Question

Which statement uses pathos as a rhetorical appeal?

A.)Sixty percent of the community center staff are unpaid volunteers.
B.)The center is subsidized, and over half of the children attend for free.
C)The children’s innocence touches the volunteers’ hearts.
D)Many staffers are retired teachers with impressive resumes.

Answer 1

Pathos - a rhetorical appeal appealing to a persons emotions.

This being said, the answer choice would be (c) The children's innocence touches the volunteer's hearts.

the word hearts hints and points to emotion, showing that this is the rhetorical appeal of pathos.

Answer 2

The correct answer is - The children’s innocence touches the volunteers’ hearts.

Pathos as a rhetorical appeal should affect your emotions by using poignant themes such as the children's innocence. The other options give you facts rather than feelings, and are thus using ethos rather than pathos. By using pathos, you want to make your audience feel things and therefore agree with your points.