Tenth Grade Public

Speaking Booklet
The 3 Pillars of P.S.

Ethos Pathos Logos 2-6

Ethos 6-26
What is Pathos 27-41
What is Logos 42-55

A Better Speech Opener

How to Prepare a Presentation #1 58-59
Speech Preparation #2 Selecting Topic 60-64
Speech Prepartion #3 Speech Outline 65-70
Speech Preparation #4 First Draft 71-77
Speech Preparation #5 Six Power Principles 77-82

Rhetoric
Speech Preparation #6 Rhetorical Devices 82-85
Speech Preparation #7 Choreograph 86-103
Speech Preparation #9 Prepare Speech 104-112

For the Teacher 113-135

Rubrics 136-138

1
 Ethos, Pathos, Logos:
3 Pillars of Public Speaking

2300 years ago, Aristotle wrote down the secret to being a

persuasive speaker, the secret which forms the basis for nearly every
public speaking book written since then.

Do you know the secret?

If you don‘t, you might be wondering what a 2300-year-old theory has

to do with public speaking in the year 2015.

In a word — everything!

In this booklet, you‘ll learn what ethos, pathos, and logos are (the
secret!), and what every speaker needs to understand about these three
pillars of public speaking.

What are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?

So, what are ethos, pathos, and logos?

2
 In simplest terms, they correspond to:

 Ethos: credibility (or character) of the speaker

 Pathos: emotional connection to the audience
 Logos: logical argument

Together, they are the three persuasive appeals. In other words, these
are the three essential qualities that your speech or presentation must
have before your audience will accept your message.

Origins of Ethos, Pathos, Logos — On Rhetoric by Aristotle

Written in the 4th century B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Aristotle
compiled his thoughts on the art of rhetoric into On Rhetoric, including
his theory on the three persuasive appeals.

3
 Ethos
Before you can convince an audience to accept anything you say, they
have to accept you as credible.

There are many aspects to building your credibility:

 Does the audience respect you?

 Does the audience believe you are of good character?
 Does the audience believe you are generally trustworthy?
 Does the audience believe you are an authority on this speech topic?
Keep in mind that it isn‘t enough for you to know that you are a credible
source. (This isn‘t about your confidence, experience, or expertise.) Your
audience must know this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived
by your audience.
We will define ethos in greater detail, and we will study examples of how
to establish and build ethos.

Pathos

Pathos is the quality of a persuasive presentation which appeals to the

emotions of the audience.
 Do your words evoke feelings of… love? … Sympathy? … Fear?
 Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? … Envy?
 Does your characterization of the competition evoke feelings of
hate? Contempt?
Emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker,
perhaps most notably by stories. The goal of a story, anecdote, analogy,
simile, and metaphor is often to link an aspect of our primary message
with a triggered emotional response from the audience.
We will study pathos in greater detail, and look at how to build
pathos by tapping into different audience emotions.

4
 Logos

Logos is synonymous with a logical argument.

 Does your message make sense?

 Is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?
 Will your call-to-action lead to the desired outcome that you
promise?
We will see why logos is critical to your success, and examine ways to
construct a logical, reasoned argument.

Which is most important? Ethos? Pathos? or Logos?

Suppose two speakers give speeches about a new corporate

restructuring strategy.

 The first speaker — a grade nine student — gives a flawless speech

pitching strategy which is both logically sound and stirs emotions.
 The second speaker — a Fortune 500 CEO — gives a boring speech
pitching strategy.

Which speech is more persuasive? Is the CEO‘s speech more persuasive,

simply because she has much more credibility (ethos)?

Some suggest that pathos is the most critical of the three. People buy
on emotion (pathos) and justify with fact (logos). True? You decide.
Aristotle believed that logos should be the most important of the three
persuasive appeals. As a philosopher and a master of logical reasoning,
he believed that logos should be the only required persuasive appeal.
That is, if you demonstrated logos, you should not need either ethos or
pathos.
However, Aristotle stated that logos alone are not sufficient. Not only is
it not sufficient on its own, but it is no more important than either of the
two other pillars. He argued that all three persuasive appeals are
necessary.

5
1. What is Ethos and Why is it Critical for Speakers?

Is your audience listening even before you speak your first words?

Do they have high expectations?

Are they prepared to be convinced by what you have to say?

If not, you are suffering from poor ethos.

What is Ethos?
Ethos was originally defined by Aristotle in On Rhetoric as being
trustworthy. He stated that we are more likely to believe people who
have good character.
Aristotle later broadened this definition of ethos to add that we are more
likely to be persuaded by someone who is similar to us, whether by
their intrinsic characteristics (e.g. physical age) or the qualities they
adapt (e.g. youthful language).
Aristotle does not include the concept of either a
speaker‘s authority (e.g. a government leader) or reputation (e.g. an
industry expert) in his definition of ethos, but this reflects the rather
narrow role for public speaking in his world. In our world, where
speaking takes so many forms and where we often know a great deal
about the speaker, we will include both of these elements in our
definition of ethos.
So, then, we will measure the ethos of a speaker by four related
characteristics:
1. Trustworthiness (as perceived by the audience)
2. Similarity (to the audience)
3. Authority (relative to the audience)
4. Reputation or Expertise (relative to the topic)

6
 1. Ethos = Trustworthiness

An audience is more likely to be persuaded by someone who they trust,

and this is largely independent of the topic being presented. If the
audience trusts you, then they expect that what you are telling them is
true.

―If the audience trusts you, then they expect that what you are
telling them is true.‖

Your trustworthiness is enhanced if the audience believes you have a

strong moral character, as measured by concepts like:

 Honest,
 Ethical or moral,
 Generous, or
 Benevolent

Additionally, your audience tends to trust you if you are a member of a

group with which these qualities are often associated (e.g. a pastor; a
firefighter).

2. Ethos = Similarity to the Audience

Your audience is more receptive to being persuaded by someone with

whom they can identify. Like trustworthiness, this aspect of ethos is
largely independent of the topic.

7
 If you share characteristics with your audience, great!

If you don‘t, you can adapt your language, your mannerisms, your
dress, your visuals, and your overall style to match your audience.
Consider this the chameleon effect. Keep in mind that there are
limitations to how much you can adapt your speech and delivery.
Beyond this limit, your audience will see you as lacking authenticity and
that‘s bad.

―If you are similar to your audience, then your audience will be
more receptive to your ideas in the same way that you are more
likely to open a door at night if you recognize the voice of the
person on the other side.‖

There are many characteristics which you might share with your
audience:

 Age, Gender, Race, Culture

Example: A youthful audience identifies with a youthful speaker, just
as a mature audience will identify more with a mature speaker.
 Socio-economic status
Rich? Poor? Educated? Middle-class? Urban? Rural?
 Citizenship
Where you are from, whether in a global sense (what country are
you from?), or in a local sense (are you urban, or rural?)
 Career or Affiliation
Do you share a profession with your audience?
 Personality
Analytical? Emotional? Reserved? Outgoing?

If you are similar to your audience, then your audience will be more
receptive to your ideas.

3. Ethos = Authority

The greater a person‘s authority, whether formal (e.g. an elected

official) or moral (e.g. the Dalai Lama), the more likely an audience is
inclined to listen and be persuaded.

8
 Authority comes from the relationship between the speaker and the
audience and is, in most cases, fairly easy to recognize. Several types of
authority include:

 Organizational authority
e.g. CEO, manager, supervisor
 Political authority
e.g. president, political leader
 Religious authority
e.g. priest, pastor, nun
 Educational authority
e.g. principal, teacher, professor
 Elder authority
e.g. anyone who is older than us
In addition to these, every speaker has authority just from being the
speaker. When you speak, you are the one at the front of the room,
often on an elevated platform, sometimes with a microphone or
spotlight. You control the moment and thus, have temporary authority.

4. Ethos = Reputation (or Expertise)

Expertise is what you know about your topic.
Reputation is what your audience knows about what you know about
your topic.

Your ethos is influenced by your reputation. Of the four characteristics of

ethos, reputation is the one most connected to the topic of your
presentation.

―Expertise is what you know about your topic.

Reputation is what your audience knows about what you know
about your topic.‖

9
 Your reputation is determined by several related factors:

 Your experience in the field

How many years have you worked with or studied this topic?
 Your proximity to the topic or concept
Are you the one who invented the concept? Were you involved at
all? Or are you more of a third-party?
 Your production in the field
Books or academic papers written. Blogs authored. Commercial
products developed.
 Your demonstrated skill
If you are talking about money management, are you a successful
money manager?
 Your achievements or recognition from others in the field
Awards won. Testimonials earned. Records achieved. Milestones
reached.

How do these characteristics combine?

Ethos cannot be assessed with a checkbox (―yes, you have ethos‖ or

―no, you don‘t.‖) This is easy to see if you examine how the four
characteristics of ethos combine in various ways. Consider the following
examples:

 The U.S. President giving the State of the Union address

The President has more authority than most people on the planet
based on his job title. His reputation and trustworthiness probably
depends a fair bit on your political beliefs. As for similarity to his
audience, it‘s a mixed bag — He‘s American, and he‘s not too old
nor too young. But, he‘s a politician and in a socio-economic class
which puts him apart from most citizens.

10
 A Teacher speaking to his students
He probably has a record of trustworthiness, as long as he truthfully
announces when assignments are due and exams are
scheduled. He hasauthority over the 16-year-olds, both by way of
position and by age. He has taught in the school for 10 years
(expertise), including many of his students‘ older siblings
(reputation). Unfortunately, he‘s not really similarto his students in
terms of age, wealth, career, or choice of music.
All of them have significant ethos as they score high on several
measures. In particular, authority and reputation often are closely
related. (The things you did to earn the reputation often earn authority
as well.)

On the other hand, none have perfect ethos. Indeed, this is very hard to
obtain as some measures conflict. For example, your authority relative
to your audience often weakens your similarity with them.

―If you have high ethos, your audience is listening and attentive
from your first word.‖

If you have low ethos, your audience may not be listening or

paying attention.

11
15 Tactics to Establish Ethos: Examples for Persuasive Speaking

Your speaking ethos is critical to ensure that your audience is present,

listening, and open to being persuaded by your ideas.

But, how do you maximize your ethos for a given speech and a given
audience? Is ethos fixed before you open your mouth? Is there anything
you can do during a speech that makes a difference?

This article shows you practical tactics you can employ to establish and
increase your ethos.

Definition of Ethos
Does your audience believe you are a good person who can be trusted
to tell the truth?
1. Similarity
Does your audience identify with you?
2. Authority
Do you have formal or informal authority relative to your audience?
3. Reputation
How much expertise does your audience think you have in this field?
We will refer to these four dimensions throughout this article as we link
practical actions back to their roots. Look for them in parentheses, like
this: (Similiarity). When a certain tactic applies to all four dimensions
of ethos, we‘ll denote it like this: (All)

Remember that these dimensions are not always independent; rather,

they are often intertwined.

12
 Caution: Ethos is not an exact measure

Consider the difference between your weight and your overall health.

 Weight is precise. Yesterday, you weighed 121 pounds. Today, you

weigh 120.5 pounds. If you burn 3500 calories through exercise,
you‘ll drop one pound in weight. Last week, you weighed three
pounds less than your sister.
 Health, on the other hand, is not precise. Your health cannot be
described by a single number. Still, you can make some assertions.
You can be pretty sure that one person is healthier than another.
Further, you can be confident that certain actions will improve
your health (e.g. exercising more; eating spinach) and other
actions will damage your health (e.g. smoking; eating cake).

Ethos is not like weight. You can‘t say ―Oh, my ethos score with this
audience is 165 today. Yippee!‖ (Well, you can say it, but it would be
meaningless.)

Instead, ethos is like your physical health. You probably have less ethos
than Steve Jobs at a technology convention. Having come to this, you
should realize that there are certain actions which improve your ethos,
and certain actions that damage your ethos. Examples of these actions
will be the focus of the remainder of this article.

―You probably have less ethos than Steve Jobs at a technology

convention.‖

How to Improve Ethos – Long Before Your Speech

Ethos is about your audience‘s perception of you, and this perception

can be formed over many months or years, or perhaps over many past
speeches. So, we‘ll first examine things you can do in the long run to
improve your ethos.

13
 #1: Be a Good Person (Trustworthiness)

Let‘s start with an easy one. Be a good person, do good things, and
think good thoughts. There are far more important reasons to follow this
mantra than to gain speaking ethos. Nonetheless, your ethos will grow.
The positive effect you have on those around you will spread, and will
become known to your audience.

Example: How much ethos does Tiger Woods have (in the wake of the
fidelity scandal) in terms of trustworthiness?

#2: Develop Deep Expertise in Topics You Speak About

(Reputation)
―Your expertise will often differentiate you from competing
speakers.‖

People are busy. (There‘s a news flash!) There are many things
competing for their attention, and there are often many other speakers
competing for their attention. Why will they choose to listen to you
speak? Your expertise will often differentiate you from competing
speakers.

Example: Suppose an audience has two options for concurrent sessions

at a conference:
1. Speaker A has very interesting ideas, but only 2 years of work in a
related field.
2. Speaker B has written two best-selling books in the field, and is a
sought after consultant with 15 years of experience.

Who is the audience going to choose?

There‘s a corollary for this rule too. Stick to speaking about topics for
which you have deep expertise.

14
#3: Market Yourself (Reputation)

Developing the expertise doesn‘t earn you any ethos if you don‘t market
yourself and let the world know about it. You‘ve got to take charge
of your personal brand and make sure that it‘s a brand that emphasizes
the qualities you want to emphasize.

#4: Analyze Your Audience (Similarity)

Thorough audience analysis is critical for improving your ethos. (It‘s

critical for improving your pathos and logos too… but that‘s a topic for
another article. Stay tuned.)

Audience analysis will reveal valuable clues that you can use to adapt
yourself to your audience. Seek to find common traits that you share
and highlight them. For other traits, find ways to adapt your language,
your mannerisms, your dress, your PowerPoint visuals, or your stories
to match the audience.

Example: You‘ve been invited to speak to a company that is new to

you. You don‘t know whether their corporate atmosphere is formal or
relaxed. Through audience analysis, you discover that nobody in the
company wears a suit to work. So, you choose a less formal outfit to
adapt to your audience.

How to Improve Ethos — Before Your Speech

―Showing up early demonstrates your dedication to serve the
audience.‖

The day of your presentation is too late to develop deep expertise about
your topic. However, there‘s much you can do before you say your first
words:

#5: Show up Early to Welcome the Audience (Trustworthiness)

Showing up with minutes to spare gives the impression that
you almost had somewhere more important to be. Showing up early
demonstrates your dedication to serve the audience. This, in turn, builds
trust.

15
#6: Share Event Experience with Audience (Similarity)
If your presentation is part of a larger event, try to attend as much of it
as you can. Every minute you spend with your audience as an audience
member builds your level of affiliation with them. The event becomes a
shared experience. The audience sees you as one of them.

#7: Highlight Ethos in Marketing Materials (All)

Depending on the event, you may have an opportunity to provide an
author‘s bio to complement your speech title. Seize this opportunity.
Make it clear to your potential audience why they should spend their
time (and their money) to listen to you. This is particularly critical if you
are at an event with concurrent sessions. Don‘t assume that people
make their decisions on topic alone.
Example: Suppose you will be speaking at the Arizona Teachers
Association Annual Conference. Positive testimonials from past
presentations to teacher associations would be effective to establish
your reputation.

#8: Highlight Ethos in Introduction (All)

Your introduction is probably the single best opportunity for you to
establish your ethos with this audience on this day. For this reason, you
should always write your own introduction. Don‘t let an event organizer
wing it. Highlight the essential facts that establish your trustworthiness,
similarity, authority, and reputation. As in the example above, pick the
material specific to this audience and topic.

Beware that you don‘t overdo it. Long introductions are boring. Long
introductions filled with every accomplishment you‘ve had since age 21
are boring and pompous.

―You should always write your own introduction. Don‘t let an

event organizer wing it.‖

Example: Suppose you are delivering user training for employees to

introduce the new corporate financial system. Key items to highlight in
your brief introduction might be:

16
1. You were the project manager for implementing the new system
(Reputation)
2. You have implemented similar systems twice before in your career
(Reputation)

How to Improve Ethos — During Your Speech

If you‘ve done well so far, your audience is listening from your first
word. Don‘t get complacent. Continue building your ethos through your
presentation:

#9: Tell stories or anecdotes which show you are consistent with
your message (Trustworthiness)

Don‘t be a hypocrite. Nobody will act on your advice if you don‘t.

Example: Suppose you are trying to persuade your audience to

support Habitat for Humanity, an international organization that builds
homes to eliminate poverty. You can raise your ethos by crafting stories
or anecdotes which demonstrate that you are active in the local Habitat
chapter.

By demonstrating that you follow your own advice, your audience is

more likely to believe you on other points which cannot be so easily
verified (for example, statistics about Habitat for Humanity).

―Don‘t be a hypocrite. Nobody will act on your advice if you

don‘t.‖

#10: Use language familiar to your audience (Similarity)

Using language familiar to your audience is good for two reasons:

1. It aids in their understanding (which, indirectly, makes you more

persuasive).

17
2. It helps the audience identify with you which boosts your ethos.

By ―familiar language‖, I mean more than English versus Dutch. As well,

I mean more than using words which are understood by the audience.

To really get your audience to identify with you, you must use the terms
that they would use to describe the concepts.

Example: A few examples might make this clearer:

1. Many people would understand that property agent is the same
thing as areal estate agent. However, depending where you speak,
one of these terms will be more common. Use it!
2. Acronyms are dangerous if you are using ones that your audience
doesn‘t know. Conversely, if everyone in your audience uses the
term P.M. on a daily basis, you should use that term rather
than project manager.

#11: Use visuals/examples which resonate with your audience

(Similarity)

For any given message, you have a multitude of options for stories,
anecdotes, visuals, or other techniques to convey your speech. From
this multitude, try selecting the ones which have the biggest impact with
this audience. Not only will you get the big impact, but the audience will
also start thinking that you are just like them. That‘s good for you!

Example: Suppose you are speaking to company management on the

topic of goal-setting. Through audience analysis, you discovered that the
company sponsored employees to run the local marathon. Although
there are many metaphors and visuals you could use to talk about goal-
setting, you choose to draw parallels between corporate goal-setting
and the goals one sets when tackling a challenging race. You feature
several vivid photographs of marathon races to complement your
arguments.

18
 #12: Choose quotations and statistics from the right sources
(All)
Quotations and statistics are common speech tools which, on the
surface, may contribute more to your logos (logical argument) than
ethos. Nonetheless, if you choose the right sources, you can boost your
ethos too.
―When you reference a reputable source, you boost your ethos
by association.‖

Example: When researching a speech about cancer research, you

discover two statistics that will help you make your argument.
1. The source of the first statistic is some unknown author on
Wikipedia.
2. The source of the second statistic is the Mayo Clinic.

Which statistic is your audience more likely to believe? If you guessed

the Mayo Clinic, you‘re right. When you reference a reputable source,
you boost your ethos by association.

So, the general guideline is to use quotations and statistics from sources
which have high ethos to your audience, whether by trustworthiness,
similarity, authority, or reputation.

#13: Reference people in the audience, or events earlier in the

day (Similarity)

Earlier, we mentioned that, if possible, you should try to share the event
experience with your audience. When you do, you can increase your
ethos by incorporating something from that shared experience (or
someone in the audience) into your speech. Your audience sees you as
―one of them‖, and a silent bond forms.

Example: In the presentation preceding yours, the speaker repeated a

memorable phrase ―It‘s never too late.‖ If you can do it in a meaningful
way, try to weave this phrase into your material.

19
How to Improve Ethos — After Your Speech

Your talk is done, but your effectiveness as a speaker is not yet written
in stone. Here are a few things you can do to continue to build up your
ethos with this audience, or with your next audience.

#14: Make yourself available to your audience (Similarity)

Whenever possible, stick around after your presentation is over. Mingle
with the audience and continue to share in the event experience. Not
only will you have the opportunity for productive follow-up
conversations, but your audience will see you as accessible, and
accessible is good.

#15: Follow through on promises made during your presentation

(Trustworthiness)

One technique for managing a short Q&A session is to defer thorny or

complex questions to a later time.

Example: If someone asks a question as part of a 10-minute Q&A

session that would take you 20 minutes to answer, it‘s okay to defer the
question saying: ―I‘d like to give the complete answer, but we don‘t
have time today. I‘ll send it out to the group on email.‖
It‘s okay to do that, but only if you do follow up! If you fail to do so,
your audience will judge you as being untrustworthy.

In the above examples, you may have noticed that trustworthiness and
similarity were mentioned much more often than authority or
reputation. This is not an accident.

 You can significantly influence your audience‘s on-the-spot

assessment of your trustworthiness and similarity by following
the advice above. While your audience may have preconceptions
about you in these dimensions, you may be able to change their
mind.
 It is much harder to change your audience‘s on-the-spot
assessment of your authority and reputation. Your audience‘s
perception of you along these dimensions is mostly fixed before

20
 your speech starts. Either you are an expert in the field, or you
are not. Either you have formal authority over your audience, or
you don‘t. Not much that you say in a one hour speech will
change either of these.
Here are 3 easy ways for a speaker to establish a favorable
ethos:

1.) The main thing a speaker needs to do is convince the audience that
they know what they‘re talking about. After all, how are you going to
sell someone a product you know nothing about? This includes knowing
both sides of an argument and presenting each of them accurately. This
helps assure the audience that you‘ve at least done your research on
the subject.

2.) Also, in order to use this strategy effectively, it‘s important for a
speaker to understand the audience to which they‘ll be speaking. By
having this background knowledge the speaker can research their
subject matter, and then tailor their message in a way that resonates
with that specific audience.

3.) In addition, citing credible sources is also a must. For example, if

you were trying to persuade your audience to use a certain
pharmaceutical product, and you yourself were not a doctor or
pharmacist, you might reference or quote known physicians. An
audience can forgive the fact that you‘re not a certified expert on the
subject that you‘re presenting, but they may not forgive you for not
making an effort to provide an expert‘s opinion.

21
 Activity: Interview Introductions

Interview Introductions are a great way to break the ice with a new
group of people. The exercise has them finding out about each other
and then introducing the person they interviewed to the class.

As it's a lot less threatening or scary to talk about someone else rather
than yourself, you'll find people respond really positively as they're
generally eager to represent the person they interviewed well.

22
 Instructions

 Divide your group into pairs.

 Each person interviews the other in turn. The information gained

forms the basis of a brief introduction speech they'll give to the whole
group when the interviewing process is complete.

 Ask them to find out their partner's name, where they live/work, what
hobbies they have, what their favorite book, film, song...is, what
they're most proud of (an achievement perhaps), what they hope for
from the class, something funny that happened in their childhood,
where they go for holidays, what they think about the latest local issue
...

 When the group comes back together the introductions begin:

"This is Mary from Taupo. When she's not working for the Social
Welfare Department she's collecting stamps. Her favorites are ..."

Activity: Image Starters

23
 Gather up a collection of interesting images/photos from magazines or
newspapers - enough for your class to have one each and then a few
spare.

Place them face down and have everybody pick one.

Using the image as a prompt, what can they share about it?

Questions to get started are:

 Where is this photo/image from?

(And the answer doesn't have to be true - merely plausible! Encourage
imaginative creativity.)

 What's happening in this photo/picture?

 What feelings does the image evoke?

 Is there a season or time associated with it?

 What happened after or before the photo was taken?

24
 Activity:The Object of my Affection

Gather up a collection of small objects, for example: a toy car, a can of

sardines, a hair ribbon, an old black and white photographic portrait, a
pair of baby shoes ....

Put all of them into a non-see through bag.

Each speaker puts their hand into the bag and pulls out an object.
Whatever they get forms the basis of their speech.

Ideas to kick-start the imagination:

 This ... {insert the name of whatever it is the speaker has in their
hand} saved my life. It happened like this...

 Whenever I see a ...{insert the name of whatever it is the speaker has

in their hand} it reminds me of the time I...

 I collect ...{insert the name of whatever it is the speaker has in their

hand} and this one is the prize of my collection. It used to belong to
...

25
Ethos (Greek for "Character") refers to the trustworthiness, reputation,
and credibility of the writer or speaker.

According to Aristotle, our perception of a speaker or writer‘s character

influences how believable or convincing we find what that person has to
say. This projected character is called the speaker or writer‘s ethos.
Many of us are naturally more likely to be persuaded by a person whom
we respect; whom we think has a good mind and solid learning. We
also may value common sense, personal warmth, and consideration of
others. Others of us may value big cars, loud voices, and large
watches. Depending on the context, or the discourse community,
within which we find ourselves, what constitutes ethos may change, but
its role in that discourse community does not.

Institutions, public roles and publications also project an ethos or

credibility. We assume, for example, that The New York Times is a more
credible source than the Weekly World News or the National Enquirer.
And we usually assume that a person selected for a position of
responsibility or honor is more credible than someone without official
sanction. These expectations about credibility and ethos are occasionally
disappointed.

When we meet someone for the first time, often we know something of
their character ahead of time. They come with a reputation or extrinsic
ethos. People whose education, experience, and previous performances
qualify them to speak on a certain issue earn the special extrinsic ethos
of the authority. But whether or not we know anything about the
speaker or writer ahead of time, the actual text we hear or read, the
way it is written or spoken and what it says, always conveys and
impression of the author‘s character. This impression created by the text
or speech itself is the intrinsic ethos.

Exercises: We all have certain strategies that we use to establish our

ethos, or make ourselves appear more credible, in any given situation.
In terms of your role at home or position as a student, when you are
addressing others, list some of those strategies that you rely on most to
establish your ethos.

________________________
________________________

________________________
________________________

26
 What is Pathos and why is it Critical for
Speakers?
American psychologist William James wrote:

The emotions aren‘t always immediately subject to reason, but they are
always immediately subject to action.

Emotions — whether fear or love, pity or anger — are powerful

motivators for your audience. An audience emotionally stimulated in the
right way is more likely to accept your claims and act on your requests.
By learning how to make emotional appeals, you greatly improve your
effectiveness as a speaker.

What is Pathos
The word pathos is derived from the ancient Greek word for ―suffering‖
or ―experience‖.
 Pathogen and pathology describe the source of a patient‘s disease or
suffering.
 Empathy is the ability to share the emotions of another person.
 Sympathy describes a similar ability to share emotions, usually
negative emotions such as pain or sadness.
 Antipathy equates with strong, negative emotions toward another.
 Something that is pathetic is likely to arouse either compassion or
contempt.

All of these related words focus on the concept of shared experience or

shared emotions.

As a speaker, your goal is to create a shared emotional experience with

your audience. Pathos describes your ability to evoke audience emotions
and strategicallyconnect these emotions with elements of your speech.

Pathos: Evoking Emotions In Your Audience

This leads to the obvious question — what emotions can you evoke?

The simple answer is ―all of them,‖ but that isn‘t too helpful.

27
There are a numerous theories of emotion. Philosophers and
psychologists have attempted to itemize and categorize emotions into
convenient buckets for thousands of years.

Aristotle identified the following seven sets of emotions, with each pair
representing opposites:
―As a speaker, your goal is to create a shared emotional
experience with your audience.‖

 Anger and Calmness

 Friendship and Enmity
 Fear and Confidence
 Shame and Shamelessness
 Kindness and Unkindness
 Pity and Indignation
 Envy and Emulation
By comparison, twentieth century psychologist Robert Plutchik proposed
a set of eight basic emotions along with eight advanced emotions. He,
too, arranges them in opposite pairs:
 Basic Emotions
 Joy — Sadness
 Trust — Disgust
 Fear — Anger
 Surprise — Anticipation
 Advanced Emotions
 Optimism — Disappointment
 Love — Remorse
 Submission — Contempt
 Awe — Aggressiveness

Many others have offered different categories of emotions.

It isn‘t important to find the correct classification of emotions; indeed,
there may not be a correct classification. Instead, the goals of a
persuasive speaker are to:

28
1. be aware of the wide range of emotions,
2. decide which emotions to evoke, and
3. Learn how these emotions can be evoked in your audience.

Pathos: Why Evoke Audience Emotions at All?

If evoking a particular emotion was the final result, it would quite a

useless endeavor. Randomly making the audience feel anger or joy or
fear or hope will not, in itself, get you anywhere. Emotions do not
persuade in solitude.

Aristotle knew that the emotion must be linked with your speech
arguments. For example, Aristotle defines anger and describes what
causes someone to become angry. He then encourages speakers to
associate that anger with one‘s opponent:

it is clear that it might be needful in a speech to put [the audience] into

a state of mind of those who are inclined to anger and show one‘s
opponents as responsible for those things that are the causes of the
anger and that they are the sort of people against whom anger is
directed.

In other words, make your audience angry, and direct that anger at
your opponent. If your audience is angry at your opponent, they will be
more receptive to hear your ideas.

Just as having high ethos makes your audience more likely to be

persuaded, pathos can also make your audience more susceptible to
being persuaded. By making an emotional connection with your
audience:
 Your audience will be more likely to understand your perspective
(via the shared emotion or experience).
 Your audience will be more likely to accept your claims.
 Your audience will be more likely to act on your call-to-action.

29
 Positive Emotions versus Negative Emotions

―If you utilize pathos well, your audience will feel the same
emotions that you do. Your audience will feel the pain, the joy,
the hope, and the fear of the characters in your stories. They will
no longer be passive listeners. They will be motivated to act.‖

Are all emotions equal? In other words, will any emotion do? Will my
audience adopt my views equally if I make them feel surprise as when I
make them feel anger?

No. The evoked emotion must be appropriate to the context. In general,

you want the audience to feel the same emotions that you feel about
your arguments and the opposing arguments.

One convenient way to see this is by looking at the difference between

evoking ―positive‖ emotions versus ―negative‖ emotions.

 Positive emotions (e.g. surprise, joy, awe) should be associated

withyour claims, or your ―side‖ of the persuasive argument.
 Negative emotions (e.g. fear, contempt, disappointment) should
be associated with your opponent‘s claims.
 Sometimes, you may have a human opponent (e.g. a political
debate).
 Other times, your opponent may be the status quo which you
are seeking to change.

Why is Pathos Critical for Speakers?

In summary:

 If you utilize pathos well, your audience will feel the same
emotions that you do. Your audience will feel the pain, the joy, the
hope, and the fear of the characters in your stories. They will no
longer be passive listeners. They will be motivated to act.

30
 If you do not utilize pathos well, your audience will not be
motivated to disrupt the status quo. They will be more likely to find
fault in your logical arguments (logos, the topic for a future article).
They will not feel invested in your cause.

How do you Develop Pathos?

In this article we defined what pathos is and why it is important, but

there are still several major questions:

 How do you develop it?

 Is it your speech content that creates pathos, or your delivery?
 What are the most effective strategies you can employ?

: Your Primary Paths to Emotional Connection

All roads are not created equally. Freeways move lots of traffic fast;
country lanes often guide just a single, meandering car.

Similarly, all pathways to emotional connection with your audience are

not created equally. Some paths are more effective and more commonly
used to connect emotionally. Let‘s review these superhighways from
which you can create the pathos of your presentation.

1. Themes and Points

2. Words
3. Analogies and Metaphors
4. Stories
5. Humor
6. Visuals
7. Delivery Techniques

#1: Select Emotional Themes and Points

You always have choices to make about which points to include in the
time allotted. Be sure that some of them carry emotional power.

31
Example: Suppose you have identified fifteen reasons why your
audience should consider public speaking training. Unfortunately, your
short speech only allows you to discuss three or four of them. Which do
you choose? ―Conquer your public speaking fear‖ probably evokes
stronger emotions than ―Learn to speak with more precision.‖

#2: Choose Words which Add Emotional Emphasis

Some words are emotionally neutral, while some are emotionally

charged. Exercise judgment to select the words which fit the emotional
tone that works to your advantage.

Example: Consider the difference in words used to label a suicide

bomber on opposing sides of a political war. What emotion does the
label ―terrorist‖ evoke? What emotion does the label ―martyr‖ evoke?
Which one would best complement your speech?

#3: Use Rich Analogies and Metaphors

Analogies, metaphors, and other figures of speech not only make your
speech more interesting, but often allow you to make an emotional
connection by tapping into emotions already felt by your audience.

Example: If you speak about gang violence, you might plainly state
that ―We have a problem in our city…‖ On the other hand, you might say
―We have a cancerin our city…‖ The latter analogy draws on your
audience‘s pre-existing feelings about cancer, and makes them want to
eradicate the cause!

#4: Tell Stories

Stories are often the quickest path to the greatest emotional connection
with your audience. Carefully crafted stories allow you to evoke any of a
wide range of emotions. This may explain why stories are often the
most memorable components of a speech.

#5: Use Humor

―Stories are often the quickest path to the greatest emotional
connection with your audience.‖

32
 Humor is closely related to storytelling, because you usually arrive at
humor through stories. Nonetheless, humor merits special mention.
Humor in a presentation evokes emotions such as joy and surprise, and
often triggers secondary emotions such as calmness and friendship. If
your audience is laughing, they are having fun. If they are having fun,
they are happy to be listening to you and they are attentive. As an
added boost, humor makes your audience like you (at least for a
moment), and that boosts your ethos too.

Nearly every presentation would benefit from more humor. How can you
add humor to yours?

#6: Connect through Visuals

Maybe you have slides with photographs. Maybe you have a prop. Either
way, a concrete visual element opens many more emotional pathways
than abstract words alone.

Examples: Consider the following pairs, and ask yourself which creates
the stronger emotional impact:
 Saying that ―smoking damages lung tissue‖ versus Showing a slide
with a photograph of tar-like lung tissue
 Claiming that cords from window blinds pose a risk to children
versusShowing (with a prop) how the cords might strangle a baby
doll.

#7: Model the Emotion with Your Delivery Techniques

The emotional effectiveness of stories, humor, visuals, and other

―content‖ tools often depends greatly on your delivery. Great delivery
magnifies emotions; poor delivery nullifies them.

Example: Words from your mouth or slides on a screen may induce

sadness in your audience, but the effect is multiplied when combined
with sadness on your face, in your posture, and in your voice.

Additional Paths to Develop Pathos in Your Speech

33
 Now that you are familiar with the core pathos tools, we can sample
some of the additional tools at the disposal of a skilled speaker. Many of
these build on top of the core building blocks above.

#8: Analyze Your Audience

―When your audience feels an emotion, they are motivated to
act.‖

Without doing any audience analysis at all, you always know two things:

1. Everyone in your audience is human.

2. Most humans share many emotional triggers.

As a result, you can always achieve moderate success applying the first
seven tools.

But to hit a pathos home run, you‘ve got to analyze your audience. Are
they old or young? Technical or non-technical? Male or female? Rich or
poor? Liberal or conservative? These and many other factors will impact
which emotional triggers will have the strongest impact. Do the analysis!

#9: Evoke Curiosity with Marketing Materials

When your audience feels an emotion, they are motivated to act. If the
emotion is pity, they are motivated to address the situation (e.g.
perhaps by donating money to your charity).

In a similar way, if you make your audience curious through your

marketing materials, they are motivated to act. How does one act on
curiosity?

 Show up to the presentation.

 Pay attention.
 Take notes.
 Engage with the speaker and follow along.

So, make your audience curious. Include a bold claim or a startling

statistic. (Of course, you need to follow up in your presentation.) Focus

34
on the benefits to be realized by your audience, and their curiosity will
attract them to your speech.

#10: Evoke Surprise (in the Introduction and elsewhere)

A great way to connect immediately with your audience is to start with a
surprise. I admit there‘s no logical reason to suggest that a speaker who
starts with a surprise will deliver a more valuable presentation. But,
we‘re not talking logic here (that‘s the next article on logos). A surprise
gets your audience excited. Getting them excited makes them listen.
Surprise can be effective elsewhere, particularly as the length of your
speech grows. Like curiosity, your audience is motivated to act on the
surprise. How? They try to resolve how this surprising element fits with
the rest of the presentation. To do that, they have to listen.
Note that I‘m not talking about deliberately confusing your audience.
Surprise is planned, and is usually followed quickly by an explanation.
Confusion, on the other hand, results from poor planning, and usually
lasts beyond the end of your presentation, at least until the Q&A.

#11: Use Vivid, Sensory Words

―When you use sensory words, your audience feels emotions
they have associated with those words.‖

Tool #2 above advised the use of emotional words. One way to do this
is to concentrate on concrete, vivid, sensory words. When you use
sensory words, your audience feels emotions they have associated with
those words.

Example: When you mention ―the touch of your father‘s flannel shirt‖
or ―the aroma of your grandmother‘s kitchen‖, you‘ve done more than
just mention fabric and smells. You have evoked emotions which,
depending on your audience, probably include loving memories of
childhood.

#12: Be Authentic
Remember that the goal of pathos is to connect with the audience
and shareemotions with them.

To share an emotion, you‘ve got to feel it too.

35
 Pathos is not about tugging emotional strings as if you were a
puppeteer. You get zero marks for that. Actually, you get negative
marks for that, because your ethos gets destroyed when the audience
realizes you are toying with them.

Be honest. Share your presentation in a way that your audience will feel
as passionately as you feel.

#13: Match Your Vocal Delivery to the Emotion

Vocal delivery is one clear clue to how you feel about what you are
saying. Your tone, volume, pace, and other vocal qualities should mirror
your emotions.

Examples:
 Anger might be accompanied by a loud, defiant voice.
 Sadness or despair might call for a softer voice.
 Optimism or excitement might be matched by a quickened pace.

#14: Match Your Gestures to the Emotion

Your body is another clue for the audience to gauge your emotions. If
you are telling a story about love or joy, your body shouldn‘t look like a
mannequin. If you are revealing your own disappointment in a story,
your shoulders should probably droop, and you shouldn‘t be smiling.

Some speakers find it difficult to do this because they are speaking

about past events where the emotions have dulled with the memories
over time. The emotions were felt then, but aren‘t as easy to
summon now. You‘ve got to show the audience how it felt in the
moment. Remember that they are hearing this story for the first time.

#15: Connect with Your Eyes

―To share an emotion, you‘ve got to feel it too.‖

Eye contact isn‘t a scorecard. Your aim isn‘t to collect check-marks from
each person who you look at over the course of your presentation.

Meaningful eye contact is about connecting with one person at a time.

Your eyes should express your frustration, your contempt, or your joy.

36
 In the ideal case, the person you‘re looking at will mirror your emotion
back to you. That‘s connection!

#16: Eliminate Physical Barriers to Connect with Your Audience

In most speaking situations, your goal should be to reduce barriers

between you and your audience. Get out from behind the lectern. Move
closer to the audience. Ask them to sit in the seats near the front.

The closer you are to your audience, the more personal your
presentation feels for them. The more personal it feels, the greater your
chance for emotional connection.

#17: Emotions in the Environment

There usually are a myriad of competing elements in and around the

room which are evoking emotions in your audience. For instance, a
marching band practicing outside might be annoying your audience. If
this annoyance is strong, it may prevent you from evoking competing
emotions with your presentation.

The solution is to take charge and eliminate or minimize these causes

whenever you can so that your audience can focus on you.

Examples:
 Hunger and biological needs create strong emotions. Take
appropriate breaks if you deliver lengthy training.
 Excessive noise, temperature extremes (either too hot or too cold),
or poor lighting make your audience uncomfortable and perhaps
even angry at you or the organizer. Do whatever you can to
optimize the conditions.
 Speaking over your allotted time may make your audience nervous
or anxious if they‘ve got to pick up their kids. Stick to your time
bounds.
 Hecklers — and your response to them — can evoke many
emotions. Learn how to handle them smoothly and professionally.

37
#18: Avoid Tripping Emotional Land Mines

Situations where you aren‘t familiar with your audience are potentially
dangerous. Perhaps you‘ve been invited to speak at a company which
has just experienced massive layoffs. Perhaps you‘ve been invited to
speak to an audience of a different culture. In either case, you‘ve got to
be careful not to say something (or gesture something) which
accidentally triggers an emotion that you had not intended.

If you‘re lucky, you‘ll just say something that provokes unexpected

laughter. If you‘re not, you‘ll say something that deeply offends your
audience to the degree that they tune you out completely.

Your best defense against this is extensive audience analysis. Do your

homework. Sometimes, it may still happen despite your best efforts. In
this case, it‘s important that you are actively reading your audience. If
you have evoked an unintended emotion, you can usually tell. It‘s wise
to address it and, if necessary, apologize for the unintended offense.

What do you think?

The methods listed above are far from exhaustive. What other ways are
thier to connect emotionally with your audience as a speaker?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

38
 Activity Human Experience Bingo

Your students are probably already familiar with the rules

of Bingo. Simply get five numbers in a line on a chart. You can
use this as a basis for another get to know you game. Work with
your class to compile a list experiences that a person might have
had. For example, gone scuba diving, made a birthday cake and
eaten sushi would all be good expereinces. Work together on the
list until you have about 30-40 different experiences. (You can
also compile the list on your own if you prefer.) Then, give
students a blank bingo board (a 5x5 chart) and have them write
one experience in each of the boxes. On your word, students
mingle and talk to each other to find someone with each
experience they have chosen. If a student finds someone who,
for example, has gone scuba diving, that student signs the
square where your student wrote it on his Bingo board. The first
person to get five in a row yells, ―Bingo!‖ Another variation is to
arrange students speed dating style: two rows of chairs facing
each other. Each pair then gets two minutes to talk with each
other. When time is up, the students in one row shift one chair
to the right. The game is over once someone has gotten five
spaces in a row on their bingo board.

39
 Activity Character Trait Rouleete

This game works best for students who already know

each other fairly well. Work as a group to come up with a list
of several character traits a person might have. You might
include adventurous, sympathetic and generous. Then write
these traits on small slips of paper and put them in a bag. Each
person takes a turn drawing one character trait from the bag in
front of the class. The student must then announce who in class
possesses that character trait. The person must tell a story or
give an example of why he made his particular choice.

40
Pathos (Greek for "suffering" or "experience") is often associated with
the emotional appeal. But a better equivalent might be "an appeal to
the audience's sympathies and imagination." An appeal to pathos
causes an audience not just to respond emotionally but to identify with
the writer or speaker's point of view - to feel what the writer or speaker
feels.

The persuasive appeal of pathos is an appeal to an audience‘s sense of

identity, their self-interest, their emotions. Many rhetoricians over the
centuries have considered pathos the strongest of the appeals.

We naturally bend in the direction of what is beneficial to us, what

serves our interests or the interests of any group we believe ourselves a
part of. Writers who belong to groups we identify with, or create groups
we can belong to, often seem more convincing. We also naturally find
more persuasive the speaker or writer who flatters us (especially
indirectly) instead of insulting us. Thus skillful writers and speakers
create a positive image in their words of the audience they are
addressing, an image their actual readers can identify with. Who does
not want to be the ―sensible, caring person‖ the arguer describes?

The emotions also strongly assist, and perhaps sometimes determine,

persuasion. If, for example, a writer wants a reader to evaluate
something negatively, she or he may try to arouse the reader‘s anger.
To produce action to someone‘s benefit (i.e. to persuade us to make a
charitable donation), an arguer may work on our pity.

Humor is also a powerful appeal to pathos.

Direct appeals to the reader to feel an emotion (i.e. ―You should be

crying now‖) are rarely effective. Instead, creating an emotion with
words usually requires recreating the scene or event that would in ―real‖
circumstances arouse the emotion. Thus, descriptions of painful or
pleasant things work on the emotions. Or the arguer can work on the
natural ―trigger‖ of the emotion.
Exercise:

Can you think of a time in which you, or someone else you have
observed, appeared to be abusing the appeal to pathos? If so, how? If
not, can you think of ways in which this appeal could be used
improperly, or rendered ineffective?

41
 What is Logos and why is it Critical for Speakers?

Have you ever listened to a speaker and thought?

 ―I‘m… so… lost.‖

 ―How did he come to that conclusion?‖
 ―Interesting theory, but it wouldn‘t work for me.‖
 ―No way! That number has to be wrong.‖
 ―Nice slides, but I‘ll stick with my own method.‖
In all of these cases, the speaker probably suffered from poor logos. As
a result, it‘s doubtful that you adopted their central message or followed
the call-to-action.

What is Logos?
Logos is the Greek root word from which the English logic is derived.

So, it isn‘t surprising that, in speaking, logos is often equated with

―logical reasoning‖ or ―an argument based on reasoning‖.

You might be thinking that logic is dry and boring. You might also be
thinking that you want to be a dynamic and fun speaker, and so logical
reasoning isn‘t really that important to you.

While you may not get turned on by logical analysis, it is critical to your
success. Before we can see why logos matters to you as a speaker,
however, we need to define a few terms.

A (Very) Brief Tour of Logical Reasoning

Logical reasoning has two flavors:

1. Deductive reasoning, and

2. Inductive reasoning

Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning consists of one or more deductive arguments. You
generally start with one or more premises, and then derive
a conclusion from them. Premises can be facts, claims, evidence, or a
previously proven conclusion. The key is that in a deductive

42
 argument, if your premises are true, then your conclusion must be
true.

For example, consider the following deductive argument:

1. Audiences hate all boring things. (premise)

2. Bullet-point slides are boring. (premise)
3. Therefore, audiences hate bullet-point slides. (conclusion)
So, if audiences hate boring things (yes!) and if bullet-point slides are
boring (yes!), then audiences must hate bullet-point slides.

Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is similar in that it consists of premises which lead
to a conclusion. The difference is that the conclusion is not
guaranteed to be true— we can only state it with some degree of
confidence.
For example, consider the following inductive argument:
1. All articles you have read in the past were insightful. (premise)
2. This is an article. (premise)
3. Therefore, this article is insightful. (conclusion)
Given these premises, it is reasonable to expect that this article will be
insightful, but it cannot be stated with certainty based on those
premises. It must be inferred.

Audiences and Logical Arguments

―Your audience is applying deductive and inductive reasoning all
the time.‖

Okay, so why is this important? It‘s important because your audience is

applying deductive and inductive reasoning all the time. It happens
subconsciously, but they are doing it before you start speaking, while
you speak, and after you‘ve finished.

Let‘s consider an example.

Example Scenario: You are trying to convince your audience to try a

new weight-loss diet.
 You claim that the new diet reduces hunger. (premise A)

43
 You claim that reducing hunger will reduce caloric intake. (premise
B)
 You claim that reducing caloric intake will cause weight loss.
(premise C)
 You conclude that the new diet will cause weight loss.
(This is a sound, deductive conclusion which must be true if
premises A, B, and C are true.)

What could your audience be thinking?

 Every diet I have tried in the past has failed miserably. (premise D)
 This new diet is like those failed diets. (premise E)
 Therefore, this new diet will fail miserably.
(This is a reasonable inductive conclusion drawn from premises D
and E.)
Because their own conclusion is based on strong, emotional experiences
(i.e. a failed diet is emotional), it has high pathos and probably trumps
your conclusion. Since your audience has to resolve these conflicting
conclusions, they will look to your arguments for flaws. Although your
deductive conclusion is sound, they will doubt your premises:
 ―I‘m always hungry when I am on a diet!‖ (counters premise A)
 ―But if my caloric intake drops, I won‘t have enough energy to
exercise, and I‘ll gain weight!‖ (counters premise C)

44
 Exercise 1.

Indicate whether the following arguments are deductive or inductive.

1. No triangle is a square because all triangles have three sides and

squares have four sides.
____________________

2. Since more than half of all automobile accidents involve drivers under
twenty-five, it follows that drivers under twenty-five are probably a
greater driving risk than those older than twenty-five.
____________________

3. Smith missed work today. He must be ill because in the past he‘s only
missed work when he‘s been ill.
____________________

4. The chances of rolling a five with a die are one in six.

____________________

―Your success depends on your ability to simultaneously make

your argument stronger and competing arguments weaker.‖

How can you be persuasive in this challenging scenario? Your success

depends on your ability to simultaneously make your argument stronger
and competing arguments weaker.

For example:

 You can boost your argument by providing supporting facts, diet

research, or even your personal success story with the new diet.
 You also must show why this new diet is unlike all those past failed
diets. If successful, you would significantly cast doubt on premise E,
and their entire inductive argument.

45
 Kill Two Birds with a Single Stone: Commonplaces

It may seem impossible to build a strong argument when you‘ve got to

compete against a lifetime of beliefs and premises that your audience
has previously formed. You may wonder how you can persuade anyone
of anything.

The answer: commonplaces.

Commonplaces are simply beliefs which are widely held. Commonplaces

often represent ―shared wisdom‖, and come from many sources. For
example:

 Family members may agree that ―eating dinner together every day
keeps us strong‖.
 This commonplace would make it hard for you to convince them
to join a club that meets in the dinner hour.
 Organizations may have core values which include ―communication
is key to our success‖.
 This commonplace means that they are particularly receptive to
ideas which promise to improve organizational communication.

 Society at large generally believes that ―freedom of speech is a

good thing‖.

There are two keys to using commonplaces in your speeches:

1. Commonplaces can be used as (often unstated) premises in your

speeches. You can use them just as you would use any other fact or
claim.
2. When your commonplaces are different from your audience‘s
commonplaces, use theirs, not yours!
Suppose you want to encourage students graduating from an elite
private liberal arts college to enlist in the military. Use the audience‘s
commonplaces, not the military‘s. Instead of ―A strong nation is a
peaceful nation,‖ say, ―Our armed forces can use independent, critical
thinkers.‖

46
When you use your audience‘s commonplaces as your premises, your
arguments appear much, much stronger. You don‘t have to convince
them to adopt a completely new viewpoint; rather, you are simply
encouraging them to take what they already believe (the commonplace)
and apply it to a new scenario.

Unfortunately, there‘s more to it than that. Using audience

commonplaces is just one particularly strong technique.

In general, you can develop strong logos by following three general

principles:

1. Make it Understandable
Whatever arguments you employ, they have to be easily understood
by the audience before they can be persuasive.
2. Make it Logical
Make sure your arguments stand up under the deductive and
inductive reasoning that your audience will be using. Make sure your
premises don‘t have holes in them, and have a strategy for
addressing competing arguments which your audience already
believes.
3. Make it real
Premises which are based on concrete and specific facts and
examples tend to be accepted quicker than premises which are
abstract and general. The more easily your premises are accepted,
the more easily your conclusions will be as well.

47
 Why is Logos Critical for Speakers?

Preconceptions are not easily pushed aside. If your presentation is hard

to follow, or if your arguments are fairly weak, your audience will find it
easy to dismiss your ideas.

Sound, logical arguments, on the other hand, are hard for your audience
to ignore. When combined with good ethos and pathos, strong logos will
cause all but the most stubborn audience members to give strong
consideration to your ideas.

The Circular Relationship between Logos and Ethos

By demonstrating logos with strong, logical arguments, your audience

will tend to see you as knowledgeable and prepared. This, in turn, raises
your ethos (because, after all, only someone with pure intentions would
work so hard to prepare such a convincing argument).

48
Similarly, speakers with high ethos tend to receive less opposition when
they present logical arguments. Their facts and claims are more easily
believed.

Work on both traits, and you will be much more persuasive.

How do you Establish Logos?

17 Easy Ways to Be a More Persuasive Speaker

In this article, we examine simple techniques you can use in your

presentations to be more persuasive by improving your logos.

General Strategies for Improving Your Logos

In the last article, we identified, three general principles that you can
adopt to improve your logos:

1. Make it Understandable
Can your audience understand you? Or have they only absorbed half
of your points?
2. Make it Logical
Do your arguments make sense? Or do you require your audience to
make an extreme leap of faith? How easy is it for your audience to
connect the dots?
3. Make it Real
Concrete and specific tends to win over abstract and general.

We‘ll now look at 17 specific techniques derived from these three

general strategies.

Make it Understandable
If your audience doesn‘t understand you, they can‘t be persuaded by
you. To be an effective communicator, you‘ve first got to be
a clear communicator. To be a clear communicator, you must use
words, phrases, examples, and visuals that are understandable, and
you‘ve got to deliver them at a pace that the audience can absorb.

How can you do this? Let us count some ways…

49
#1: Use plain language.

Use words that your audience uses. Avoid technical jargon that your
audience (or a portion of your audience) isn‘t familiar with.

Favor short words and phrases over long and convoluted counterparts.
Don‘t imitate the language you might find in a legal transcript or an
academic paper. Technical language is necessary for those contexts, but
it isn‘t helpful in a conversation or presentation.

Note that ―plain‖ language doesn‘t mean ―boring‖ language. Use vivid
and descriptive language where appropriate.

#2: Be explicit.
―To be an effectivecommunicator, you‘ve first got to be
a clear communicator.‖

Your audience should not need a decoder ring to figure out your
message. It should be obvious. Spell it out if necessary. Make sure you
are not misinterpreted.

It is particularly important to make the connection between premises

and conclusions explicit. Because is a magic word for this
purpose: ―Because premise A and premise B, we can see
that conclusion must be true.‖
If your arguments involve more than a couple premises, be sure your
audience sees the relationship between them. ―And these five
advantages — capital costs, scheduling, inventory control, marketing,
and employee satisfaction — together make this a winning proposal.‖

#3: Trace sequences or processes in order.

To help your audience understand a sequence or process, march
through the steps or phases in a meaningful order, usually sequential. If
you jump around the steps out of order, your audience will be confused.

As the number of steps increases, so does the need to use a diagram for
clarity.

50
#4: Use diagrams.

Carefully crafted and focused diagrams almost always enhance the

understandability of your arguments. It doesn‘t matter if you draw in
PowerPoint, on a white board, or on the back of a napkin — it only
matters that you clarify concepts for your audience.

But, be careful not to introduce an unnecessarily complex diagram. In

the worst case, a busy diagram or one with lots of irrelevant details will
frustrate your audience and diminish your understandability.

#5: Use charts.

Like diagrams, a carefully crafted chart or graph will speak volumes and
clarify a previously fuzzy relationship.

Remember the warning about unnecessary complexity applies to charts

too.

#6: Use progressive disclosure.

Suppose the diagram (or chart) which best explains the concepts is a
complex one. What then?
―It doesn‘t matter if you draw in PowerPoint, on a white board,
or on the back of a napkin — it only matters that you clarify
concepts for your audience.‖

In nearly all cases, it should be possible to use progressive disclosure.

This means that you build up the entire diagram (or chart) progressively
as a series of chunks, revealing only a part of the overall diagram at a
time. If you are drawing the diagram as you speak, you are inherently
using progressive disclosure. (You draw a few lines, explain what you‘ve
drawn, draw a few more, explain again, and repeat.) This is easy to do
with PowerPoint too.

#7: Use comparisons, analogies, and metaphors.

Whenever you introduce new concepts, search for an appropriate
analogy which helps the audience understand the new concept in terms
of how they already understand the old one.

51
Make it Logical

Okay, your audience understands what you are saying, but does what
you are saying make sense?

Does it pass the logical tests which your audience will be applying
subconsciously?

#8: Leverage audience commonplaces.

Commonplaces often provide the most stable foundation for your
argument. It‘s a good ideas to start with these — because your audience
already believes them — and build the remainder of your argument
outward.

In a similar manner, framing the issue from your audience‘s perspective

is a great way to be more persuasive.

#9: Ask questions, and get your audience thinking.

Questions engage your audience and make them active participants in

the conversation. Rather than passively waiting for you to provide
answers, they‘ll be contributing to the answers as you go. As a result,
they will collectively feel ownership when you move toward conclusions.
In the best case, they will feel that they came to the conclusions
themselves — a sure way to guarantee your persuasiveness.

#10: Address the opposing point of view, and refute it.

On the surface, it seems foolish to bring up the opposing arguments.

What if your audience didn‘t think of that? Now you‘ve just planted a
seed of doubt!

52
On the contrary, bringing up opposing arguments makes you seem
unbiased and boosts your ethos. (―You must be trustworthy; you are
pointing out your opposition!―) Further, and more importantly, it allows
you to directly refute the opposing arguments with logical arguments of
your own.

#11: Emphasize the points of most value to audience

Unless you are using only perfect, irrefutable facts as premises, and
making a purely deductive argument (where the conclusions follow
immediately from premises), there are going to be holes in your
inductive argument. (This doesn‘t mean you‘ve done a poor job.
Inductive arguments have uncertainties by definition.)

Since your presentation has a finite length, you must make choices how
to best spend your time. You will be most effective if you devote the
majority of your presentation to discuss the issues of primary interest to
your audience.

Make it real

Concrete and specific details improve the strength of your arguments,

and thus make your overall message more persuasive.

Explaining the theory behind why your new solution will raise profits is a
good start; sharing a story about a company which raised profits 17%
by adopting your solution is much stronger.

#12. Use props or photographs.

Talking about something in abstract terms is good, but using real

objects or photographs carries more logos. Visual evidence is very hard
to refute.

―Personal stories and anecdotes carry more logos than stories or

anecdotes ‗which happened to a friend of mine.‘‖

#13: Use vivid details.

In lieu of photographs, you can make your claims more real by

supplying vivid details.

53
 #14: Use facts and statistics.

Assigning numbers adds to the impact.

Compare the following statements:

 Every year, many people die of cancer.

 Every year, 3000 people in our community die of cancer.

Which one of these statements is more likely to persuade your audience

to contribute money to cancer research?

#15: Cite your sources.

A statistic may be accurate, but without citing a source, your audience

may dismiss it. By citing a source, you tip the scale towards
believability.

(The credibility of your source is also important, but that is more closely
related to ethos.)

#16: Use real examples and case studies.

You can construct convincing arguments about theories and ideas, but
your audience will be left to wonder whether the theory holds in reality.
Real examples and case studies show that the theory works in the real
world.

#17: Use personal stories and anecdotes.

A personal story combines the power of a real example with that of a

cited source. Assuming you are a credible source, personal stories and
anecdotes carry more logos than stories or anecdotes ―which happened
to a friend of mine.‖

54
 Logos

Exercise:

Now think of your personal life, what are some of the things about you
personally that make you feel more clear and precise? Are they the
same as the above?

___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Finally, can you think of a time in which you, or someone else you have
observed, appeared to be abusing the appeal to logos? If so, how? If
not, can you think of ways in which this appeal could be used
improperly, or rendered ineffective?

___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

55
 A Better Speech Opening

Great speakers know how to open a speech in a way that hooks the
audience into the presentation immediately. There are many ways to do
this, including the use of drama and misdirection.
Imagine opening your speech with the following lines:
Tobacco. [long pause]
Alcohol. [long pause]
Guns. [long pause]
Criminal items seized in a search [slight pause] of a 6th grade locker
in a bad school district.

Why does this speech opening work?

Beginning the speech in this way generates interest for several reasons:

 Employs a classical technique: the Rule of Three.

 ―Seized in a search of a sixth…‖ uses alliteration.
 Pauses after the three opening words add drama.

 Drama also created because the danger increases with each item
(i.e. guns are more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco)
 Mid-sentence pause after ―search‖ signals an important
statementcoming up.
 Audience thinks these items were seized from some criminal
hideout, and then surprised to learn they were found in a school
locker.

56