An argument based on influencing the audience’s emotions

Emotional Appeal Defined

Pathos represents an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric (where it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos), and in literature, film, and other narrative art.

Emotional appeal can be accomplished in a multitude of ways:

By a metaphor or storytelling, common as a hook
By a general passion in the delivery
By an overall emotion
By the sympathies of the speech or writing as determined by the audience
The pathos of a speech or writing is only ultimately determined by the audience.