How do you identify rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques in an informational text, and analyze how they work on a reader?
Rhetorical appeals and persuasion: identifying ethos, pathos, and logos and persuasive techniques (rhetorical questions, repetition, anecdote, statistics, appeals to authority), and analyzing how a writer uses them to persuade, for Part 1 informational questions and the Part 2 sources.
How to identify and analyze rhetorical appeals and persuasion on the Regents: ethos, pathos, and logos, plus techniques like rhetorical questions, repetition, anecdote, statistics, and appeals to authority, and how a writer uses them to persuade. A toolkit for Part 1 informational texts and reading the Part 2 sources.
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What this skill is asking
The Part 1 informational text and all four Part 2 sources are often persuasive, so recognizing rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and persuasive techniques (rhetorical questions, repetition, anecdote, statistics, appeals to authority) helps you both answer Part 1 craft questions and read the Part 2 sources critically. This page covers identifying each appeal and technique and analyzing how it works on a reader. The transferable skill is reading persuasion actively: seeing not just what a writer claims but how they are trying to move you.
The three appeals
Classical rhetoric names three ways a text persuades.
You do not need to use the Greek terms in a Part 1 answer (the options will usually describe the appeal in plain words), but knowing them helps you spot the move quickly. Seeing that an opening establishes experience (ethos) or that a paragraph piles up numbers (logos) tells you what the writer is doing and why.
Persuasive techniques
Beyond the three appeals, writers use recognizable devices.
These techniques often serve one of the three appeals: an anecdote serves pathos, a statistic serves logos, citing an expert serves ethos. Linking a technique to the appeal it serves deepens your analysis and is exactly the kind of reading that helps you judge whether a Part 2 source is convincing or merely emotive.
Reading persuasion on the exam
Try this
Q1. What are ethos, pathos, and logos? [Recall]
- Cue. Ethos appeals to the writer's credibility; pathos appeals to the reader's emotions; logos appeals to logic and evidence. Most persuasive texts blend all three.
Q2. A writer asks "How many more winters must families choose between heating and eating?" What technique is this, and what is its effect? [Short explanation]
- Cue. A rhetorical question, asked for effect rather than an answer; it presses the urgency of the hardship and implies that action has been delayed too long.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of NYSED exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Regents ELA (Part 1, style)1 marksAn opinion writer begins 'As a nurse who has worked thirty years in this hospital, I have seen what these cuts do.' This opening most directly appeals to the reader through (1) statistics, (2) the writer's credibility and experience, (3) humor, (4) a rhetorical question.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Identifying an appeal means naming how it persuades. Citing thirty years of nursing experience builds the writer's credibility and authority on the subject, an appeal to ethos (2).
Why not the others: (1) no numbers are given; (3) the tone is serious, not humorous; (4) no question is asked. The exam rewards recognizing that establishing experience is an appeal to credibility, which makes the reader more likely to trust what follows.
Regents ELA (Part 1, style)1 marksWhich technique is the writer using in 'How many more winters must families choose between heating and eating before the council acts?' (1) an appeal to authority, (2) a rhetorical question that presses urgency, (3) a statistic, (4) a definition.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). A rhetorical question is asked for effect, not for an answer. This one presses the urgency of the hardship and implies the council has delayed too long (2).
Why not the others: (1) no authority is cited; (3) no number is given; (4) nothing is being defined. The exam rewards naming the technique and reading its effect; the question's force comes from making the reader feel the stakes and the delay, not from expecting a reply.
Related dot points
- Figurative language and imagery: identifying metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, and sensory imagery, and analyzing the effect each creates, the toolkit you apply to Part 1 craft questions and as a writing strategy in the Part 3 response.
How to identify and analyze figurative language and imagery on the Regents: metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, and sensory imagery, and the effect each creates. The toolkit behind Part 1 craft questions and a common writing strategy for the Part 3 text-analysis response.
- Tone, mood, and diction: distinguishing tone (the writer's attitude), mood (the atmosphere felt by the reader), and diction (word choice), and analyzing how a writer's diction creates a particular tone and mood, for Part 1 questions and as a Part 3 writing strategy.
How to distinguish and analyze tone, mood, and diction on the Regents: tone (the writer's attitude), mood (the atmosphere felt by the reader), and diction (word choice), and how diction creates tone and mood. Tested in Part 1 craft questions and usable as a Part 3 writing strategy.
- Narrative and structural techniques: recognizing how a text is ordered and shaped (chronology and flashback, contrast, foreshadowing, repetition, turning points, framing) and analyzing how a structural choice develops meaning, distinct from word-level language.
How to recognize and analyze narrative and structural techniques on the Regents: chronology and flashback, contrast, foreshadowing, repetition, turning points, and framing, and how a structural choice shapes meaning, distinct from word-level language. A toolkit for Part 1 and a Part 3 writing strategy.
- Analyzing author's craft and purpose: explaining why a writer made a particular choice of word, structure, or technique, identifying its effect on the reader, and answering Part 1 questions about purpose, tone, and the function of a passage.
How to analyze author's craft on the Regents: explaining why a writer chose a particular word, structure, or technique and what effect it creates, and answering Part 1 questions about purpose, tone, and the function of a line or paragraph.
- Addressing counterclaims: identifying the strongest opposing claim from the texts, acknowledging it fairly, and answering it with a rebuttal that strengthens rather than weakens your position, as the task's direction to distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims.
How to distinguish your claim from opposing claims on the Regents Part 2 argument: identifying the strongest counterclaim from the texts, acknowledging it fairly, and rebutting it so your position is strengthened, the move behind the task's instruction to distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims.
Sources & how we know this
- Regents Examinations in English Language Arts — NYSED (2025)
- New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards — NYSED (2017)