Rhetorical terms · AP English Language, SAT Reading and Writing, ACT Reading
Ethos
Ethos: An appeal based on the speaker's credibility, character or shared values with the audience.
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What it means
Ethos is how a writer earns the audience's trust. It can come from expertise and credentials, from experience, from fairness toward opponents, or from showing that the writer shares the audience's values. Ethos is built within the text as much as it is brought to it: a careful concession can make a writer seem more trustworthy than a list of titles.
Writers can also damage their ethos, for example by exaggerating, attacking opponents unfairly or misjudging what the audience values.
Example
'As a nurse who has worked night shifts in this hospital for twelve years, I have seen what understaffing does to patients.' The speaker's experience gives her standing to make the argument that follows.
On the exam
Explain how the writer builds credibility with this audience and why that credibility matters for the purpose.
Lessons and practice questions
Related terms
- PathosAn appeal to the audience's emotions, values or imagination to make them more receptive to an argument.
- LogosAn appeal to reason through evidence, logic, data and clear chains of cause and effect.
- AudienceThe people a text is meant to reach, whose beliefs, values and expectations shape the writer's choices.