The Roman orator Cicero identified five
elements of persuasive speaking: (1) inventing or
discovering evidence and arguments, (2) organizing them,
(3) styling them artistically, (4) memorizing them, and
finally, (5) delivering them skillfully.
The Roman theorist
Quintillion said, “A persuader has to be
a ‘good man’ as well as a good speaker.”
Aristotle defined rhetoric as
the faculty of observing the available
means of persuasion in any given case.
Aristotle was a remarkable
teacher. His father had been a court
physician, so Aristotle received the
finest education. He studied with Plato
for twenty years and was then selected by
Alexander the Great to be the secretary
of education. Aristotle developed a
fantastic cataloging system and used the
methods of Platonic dialogue. He became
the first great librarian and researcher
of Greece. Developing his expertise in
researching assisted him in writing a
book called Rhetoric, which is the single
most important work on the study of
speech making.
Aristotle also developed a
theory called artistic proofs or appeals.
The three major types of artistic proofs
are described below.
Ethos is charisma and credibility.
The audience perceives all people in some way,
so the ultimate perception would be to have
ethos: honesty, knowledge, experience, and a
sense of humor. Aristotle labeled these
qualities “reputation.” After ethos is achieved,
additional characteristics, such as voice
quality, word choices, eye contact, and gestures
become more familiar.
For example, some
public figures like Rosanne
Barr, Howard Stern, and Dennis
Rodman intentionally offend
their audiences. They seem to
have no interest in achieving
ethos or a “good reputation.” On
the other hand, Maya Angelou,
Bill Cosby, and Stephen Covey
have a presence about them that
instills confidence and
admiration from almost everyone
they encounter. These people
have all of the traits that
create ethos, or “credibility”
and “charisma.”
Pathos is completely related to the
emotions. It creates strong appeal to the
passionate side of our human nature. An example
of persuading through pathos is the McDonald’s
commercial that shows a young boy in the
starting blocks at a track meet and then shows
him running as an adult Olympian and looking
back into the face of the child he was.
Persuasion through pathos appeals to the love of
our families and other emotional and
psychological attachments; it follows the motto
“Reach Out and Touch Someone.” The question that
you should ask yourself is this: “What is the
emotional state of the audience or of the
individual that I am trying to reach?”
If you are speaking
to a group of recovering
alcoholics or abuse victims or
anyone who has experienced the
loss of a loved one, you can
reach out to them through your
own personal experiences. What
is created between the two
communicators is pathos.
Logos appeals to the rational part
of a human being. When speakers rely on logos,
he or she uses things like testimony,
statistics, data, and examples to persuade. The
audience then has the opportunity to process
this information and draw some conclusions.
So how does the
persuader fit into all of this?
The persuader must have ethos,
using powerful language, eye
contact, and strategically
planned gestures. Also, the
persuader must assess the
emotional state of the audience
and then give reassurance to the
audience that he or she is
credible and connected to the
emotions of the audience.
Lastly, the persuader must
appeal to the rational sides of
his or her listeners. This
enables the audience to be able
to predict the outcome or come
to a conclusion.