Best for
Persuasive speeches, editorials, argument analysis, media literacy, or any lesson where students need to explain how a writer tries to move an audience.
English • Persuasive writing • Years 8-13 • Public argument
Writer's Toolkit: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Use this handout to help ākonga recognise how persuasive writing works through credibility, emotion, and logic. The examples stay grounded in Aotearoa issues so students can analyse real argument choices instead of memorising Greek labels in isolation.
Free argument scaffold, premium adaptation path
This handout is ready to print and use now. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want the same appeal analysis rebuilt around your class text, a current local issue, or a different year-level reading demand.
- Swap in a speech, editorial, or public campaign from your own rohe.
- Generate a support version with chunked examples and sentence stems.
- Save the adapted version to My Kete and extend it later in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 25-35 minutes as a writing or analysis mini-lesson, or longer if students build their own persuasive paragraph afterwards.
- Grouping: Strong in triads where one student tracks ethos, one pathos, and one logos in the same example.
- Prep: Choose one shared issue students already care about, such as school spaces, local environment, or transport.
- Teaching move: Keep asking, “Why might this appeal work on this audience?” so the labels stay connected to effect.
Resources already provided
- Clear explanations of ethos, pathos, and logos
- Aotearoa-grounded examples for each appeal
- Analysis prompts and write-on response space
- A follow-up drafting task using all three appeals
- Curriculum companion for planning clarity
If the lesson mentions rhetorical appeals or persuasive techniques, they already exist here with examples and practice tasks.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how credibility, emotion, and logic work together in persuasion.
- We are learning to explain why a rhetorical appeal may affect one audience more than another.
- We are learning to use these appeals deliberately in our own writing.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can identify ethos, pathos, and logos in a text or example.
- I can explain which appeal is strongest and why.
- I can draft persuasive lines that use more than one appeal deliberately.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The companion page makes the English links explicit around persuasive texts, audience and purpose, and analysing how language choices shape an argument's effect in Aotearoa contexts.
Why this matters in Aotearoa
Arguments in Aotearoa often draw on evidence, emotion, and credibility at the same time, whether the issue is local transport, bilingual signage, school policy, or environmental restoration.
Through a mātauranga Māori lens, credibility is not only about formal expertise. It can also come from whakapapa, lived relationship with whenua, and responsibility to community. Students should be able to notice that difference, not flatten every argument into generic technique labels.
The three appeals
Ethos / Credibility
This appeal builds trust by showing the speaker or writer is worth listening to.
Example: “As a kaiako who has worked with mana whenua and student leaders on our awa project for three years, I have seen which changes actually lift participation.”
Pathos / Emotion
This appeal helps the audience feel why the issue matters.
Example: “No whānau should have to watch the playground flood again while children stand on benches to keep their shoes dry.”
Logos / Reason
This appeal uses logic, examples, or evidence to make the argument feel sound.
Example: “If meetings are always held after late buses stop running, then fewer students and whānau can attend, so the consultation cannot claim to represent everyone.”
Analyse the appeals
- Which example above relies most on trust and experience?
- Which one is most likely to make a reader feel urgency?
- Which one builds its case through reasoning rather than emotion?
- Why might one audience respond better to ethos while another responds better to logos?
Your turn: write one of each
Choose a school or community issue that matters to your class. Draft one line using ethos, one using pathos, and one using logos.
Support and stretch
Support
- Use the examples above as a pattern and swap in your own issue.
- Say which appeal you are trying to use before you write the sentence.
- Work with a partner to explain the effect orally before writing it down.
Stretch
- Combine two appeals in the same short paragraph.
- Evaluate which appeal would work best for a sceptical principal or local councillor.
- Rewrite a weak persuasive sentence so its rhetorical move becomes clearer.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate social, cultural, environmental, and economic questions; gather and evaluate evidence from diverse sources; communicate findings and reasoning clearly for different audiences and purposes.
English — Communication
Level 3–4: Read, interpret, and evaluate information texts; write clearly and purposefully for specific audiences; apply critical thinking skills to evaluate sources and construct well-reasoned responses.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
Curriculum alignment
- Reading — Making Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to identify, form, and express ideas across a range of texts.
- Writing — Creating Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to write in a range of text types for a variety of purposes and audiences.