group11 communication skills

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Group 11_Class E20:

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COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Communicating in Public Persuasive Speaking

Narrowed- topic: Persuasion Techniques

I. INTRODUCTION

What is persuasive speech and its purposes?

A persuasive speech is a speech aimed at influencing values, ideas, beliefs and attitudes of

the audience. Pragmatically, a persuasive speech is used to convince people to come a

different idea, attitude and belief, react to something, consider doing things they were

previously unwilling to do.

When you prepare a persuasive speech, you will want your audience feel personally involved

with the topic. You want to develop sound reasons so that audience members who use

central, critical thinking approach to your speech will find your arguments convincing. For

members who are less involved in, you will want to appeal to their emotions and include

information that enables them to see you as credible.

II. DEVELOPMENT

In 4th century BC Greece, Aristotle studied and taught philosophy, science and other

subjects. In one of his most famous works, The Art of Rhetoric (meaning persuasion through

language), he contends that the ideal form of argument was through reason (called logos).

However, he also acknowledged two other powerful techniques: an appeal to character

(ethos) and an appeal to emotion (pathos). And these techniques are frequently employed in

today speaking.

1. Logos (Appealing to the reason)

1.1. Definition

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

In speaking, logos is often equated with logical reasoning or an argument based on

reasoning.


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1.2. Characteristics of logos

In this method, you usually use theoretical, abstract language, literal and historical analogies

,definitions, factual data and statistics, famous quotations, citations from experts and

authorities, informed opinions.

1.3. How to improve logos

1.3.1. Finding reason to use as main points

Reasons are main point statements that summarize several related pieces of evidence and

show why the listener should believe of do something.

E.g.: Your proposition is Everyone should choose ULIS to study, and then you develop six

potential reasons:

(1) The location of this college is in Cau Giay district.

(2) The cost is low.

(3) The quality of teaching is high.

(4) The campus is beautiful.

(5) The facilities of this college are modern.

(6) The teachers are very friendly.

Once you have identifies reasons, you can weigh and evaluate each and choose the three or

four that have the highest quality. You can judge the quality of each reason by asking the

following question.

- Is the reason directly related to proving the proposition? In (1), it isnt clear why the

location of this college affects your studying decision.

- Do you have strong evidence to support a reason? Some reasons sound impressive but

cannot be supported with solid evidence such in (6).

- Will this reason be persuasive for this audience? Such as in (3), this reason might bepersuasive to some students, but it would be unimportant to some students coming from

high-status students.

1.3.2. Select evidence to support reasons

Although a reason may seem self-explanatory, audience will need information that backs it

up before they will believe it. You may have discovered more evidence to support a reason

which you will present.

Factual statements, data and statistics and famous quotations are strong typed of evidence tosupport reasons.


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E.g1: Such as in (5), you can draw out some statistics about the facilities of ULIS to

convince people more.

E.g.2: Proposition: You want the audience to believe that using Internet so much leads

children to become less creative and active.

Reason: After long hour using Internet, your brain will be affected badly.

Support: According to Professor Susan Greenfield, it results in big change in your brain;

some functions in your brain will be decreased. The brain in forehead area controls

behavioral function will be affected badly. When you use Internet too much, one factor

called dopamine will over increases leading to malfunction of this area.

you will want to use the best evidence you have found to support your point. You can check

the quality of that evidence via some following questions.

- Does the evidence come from a well-respected source?

You have to be careful with the information to eliminate unreliable and biased sources.

- Is the evidence recent and if not, is it still valid?

Things change, so information that was accurate for a particular time may not be valid today.

- Does the evidence really support the reason?

- Will this evidence be persuasive for this audience?

After choosing suitable main points and supporting ideas you have to build a valid agurment

and avoid fallacies such as hasty generalization, ad hominem, False dilemma, slippery slope,

etc.. Lastly, make it understandable and logical. You have to be a clear communicator, you

must use words, phrases, examples, and visuals that are understandable, and youve got to

deliver them at a pace that the audience can absorb.

2. Pathos (Appealing to emotion)

2.1. Definition

The word pathos is derived from the ancient Greek word for suffering or experience.

2.2. Characteristics of pathos

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

Pathos describes your ability to evoke audience emotions and strategically connect these

emotions with elements of your speech. This leads to the obvious question what emotions

can you evoke?

The simple answer is all of them, but that isnt too helpful. According to translator GeorgeKennedy, Aristotle provides the earliest systematic discussion of human psychology in On
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Rhetoric. Aristotle identified the following seven sets of emotions, with each pair

representing opposites: 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 Plutchikproposed a set of

eight basic emotions along with eight advanced emotions. He, too, arranges them in opposite

pairs: for basic emotions: Joy Sadness, Trust Disgust, Fear Anger, Surprise

Anticipation and advanced emotions: Optimism Disappointment, Love Remorse,

Submission Contempt, Awe Aggressiveness.

The goals of a persuasive speaker are to: be aware of the wide range of emotions, decide

which emotions to evoke, and learn how these emotions can be evoked in your audience.

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 ones opponent:

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 havinghigh 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.

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. If you do not

utilize pathos well, your audience will not be motivated to disrupt the status quo. They willbe more likely to find fault in your logical arguments (logos, the topic for a future article).

They will not feel invested in your cause.

2.3. How to improving pathos

Lets review some ways from which you can create the pathos of your presentation: themes

and points, words, analogies and metaphors, stories, humor, visuals, delivery techniques
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2.3.1. 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?

2.3.2. 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 cancer in our city The latter

analogy draws on your audiences pre-existing feelings about cancer, and makes them want

to eradicate the cause.

2.3.3: Tell stories and use humor

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.

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

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.

2.3.4: Connect through visuals and use vivid, sensory words

When you use sensory words, your audience feels emotions they have associated with thosewords.

Maybe you have slides with photographs. A concrete visual element opens many more

emotional pathways than abstract words alone.

Examples:

- When you mention the touch of your fathers flannel shirt or the aroma of your

grandmothers kitchen, youve done more than just mention fabric and smells. You have

evoked emotions which, depending on your audience, probably include loving memories ofchildhood.


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- Saying that smoking damages lung tissue versus showing a slide with a photograph of

tar-like lung tissue

2.3.5: 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. Remember that the goal of pathos is to connect with the audience and share emotions

with them. To share an emotion, youve got to feel it too.

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.

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.

3. Ethos (Appealing to character)

3.1. Definition

Ethos was originally defined as being trustworthy. Aristotle stated that we are more likely to

believe people who have good character.

Aristotle does not include the concept of either a speakers 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.

3.2. Characteristics of ethos

The ethos of a speaker can be measured by four related characteristics:- Trustworthiness (as perceived by the audience)

- Similarity (to the audience)

- Authority (relative to the audience)

- Reputation or Expertise (relative to the topic)

3.2.1. Ethos = trustworthiness:

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

audience is more likely to be persuaded by someone who they trust, and this is largely


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independent of the topic being presented. 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).

3.2.2. Ethos = Similarity to the Audience

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.

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.

If you dont, you can adapt your language, your mannerisms, your dress, your visuals, and

your overall style to match your audience. There are many characteristics which you might

share with your audience: age, gender, race, culture, socio-economic status, personality, etc..

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.

3.2.3. Ethos = Authority

The greater a persons 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.

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.

3.2. 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 yourpresentation.


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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.)

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. Records

achieved.)

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

expect that you have something valuable to say, and they are eager to hear it. They are likely

to be persuaded by you, provided that your speech is compelling. A bad speech will still sink

you, but youll have more leeway.

If you have low ethos, your audience may not be listening or paying attention. (In fact, they

may not even show up! Poor ethos doesnt attract a crowd.) Expectations are low, and a poor

opening will kill you. Your audience can be persuaded, but your speech needs to be much

better to do it.

3.3. How to improve ethos

Ethos is about your audiences perception of you, and this perception can be formed over

many months or years, or perhaps over many past speeches. So, well first examine

things you can do in the long run to improve your ethos from long time before,

during and after your speech.

3.3.1. Develop deep expertise in topics you speak and market yourself (Reputation)

Your expertise will often differentiate you from competing speakers. People are busy. Whywill 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?


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Developing the expertise doesnt earn you any ethos if you dont market yourself and let the

world know about it. Youve got to take charge of your personal brand and make sure that

its a brand that emphasizes the qualities you want to emphasize.

3.3.2. Analyze Your Audience

Thorough audience analysis is critical for improving your ethos. 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: Youve been invited to speak to a company that is new to you. You dont 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.

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 Its

never too late. If you can do it in a meaningful way, try to weave this phrase into your

material.

3.3.3. Tell stories or anecdotes which show you are consistent with your message

Dont be a hypocrite. Nobody will act on your advice if you dont.

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 thelocal 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).

Dont be a hypocrite. Nobody will act on your advice if you dont.

3.3.4. Use visuals/examples which resonate with your audience

For any given message, you have a multitude of options for stories, anecdotes, visuals, orother techniques to convey your speech. From this multitude, try selecting the ones which
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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.

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.

3.3.5 Make yourself available to your audience even after your speech

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.

III. CONCLUSION

Three persuasive techniques help you learn how to prepare an effective persuasive speech.

At the same time, if you build the arguments that are convincing to your audience, use

emotion to increase your audiences involvement, as well as develop your credibility by

demonstrating good will, you will get successful speech easily.

IV. REFERENCES

1.Retrieved from http://www.speech-guru.com/persuasive_speech.phpon May 7th, 2012

2.Retrieved fromhttp :// sixminutes .dlugan .com on May 10th, 2012.

3.Chapter 16 from Communicate 13th edition.
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