usually requires recreating the scene or event that would in 'real' circumstances arouse the emotion. Thus descriptions of painful or pleasant things work on the emotions. Or the arguer can work on the natural 'trigger' of the emotion. If, for example, we usually feel anger at someone who, we believe, has received benefits without deserving them, then the arguer who wants to make us angry with someone will make a case that person was rewarded unfairly.

EXAMPLES:
- Almost any TV ad of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)
- Almost any book on the holocaust.
- Any Shakespeare play