Green Persuasion
How do Nike and iPod commercials make people interested in their products? What strategies do environmental organizations use to encourage resource conservation? How do you target a particular audience? What are strong ways to convince people to act? How do logos and branding play a part in attracting people into stores? In what ways can influential people support a particular cause?
We discussed the questions above in an open class conversation, and then, we discussed three rhetorical strategies that Greek philosopher Aristotle said are used in persuasive writing:
- ethos- ethical/moral/righteous appeal or credibility/character of the speaker; reputation is important (ex. “recycling is the right thing to do to save our planet” OR “President Barack Obama says we should have recycle bins in every classroom in America”).
- logos- logical, rational, reason-based argument “makes sense,” often supported by numbers evidence (ex. “carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to global warming” or “we could save $2,000 on our energy bill if we unplug our cell phone chargers when we aren't using them")
- pathos- emotional (ex. “the kids of the future will be able to breathe clean air if we reduce, reuse and recycle and support clean energy businesses”
After learning about ethos, pathos, and logos, we developed our own recycling posters to persuade people to take action on an environmental issue in the community, ranging from using less water by taking shorter showers to changing lightbulbs in the house to be more energy efficient. Each group presented their poster to the class, describing strategies used and explaining the illustrations they chose.
"I put up a sticker on a light in my house to remind my family to turn off the lights." - Mark
"My poster convinces people to buy locally grown food." - Michael
"I drew a lightbulb with green recycling signs around it so people will think of the environment when they use electricity." -Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment