Pathos, Ethos and Logos

              Had someone asked me a month ago what pathos, ethos or logos were, I would have just given them a strange look, wondering what language they were speaking in.  But upon reading certain chapters in a book titled, Writing and Rhetoric, I have come to a basic understanding on what these strange words mean, and how they can be seen or heard in use in many everyday occurrences.  I have realized that I have thought about ethos, pathos and logos quite a bit throughout my life, I just didn’t know there was a study on them that had actually defined them and given names to each tactic, for that is what each of these are; tactics.  The types of tactics I speak of are the skills and methods used when speaking, writing or otherwise communicating with individuals or groups of people.  These are used to persuade people into believing what you say is true, or even to change ones opinion on something.  The ethos deal with how an author creates credibility in his topic.  Pathos deal with how an author wins your vote through toying with your emotions.  Last but not least, logos tie into the persuading of an individual or audience through a type of reasoning, whether it is in a logical or moral sense.  Upon knowing these three “proofs”, as Aristotle describes them, we can more understand how a speaker gains our trust, or even how we can gain the trust of those we present to.