What is pathos is a sentence

Pathos is a technique used in communication and literature that appeals to the emotions of the audience.

A great example of pathos would be those Sarah McLaughlin commercials. You know, the ones with the really sad music and footage of poor and abused children, and then they say "for just ___ cents a day, you can save a child."

In those commercials, pathos is used to make the audience upset so that they are much more likely to give into the speaker's goal; which is to get people to donate to the company's cause.

Pathos is the emotional essence of a piece of writing. it is what a writer uses in their writing to get to the emotional side of the reader.