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Greek scholars used different means to persuade their audiences, often dividing their attempts into three categories: appeal to reason, appeal to emotion, and appeal to character. Instructors frequently refer to these tools by their respective Greek terms: logos, pathos, and ethos.
Logos describes the use of evidence to appeal to a reader's sense of reason (e.g. statistics, logic, historical facts, examples, analogies, and expert opinion). Oftentimes readers, especially those involved in academic work, put more trust in facts and numbers than they do in emotions or testimonials. Appeals to reason must follow the rules of formal Western thinking, which are based on inductive and deductive reasoning.
Logos is the most common rhetorical appeal used in technical communication. Readers of technical writing want to know why and how they should use information. They expect ideas to be laid out in an orderly, logical fashion. Unfortunately, some technical writers introduce unnecessary information, misuse language, or commit logical fallacies which break the rules of inductive and deductive reasoning. Such problems seriously weaken technical documents and may even have legal ramifications.
When looking at logos, consider the sample paper you read entitled "Electronic Lifeguard" by Jason B. Jones. Jones lays out his argument in a logical, orderly fashion providing a balanced, detailed discussion. He begins by making a claim (current electronic lifeguard systems are inadequate) and then objectively explores other options. He presents hard data to support his conclusions and appeals to his audience's sense of reason in his presentation of data. In what other ways do you see Jones using logos to appeal to his readers?