Can You Persuade Your Audience Like a Jedi? Appealing to the Forces of Rhetoric

As I was brainstorming this article, my husband David peeked over my shoulder and asked what I was up to. I explained that I was writing a blog post about the rhetorical triangle. His eyes glazed over and he looked at me with a blank stare. “Oh sure, sure” he replied. 

It was clear he did not know what I was talking about. Lucky for him, I was happy to geek out and breakdown the rhetorical triangle—a visual diagram that organizes Aristotle’s three types of appeals for persuading an audience. These appeals are:

Ethos (ethics) - By using ethos, a writer or speaker builds credibility and authority with the audience through the inclusion of evidence that supports their argument.

Logos (logic) - Arguments that use logos rely on reason to persuade the reader. Logical arguments are built on facts and use clear and concise language.

Pathos (emotion) - A speaker or writer uses pathos to appeal to a reader’s emotions. These types of arguments may draw passion, anger, or sympathy from the reader, thus persuading them to use their feelings to guide their decisions.

David nodded along as I explained the three appeals, and when I asked if the triangle made sense, he replied nonchalantly, “Yeah, it’s like Star Wars.”

Now it was my turn to give him a blank state. “Go on,” I told him.

He proceeded to breakdown how the three main characters in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: Luke, Han, and Leia, provide excellent examples of ethos, pathos, and logos. In the film, the trio journeys through the galaxy to destroy the evil Empire’s Death Star, a massive spaceship that can detonate a planet with one shot.

Luke as Ethos
As they overcome many obstacles in trying to complete their mission, Luke relies on ethos, or ethics, to establish his credibility as a moral expert and persuade his friends and guide his actions. As a Jedi,—a “type of peace keeping space monk” according to David—Luke ‘s decisions are based on what he views as right or ethically sound for the good of others. Throughout the film, Han, Leia, and other characters fighting the Dark Side come to believe in Luke and value him as a leader because of his trustworthy character and moral actions. 

While you may not be able to use your moral code to save the galaxy, you can provide examples of yourself as an ethical writer and researcher in your scholarship, in order to best appeal to an academic audience. When you’re writing an academic paper, citing research shows the audience that you value the work of other researchers and that you also care about the accuracy of your own content. In turn, the audience trusts the claims you make because they know you are a trustworthy source.

Han and Pathos
Han is the opposite of Luke. Whenever a dangerous scenario begins to unfold, Han acts on his feelings with passion and anger, rather than trying to justify an argument with reason or a moral code. He is also an expert at appealing to others’ emotions and throughout the film he flirts and flatters his way out of a many risky situations. What you can learn from Han is what not to do in scholarly writing. 

Emotional appeals of anger or approval convey to an audience that you have not critically considered peer-reviewed research. These types of appeals usually rely on biased language and emotional reactions, depending on the type of audience, rather than concision and clarity to relay facts. While you shouldn’t rely on pathos to support an academic argument, you could effectively use pathos in marketing copy or fundraising to reach an audience more open to emotional appeals.

Leia’s Logos
Leia would never rely on emotions to make an argument. Han’s reactions and Luke’s moral code are illogical to the analytical Leia, who uses facts and possible outcomes when making decisions. Leia is a high-ranking official in the resistance to the Empire because she can present organized facts to the other officers. While her logic doesn’t always persuade Luke and Han, she is able to analyze the facts in front of her and make logical appeals to the appropriate audience such as generals and commanders. 

Making a logical argument may not work in arguments with a friend or partner, but in an academic or professional context, the audience will be more receptive to factual evidence you can provide in support of your argument.

At different points in the movie, Luke, Han, and Leia find success when their rhetorical choices appeal to the right audience. When writing a paper, the arguments you make must also convey your ethical choices and appeal to your reader through logic, while avoiding emotional and possibly biased claims. In persuading me that Star Wars was an excellent example of Aristotle’s triangle, David used logic to present evidence from the film; ethos, because he is a self-proclaimed expert and Star Wars nerd; and pathos to appeal to my love of the franchise. 

David, on the other hand, just claims he used the force.

Tasha Sookochoff is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. Along with earning degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Stout and Depaul University, Tasha has written documentation for the U.S. House of Representatives that increases government transparency, blogged for DePaul University, copy-edited the Journal of Second Language Writing, tutored immigrants and refugees at literacy centers, and taught academic writing to college students.

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