One young bachelor on Twitter has proved that the skills taught to write an persuasive essay actually do prepare students for real life experiences.
Jake—or @squidslippers—shared that he used Aristotle’s “ingredients for persuasion” to craft a compelling text to ask out his crush.
For those who slept through English class, there are three different kinds of appeals used to persuade others to agree with an argument: ethos, logos, and pathos.
Ethos is an appeal to ethics and can be used to convince someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and can be used to convince an audience by creating an emotional response. Logos is an appeal to logic, and is used to persuade through reason.
If an argument combines all three appeals it’s solid, according to Aristotle.
Jake’s text combined all three appeals to create a foolproof argument to go on a date with him.
“I hate to come on too strong here, but if you could use a stress-free night after work or need some food to keep you alive while you’re moving into your new apartment, I would love to take you to dinner,” he wrote. “It would be fun and a great way for me to see your dog, which is lowkey why I’m doing this.”
https://twitter.com/squidslippers/status/923223969812975616
Here’s the breakdown of how this text combines all three appeals:
Ethos: “I hate to come on too strong here,” shows Hannah that Jake ethically just wants to take her out for a friendly date—he has no hidden motives.
Logos: “If you could use a stress-free night after work or need some food to keep you alive while you’re moving into your new apartment,” shows Hannah the logical reasons to say yes—she gets a break from work and free food.
Pathos: “It would be fun,” appeals to Hannah’s emotional need to have a good time.
Since Jake’s tweet went viral, if the first date doesn’t work out then at least he now has plenty of interested suitors on the internet.
https://twitter.com/MelodyAnnDaddy/status/923455012121993216
I second this
— Emma (@EmmaHicks97) October 26, 2017
https://twitter.com/hannahnholder/status/923627564094156800
Hopefully all the men reading on Twitter took notes.