About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 reading activity helps students compare how two persuasive texts use rhetorical appeals. One passage supports strict nutrition standards by relying on health facts, research, and long-term academic benefits. The other argues for more student choice by using family concerns, cultural foods, and feelings about freedom. For example, research about improved concentration uses logic, while concern about losing familiar foods appeals more strongly to emotion.
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students identify and compare logos, pathos, and ethos across two arguments. Students should already understand that authors use facts, emotion, and credibility to persuade readers. This worksheet moves them toward deciding which appeal each writer uses most and how that choice shapes the argument. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.8 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.9, which focus on evaluating and comparing arguments.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will read two persuasive texts about school nutrition rules. They will identify examples of logic, emotion, and credibility in each passage. Students must compare which appeal is strongest in each text and explain how it supports the author’s position. Their responses should use exact details rather than simply saying one article is more emotional or more factual.
Common Challenges
Students may confuse ethos with logos when an expert or organization provides research. Explain that the source’s authority builds credibility, while the actual facts or numbers create logical support. Some may also label any feeling as pathos without showing how the wording affects the reader. Teachers can ask students to explain what each appeal makes the audience think, trust, or feel.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can use three labels-logic, emotion, and credibility-and have students sort evidence from both passages. Afterward, partners can compare which text seems more convincing and why. At home, a parent can ask the child whether the argument would still be strong if one type of appeal were removed. That question helps students see how persuasive techniques work together.
Worksheet Features
The page includes two complete arguments with different tones and priorities. One emphasizes nutrition research and school performance, while the other highlights choice, culture, and family involvement. A comparison chart gives students a clear place to organize rhetorical appeals. The worksheet fits lessons on persuasion, argument writing, health, or school policy.