University students’ persuasion strategies: Ethos, logos or pathos?

Using Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs of ethos, logos and pathos, university students’ strategies of persuading their lecturer to grant their request was examined. The data were from 99 students enrolled in an English language course who were asked to write down what they would say to persuade their lecturer to end the class early. Some students used more than one strategy, giving rise to 101 persuasion strategies in total. Analysis of their requests showed that logos (reason) was the most popular persuasion strategy, accounting for about half of the total strategies identified. Students reasoned using their heavy workload and undesirable physical classroom conditions to end the class earlier than usual. About 45% of the students used pathos appeal. The emotional appeal was made based on either their own or their lecturer’s condition, signalled by the personal pronouns of “I” and “you” respectively. Appeals to ethos (credibility) was seldom used. The study showed the students used both emotional appeals and logical reasoning to persuade their lecturer to grant their requests. The results suggest that if students rely on both types of appeals, then they may respond better to a combination of emotional appeals and logical reasoning if lecturers were to motivate them in their studies and other aspects of their life