Rhetorical devices or persuasive techniques are strategies to change the opinion of an audience or reader.  The three main persuasive techniques are referred to as Pathos, Ethos, and Logos.

 

With Pathos, or the appeal to emotion, a writer tries to stir the emotions of their audience to feel a certain way so they will agree with what they're saying.

 

With Ethos, or the appeal to authority,a writer tries to establish him or herself as someone the reader can trust and identify with.

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With Logos, or the appeal to logic, the writer uses a logical argument, facts, or statistics/data to back up what they are saying.

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Propaganda is an extreme form of persuasive, typically with a negative purpose, such as to persuade people to be hostile toward a group (religious, racial, etc.) or agree with a policy that a government/group wants people to agree with. Propaganda distorts and disregards facts in order to cause people to blindly believe something or feel a certain way about something. 

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