Introduce your classes to the Art of Rhetoric with a lesson that focuses on Aristotle's persuasive appeals and how they have been used, both ethically and unethically, to influence opinion.

Ethics, emotion, reason—scholars investigate advertisers' persuasive techniques to attract buyers. After examining the techniques used in infomercials, writers craft a persuasive essay on a topic of their choice.

Students analyze common logos they see daily and describe what the logos bring to mind. They redesign a company logo incorporating the company's philosophy into their sketches. Students present their findings and redesign to the class.

Discuss classical appeals of rhetoric through the speeches of Winston Churchill and FDR. Learners read, annotate, and analyze the speeches by the men before using a graphic organizer to track the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. 

What is the author trying to achieve? What strategies does he/she use to meet this goal? How affective are these strategies? These three questions, the heart of rhetorical analysis, are examined in a presentation that also details...

Examine three speeches while teaching Aristotle's appeals. Over the course of three days, class members fill out a graphic organizer about ethos, pathos, and logos, complete an anticipatory guide, read speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.,...

The power to convince others of your argument lies in your knowledge of rhetoric! A thorough packet covers the basics of persuasion, including logical appeals and fallacies, and applies strategies to letters to the editor,...

Take a walk on the rhetorical side with this presentation, which discusses three styles of prose: tough (ethos), sweet (pathos), and stuffy (logos). The slide show provides thorough definitions and examples of each style, as well as...

Looking for a lesson that teaches class members how to analyze nonfiction? Use Joseph McCarthy's famous "Enemies from Within" speech as a instructional text. Worksheet questions direct readers' attention to the many historical...

Equip your high school writers for the rigors of timed persuasive writing by employing the preparatory ideas available in this exercise. Learners use persuasive essays, provided by the educator, to acquire how to identify persuasive...

Powerful orators make their messages compelling with a combination of factors. Learn how to be an inspirational speaker with a reading assessment activity that presents a list of persuasive speaking techniques, as well as two...

As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members conduct a close reading of a section of Chinua Achebe's essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Jigsaw groups then compare the voice in the essay...

Scholars, high schoolers, class members! With the help of this lesson, you too can identify the three persuasive appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) the characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar used to convince...

Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...

Help your 21st century learners develop their media smarts with this resource that has them examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use to influence specific demographics and then to use these techniques to craft their own ads.

"Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause." "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" As part of a study of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, individuals as asked to compare the funeral speeches of Brutus and...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream," is one of the most famous in United States history, but why was it so effective? Ask your class to determine the answer to this question. While the resource includes a description of...

This lesson brings together the rhetorical appeals including Logos, Pathos, and Ethos and how to identify and apply each. Click the Next link for more information.

This lesson focuses on rhetoric; it defines it, discusses rhetorical devices, and audience appeals. It includes a student assignment to read "Tear Down This Wall" a speech by Ronald Reagan and then use the comment feature in Microsoft...

A slideshow discussing ten rhetorical devices, with links to examples, in-depth information, and a video. Covers logos, ethos, pathos, analogy, metaphor, irony, personification, rhetorical question, tricolon, and maxims. Presents a...

This site is provided for by the Brigham Young University. Almost anything you would want to know about rhetoric and speech is here with great examples and explanations. Intended for a college-level audience, but plenty for younger...

This is an introduction to a unit on the use of rhetoric in speaking or writing to persuade an audience to the desired way of thinking or action. If focuses on rhetorical techniques and the three audience appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos.

This lesson focuses on Rhetoric and the literary techniques used in American Revolutionary speeches and writings. Students are asked to determine the rhetorical devices used in quotes from "The Crisis No 1" by Thomas Paine and Patrick...