You know your content. Success is in view.

But now, your time slot has been chopped in two.

Oh my! Oh my! What will you do?

ACK!

If you’ve been speaking for a while, this has probably happened to you. If it hasn’t yet, it’s only a matter of time.

Can you still salvage the presentation and provide value for your audience?

Ask Six Minutes

Josh H. from Montana writes:

I’ve been witness to at least two presentations in the last two weeks wherein, the originally allotted time was hugely condensed by outside forces.

For example, an expert researcher came to talk to my colleagues about how to facilitate focus groups. She had scheduled 5 hours to present an overview, lead activities, and inspire lots of conversation. She lived 2 hours away, and was an hour away from us when her car broke down, she had to get back to her home city, secure a rental, and drive back. The 5-hour workshop turned into a barely-2-hour rapid fire lecture. This was something she couldn’t have prevented.

How do other speakers/presenters/educators design flexibility into their talks for unexpected limitations?

Okay, let’s start with what NOT to do…

Your natural response is probably to do one of three things:

1. Quit.
2. Rush through your entire planned presentation.
3. Use all of your original time, going way, way over.

First, don’t quit. Real speakers don’t quit, even when disaster strikes. If you quit, you will probably never be invited to speak to that group again. Your credibility will suffer. Even worse, the company or organization you represent will be tarnished.

Second, don’t rush through the entire presentation. I’ve seen this approach, and it never works. You will be so intent on flying through your content that you’ll lose all chance to connect meaningfully with your audience. They won’t be able to absorb anything at all. In short, this option takes a bad situation and makes it worse.

Third, check your ego. The people in your audience have other meetings to attend, meals to eat, and loved ones to hug. They don’t want to be stuck listening to you for a lot longer than they planned. (Okay, I concede that there are very special circumstances where they may want you to go overtime, but I have never seen such an audience.)

Okay, then what DO you do?

Alright, if you are still reading, then you understand that whatever you deliver must be delivered at a reasonable pace, and end when your original time slot was expected to end. How?

1. Chop big chunks out.

When you lose half of your time slot (or more), you can’t make it up solely by cutting small bits of content here and there. You’ve got to chop big chunks of your presentation out.

Be merciless. Now is not the time to think about how the presentation would be better with the longer time slot. Now is the time to focus on providing value for your audience with whatever time you have left.

2. Plan for it.

It will be difficult to know how much to cut unless you have prepared a lesson plan — a division of your presentation into modules of (approximately) known length.

For example, suppose your presentation is planned for 5 hours in length. Your lesson plan might include modules such as:

• 10 minutes: Introductory story and session overview
• 20 minutes: Examining the status quo
• 40 minutes: 10 principles for improving the process
• 10 minutes: Break
• 30 minutes: Partners exercise
• 20 minutes: Exercise debrief
• 30 minutes: Case studies
• 10 minutes: Break
• 40 minutes: Group exercise
• etc.

If you have this lesson plan with you, it will be straightforward to prioritize modules and select those which add up to the time you have available.

In the example above, perhaps you decide to cut the “partners exercise” and the “exercise debrief”. That’s 50 minutes right there. Then, you decide to chop…

3. Poll your audience.

Suppose you have alternatives for material which you can cover within the remaining time. Maybe you have time to review case studies, or time to do some hands-on exercises, but not both. From your point of view, both would be more or less of equal value.

In this situation, you can poll your audience. You might say something like this: “I have two different modules planned for today, but we’ll only be able to cover one effectively in the time remaining. Which would you find most valuable?”

The audience may not be happy about your truncated presentation overall, but they will be happy that you are seeking their input. Maybe you’ll get invited back to deliver the other alternative module.

4. Plan two endings.

We’ve already said that you shouldn’t charge arrogantly ahead and go overtime, but in certain circumstances, there is one acceptable way to go past your original time boundary if some of your audience is able to stay longer. It involves asking for consent.

Here’s how it works. Make a plan to chop modules which allows you to end on time. Consult your audience with something like: “I understand many of you have to leave at 5:00PM to make your flight, and so I’ve redesigned my presentation to end on time. For those of you who are able to stay longer, I would be happy to stay and lead an optional exercise that I have prepared.”

It’s not perfect, but it does show that you are being flexible and trying to meet the needs of as many people as possible. Those who are able to stay late (if anyone does) may really appreciate it.

5. Deliver chopped content in another form.

Even though you can’t deliver the full content as planned, there are other ways to deliver it.

• You could create a handout with the chopped content, and send it out to participants via email. (No, a copy of PowerPoint slides which you eliminated doesn’t cut it.)
• You could capture the eliminated modules on video, and make it available to participants.
• You could offer copies of your book as “compensation”. (This only works if that is fair value on the same topic.)
• You could even offer to deliver the other modules at another time. I recall a multi-day conference where a presenter in this situation offered to deliver “part two” of their presentation during breakfast the next morning.

6. Make yourself available for follow up.

Making yourself available to your audience after the presentation is always a good idea, but especially so when, for whatever reason, you couldn’t deliver 100% of what was promised to them. Maybe you could stay behind for more Q&A, or perhaps you agree to take their questions via email/phone and answer them promptly.

7. Be decisive.

Make your new plan as soon as possible. (In the scenario of the broken-down car, you could be making a mental plan while driving, and be ready to implement it as soon as you arrive.) The time constraints are bound to be an elephant in the room, so deal with it by assuring your audience that you have revised the agenda. It will ease tensions, and allow everyone to focus on having a productive session.

Whatever you do, decide quickly. The clock is ticking.

What’s Your Opinion?

What other strategies have you used in these situations? What have you seen other speakers do? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Similar Articles You May Like... The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The previous article in the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series defined logos and described why logical arguments are so important for your presentations.

Okay, that’s all very good in theory, but do we need to be logical masters to build high logos?

No, not at all.

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.

You may wish to compare to techniques in previous articles:

• 15 ways to improve ethos
• 18 ways to improve pathos

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…

#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.

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.

#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?

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.

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!

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.

#13: Use vivid details.

In lieu of photographs, you can make your claims more real by supplying vivid details.

#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.”

What do you think?

The techniques listed here are far from complete. There are other ways to improve your logical arguments and your persuasive effectiveness.

What other techniques do you use?

When you are in the audience, what qualities of the presentation make you more likely to judge it to be a sound argument?

Please share your ideas in the comments.

Similar Articles You May Like... What is Logos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs)

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

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.

In this article of the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series, we examine logos and the importance of conveying your message in a way that is both understandable and convincing to your audience.

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 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 Six Minutes articles you have read in the past were insightful. (premise)
2. This is a Six Minutes 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

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)
• 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)

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.

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”.
  • This commonplace would be a good starting point to persuade members of your school board not to ban controversial classics from the school library.

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!

A wonderful example of this second principle is provided by Jay Heinrichs in Thank you for Arguing, page 101:

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.”

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.

Okay, I’ll Use Commonplaces. Anything Else?

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.

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).

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?

There are many specific ways to establish logos throughout your speech, and we’ve hinted at some of them already in this article.  We examine some of these methods in greater detail in the next article of this series.

Similar Articles You May Like... 17 Easy Ways to Be a More Persuasive Speaker Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs)

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Thomas Carlyle once observed:

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

You can make your speechwriting sing by learning lessons from songwriters. By applying these eight songwriting techniques, you will get your audiences to virtually tap their feet, nod their heads, and even hum along to your message.

1. Triad
2. Refrain
3. Cadence
4. Harmony
5. Rhythm
6. Rhyme
7. Echo
8. Sound Effects

#1: Triad

Have you ever tried to dance to a waltz? (Or, at least seen celebrities try on ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars?) Someone counted for you: one, two, three… one, two, three. Soon, your klutzy steps flowed more smoothly. You had the beat. You had the rhythm. You had the flow.

The three-beat measure stimulated you. The three-beat measure motivated you. And the three-beat measure exhilarated you. The three-beat measure is well-ingrained in our daily lives, rhythmically sliding off our tongues and into the ears of others:

• Wine, women, and song
• Butcher, baker, and candlestick maker
• Tall, dark, and handsome
• Hook, line, and sinker
• Hop, skip, and a jump
• Beg, borrow, and steal
• Signed, sealed, and delivered
• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In music, a triad is composed of three notes that make a chord. Applying the same concept to speechwriting, think of a triad as a group of three words or three phrases used together to increase memorability and impact with a rhythmic 1-2-3 beat. Add even more impact with alliteration where each of the three words begins with the same letter.

Consider these examples:

• Effective speakers share ideas with impact, insight and intensity. They engage listeners with courage, conviction and confidence.
• Effective speakers convey their point of view confidently, cogently and convincingly. They sew their thoughts with the threads of innovation, inspiration and imagination.
• Effective speakers enrich, enlighten and entertain their audiences. They strive for compatibility, capability and credibility.

Read more about this technique in How to Use the Rule of Three in Your Speeches.

#2: Refrain

In music, a refrain is a regularly recurring phrase or verse. So too in speechwriting. A refrain is a short phrase used in a series of (at least) three sentences. This short repetitive phrase is more strategic to the message and more memorable to the audience than repetition.

Consider the message strategy and memorability in this example delivered at the 2004 Republican Convention by then-First Lady Laura Bush:

Abraham Lincoln didn’t want to go to war, but he knew saving the union required it. Franklin Roosevelt didn’t want to go to war, but he knew defeating tyranny demanded it. And my husband didn’t want to go to war, but he knew the safety and security of America and the world depended on it.

You can also use just two words to develop the refrain as Arnold Schwarzenegger did at the 2004 Republican Convention:

America is back.
Back from the attack on our homeland.
Back from the attack on our economy.
Back from the attack on our way of life.

Finally, consider former President Ronald Reagan speaking on D-Day in 1984:

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next.

#3: Cadence

Cadence is a repetitive phrase that begins at least 6 consecutive sentences. The exaggerated repetition drums the words into the ear for greater rhythmic impact and memorability.

Consider this passage from Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech:

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that.
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

Feel the fight from Winston Churchill’s speech given to the British Parliament in June, 1940:

We shall fight on the seas and oceans.
We shall fight with growing confidence and strength in the air.
We shall fight to defend our land, whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches.
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.
We shall fight in the hills. We will never surrender!”

Finally, consider the cadence in the words of Lyndon Johnson in August, 1964 as he accepts a nomination for President of the United States:

Most Americans want medical care for older citizens. And so do I.
Most Americans want fair and stable prices for our farmers. And so do I.
Most Americans want a decent home in a decent neighborhood for all. And so do I.
Most Americans want an education for every child to the limit of his ability. And so do I.
Most Americans want a job for every man who wants to work. And so do I.
Most Americans want a victory in our war against poverty. And so do I.
Most Americans want a continuing, expanding and growing prosper. And so do I.

#4: Harmony

In music, harmony is pleasing to the ear, a concordance of sounds, and a balance that beholds. In speechwriting, you can employ a harmonizing sentence structure to balance the beginning and the ending of a series of (at least) three sentences.

Think of putting your sentences on a teeter totter: whatever weight you put on one side must be balanced by weight on the other side. This technique is more formally known as parallel structure.

Shakespeare’s used this teeter-totter, harmony technique in Shylock’s speech in The Merchant of Venice (Act III, Scene 1):

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

Here is another example of harmony adapted from Super Bowl winning Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy in 2006.

Talent is God-given. Be helpful.
Praise is Man-given. Be thankful.
Conceit is Self-given. Be mindful.

And finally, another example of harmony from one of my own speeches concerning making deadlines.

Prisoners serve it. Time.
Musicians mark it. Time
And historians record it. Time

#5: Rhythm

You can change the tempo of your speech much like a songwriter changes the tempo from an easy-going 4 beats per measure (waltz) to a brassy 8 beats per measure or more (jazz) depending on your intended message. Use at least five verbs in a repetitive sentence structure to generate a recurring beat that resonates with your audience.

Consider the following examples of verb-driven, toe-tapping rhythmic speechwriting. First, another example from Shakespeare’s Shylock in The Merchant of Venice Act III, Scene I:

Hath not a Jew fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a Christian is?

President John F. Kennedy used this rhythmic technique in his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961:

We will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.

Finally, consider the words of Reverend Billy Graham:

Humor helps us overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable.

#6: Rhyme

Rhyme is a proven method of building rhythm as every cheerleader, poet, and songwriter knows.

Consider the opening words of William Ernest Henley’s poem, “Invictus”:

Out of the Night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever gods maybe
for my unconquerable soul.

Effective speechwriters use rhyme in a sequence to generate a rhythmic momentum that drives greater emphasis and meaning to the intended message .

Consider this 13-sentence example of rhyme:

Architects cannot renovate it.
Businesses cannot incorporate it.
Churches cannot inculcate it.
Developers cannot innovate it.
Engineers cannot calculate it.
Governments cannot legislate it.
Judges cannot adjudicate it.
Lawyers cannot litigate it.
Manufacturers cannot fabricate it.
Politicians cannot appropriate it.
Scientist cannot formulate it.
Technicians cannot generate it.
Only you can orchestrate it.

You might also use rhyme to build momentum, meaning, and memorability like this:

The legal department focuses on liability.
The financial department focuses on visibility.
The manufacturing department focuses on capability.
The marketing department focuses on availability.
The advertising department focuses on visibility.
And the public relations department focuses on credibility.

#7: Echo

You can employ the audience to help you build more rhythm in your speech and provoke your audience to echo a key phrase in your message.

Consider this example which the late Senator Ted Kennedy invoked at the 1988 Democratic Convention to chide then Vice President George Bush for distancing himself from then President Ronald Reagan’s decisions on controversial issues. Notice how the rhythmic sentence structure stirs the audience reaction. By the third or fourth iteration, the audience erupts, echoing the phrase – “where was George?”

The vice‐president says he wasn’t there – or can’t recall – or never heard – as the Administration secretly plotted to sell arms to Iran. So when that monumental mistake was being made, I think it is fair to ask: where was George?

The vice‐president says he never saw – or can’t remember – or didn’t comprehend – the intelligence report on General Noriega’s involvement in the cocaine cartel. So when that report was being prepared and discussed, I think it is fair to ask: where was George?

The vice‐president claims he cares about the elderly – but evidently he didn’t know, or wasn’t there, when the Administration tried repeatedly to slash Social Security and Medicare. So when those decisions were being made, I think it is fair to ask: where was George?

And the vice‐president, who now speaks fervently of civil rights, apparently wasn’t around or didn’t quite hear when the Administration was planning to weaken voting rights, give tax breaks to segregated schools, and veto the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988. So when all those assaults were being mounted, I think it is fair to ask : where was George?

#8: Sound Effects

Use a word for its sound effect such as “crash” or “boom” or “crunch” to express more feeling and to bring inanimate objects to life such as “squealing” tires, “groaning” gates, “whining” siren, “whistling” train,” gurgling” creek, or “screaming” wind.

Known formally as onomatopoeia, this technique focuses on words where the sound of the word suggests its meaning such as slap, or slash, or growl. Look for verbs in your speech and see if you can replace at least one verb with onomatopoeia. Instead of saying “the carpenter pounded the nail,” say “the carpenter’s hammer banged out a steady rat-a-tat-tat.”

Here’s an example from a college student. She uses the sound effect of a sizzling frying pan put under running water to recall diving into a swimming pool on a hot summer day:

As the sweat dripped from my brow I ran quick as lightening, threw on my swim suit. Ran bare footed on the hot scalding cement. Through the brown crispy grass. Climbed over the edge. And jumped in! As soon as my hot feet touched the cool water, tsssssssssss! I was in heaven.

Your Challenge

By applying these eight songwriting techniques, you will more fully engage your audience, energize your message, and enhance your memorability.

Your challenge is to use one or more of these techniques the next time you step up to the podium and you will more readily keep your audience turned on and tuned in. Note-ably.

For further reading, you may be interested in John Watkis’ blog, where he also uses music as a speechwriting metaphor.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Peter Jeff has served an adjunct public speaking instructor at Grand Valley State University for the last 10 years. He is a former leadership development consultant with more than 20 years experience in corporate public relations. Mr. Jeff is also the author of a personal leadership book -- Get a Grip on Your Dream: 12 Ways to Squeeze More Success Out of Your Goals -- and can be reached at jeffp@gvsu.edu.

Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite closed every nightly broadcast with that signature phrase, a signal to his viewers of not simply the conclusion of his broadcast but the authenticity of what they had just experienced.

The familiar phrase, repeated every weeknight, threw a security blanket around his viewers. His mantra — decisive on principle and incisive on purpose — made his audience feel special, that they had been part of something tailored specifically for them.

You, too, can wrap your audience in a security blanket with a signature closing phrase at any type of recurring meetings. Read on to discover examples of mantra-like closing phrases that may stimulate your creativity in fashioning your own signature close.

Create a Mantra-like Closing Phrase

Indeed, the most effective speakers know how to define and deliver mantra-like closing phrases that infuse greater significance and ritualistic memorability to their presentations.

• Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker, always concluded his presentations with the phrase: “I’ll see you at the top.”
• Tony Robbins, another motivational speaker, would close each segment of his seminar series with: “Live each day with passion!”
• David Gregory ends each segment of Meet the Press on NBC with “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.”
• Paul Harvey famously ended his radio broadcast with that syncopated pause: “Paul Harvey… Goooood day.”
• And as a college public speaking instructor for the last 10 years, I always end each class with my own signature close designed to infuse more relevance into the students’ learning:  “Public speaking increases your face value!”

Signature closes help your audience savor what they have just experienced. They provide the familiarity of structure even in the turbulence of changing content.

No wonder ministers end each service with an “amen.” (“So be it.”) Some church leaders even offer a Benediction, from the Latin “good saying.” As the choir concludes, the organist ends on a high note and the minister gives the Benediction: “Go now and be of good cheer…”

The most effective leaders and speakers serve their own benediction, their own brand of go forth and be of good cheer following each staff meeting or speech.

Marshaling a Magnetic Force

Sometimes that signature close becomes a rallying device, like a magnet that pulls members, customers, investors, suppliers and employees into the center of your company or organization, galvanizes diverse points of view, and sharpens the collective focus so that more consistent decisions are made over a series of meetings.

Politicians adopt a signature close to each meeting, a signature close that reinforces their mission, their vision, their sense of teamwork and their collective commitment to success. A prominent recent example is Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can.”

Project teams adopt a signature close to rekindle the creative zeal and innovative spirit to overcome challenges. e.g. “Quality is #1”

Teachers adopt a signature close to reinforce learning objectives. For example, consider a reading teacher who encouraged her students to “Book your future.”

Sometimes an entire organization can adopt a signature close to reinforce their collective commitment. Consider “The Optimist Creed” that is recited by Optimist Club members to close every meeting. Members are business leaders and professionals who wish to promote activities and programs in the community that benefit youth. The ritual closing begins when all rise and face a large banner where the words of the Optimist Creed are clearly displayed. But most recite that Optimist Creed from memory. Their closing mantra reflects who they are as an organization. Their creed is written as bold and big on their hearts as it is on the huge yellow banner in front of the room. Their voices melding in unison around a singular idea cements their relationship to each other and their collective commitment to their purpose.

Creating an Icon

Some speakers take their signature close to the next level, by creating a visual icon to represent the key theme, adding memorability and meaning with an artifact.

For example in conducting a mentoring program for a large company, I developed a recruiting speech to engage both mentors and mentees. My theme? Stay Connected. I framed mentoring as a vehicle to spark performance throughout the organization, to electrify the company, to surge energy throughout the company for greater viability.

At the end of every recruiting speech, I would hand out colorful electrical wire connectors and tell each person I handed it to “Stay Connected.” Then I turned that handout into a display for our subsequent meetings. I displayed the connectors in a large wine glass that I kept near the lectern for every subsequent collective meeting I chaired with the mentors and mentees. My mantra close then evolved into an even more memorable device to rekindle the energy and focus our attention at the next meeting.

Applying These Lessons to Your Situation

So how can you apply this signature close concept in your professional or personal life where your public speaking has to motivate more than simply educate?

Use this simple, three-step approach to determine your signature close:

1. Study the mission of the organization you represent or the project team you are leading.
2. Define your role/goal in a simple declarative sentence.
3. Write a pithy phrase that captures the key idea in #2.

Let’s see how I applied that three step approach to teaching college students public speaking.

1. First the mission of the university where I teach is “educating students to shape their lives, their professions and their societies.”
2. My role as a public speaking instructor is to help students shape their communications skills so that they can leverage their knowledge and become even more valuable and valued in society.
3. Then I linked the concept of value with the skill of speaking and my signature close becomes: “Public Speaking Increases Your Face Value.”

And that’s the way it is.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Peter Jeff has served an adjunct public speaking instructor at Grand Valley State University for the last 10 years. He is a former leadership development consultant with more than 20 years experience in corporate public relations. Mr. Jeff is also the author of a personal leadership book -- Get a Grip on Your Dream: 12 Ways to Squeeze More Success Out of Your Goals -- and can be reached at jeffp@gvsu.edu.

It is grounded in the wisdom of the past (beginning with Aristotle’s ethos, pathos, and logos) and yet written for modern speakers with countless references to everyday persuasive examples.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

You might think that a book which discusses ancient public speaking theories would be dull and boring. I did.

But I bought it anyway, and I’m glad I did. I was wrong. The author, Jay Heinrichs, has accomplished a rare feat. He has written a highly educational book which is also lively and entertaining.

Thank You For Arguing covers the core rhetorical teachings of Aristotle and Cicero, but Heinrichs does it entirely using modern examples, drawing on political, marketing, workplace, and cultural references, as well as his own family arguments. One paragraph discusses Socrates; the next discusses Sherlock Holmes. The balance between formal lessons and practical examples makes the book highly valuable and applicable to everyday speaking.

Among other things, you will learn:

• A deep understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos
• Many figures of speech
• How to recognize strong and weak logical arguments
• How to recognize (and use, or defend against) persuasive techniques
• How to construct a persuasive speech

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this paperback book for only $10.08 from amazon.com. This is 28% off the list price.

As you can see from the Amazon screenshot below, the book is both popular and well-liked.

3 Things I Love about Thank You For Arguing

The three things I liked most about Thank You For Arguing are:

1. Figures of Speech Abound

I bought this book to gain a deeper understanding of figures of speech, and I am completely satisfied. The book delves into dozens of figures of speech, like accismus, anadiplosis, and anaphora just to name a few of the A’s. Heinrichs provides not only definitions and examples, but also the origins of the techniques. He discusses them in context with related figures and rhetorical concepts. As a result, you learn not only how to recognize the figures, but also when and where it would be to your advantage to use them.

2. The Honest “Persuasion Alerts”

The pages are littered with sidebar “persuasion alerts” which the author introduces by saying “it’s only fair to show my rhetorical cards — to tell you when I use devices to persuade you.”

These sidebars make it clear that this book is not only written about persuasive techniques, but also written with persuasive techniques. For example, antithesis is discussed on page 217 in depth, but the sidebar on page 5 points out that the author just used that technique in the introductory chapter. I admire the transparency of his approach.

Like all the best teachers, Heinrichs teaches best by demonstrating his own lessons.

3. Valuable Reference Materials

The Appendices are worth the price of this book alone. These include, as expected, a summary of figures of speech, and also a valuable guide to speechwriting techniques that I will utilize as I write and re-write my future speeches.

How could it be better?

1. Sidebar Layout could be Improved

Although I loved the sidebar persuasion alerts (and many other sidebar notes), I would have preferred if they were placed in distinct margins without text wrapping around them. (See the page excerpt at right.)

Because they are so instructive, I think they deserve a little more whitespace. The “extra” whitespace created would also provide more room for readers to scribble notes of inspiration.

2. Chapter 22

I agreed with most of the other twenty-four chapters, but Chapter 22 (talking about the presentation medium) caused me to utter a few “I don’t think so”s. If I were asked to edit the book, this is the only chapter I’d focus on.

I must concede that Heinrichs more than makes up for it with Chapters 23 and 24 where he applies all of the lessons in the book to common, everyday situations that we all might face: speaking up at a local town hall meeting, acing the job interview, persuading others in a social club, or seeking investment for a business idea.

3. Cultural Bias

The flip side of all of the practical examples drawn from popular (American) culture is that it has introduced a cultural bias. Most Six Minutes readers are probably okay (I, too, write with a western culture bias), but it’s something you should be aware of if you are considering this book.

What Others Think

Gordon Alley-Young, American Communication Journal:

… the short, succinct chapters make the book an easy reference that can be picked up and set down to be read at short intervals. This makes the book well suited to readers with busy schedules or for those who commute via mass transit a lesson can be gleamed on a short trip to campus.

Jay Heinrichs’ blends a popular cultural savy with an equal opportunity approach to critiquing any political and/or cultural figure.

Peter Kimpton, The Observer:

This entertaining volume is a romp through the rules of rhetoric, a primer in the art of argument. [...]

We’re offered ways to seduce, avoid conflict, manipulate the present tense to succeed at work, write speeches and even use eristic techniques to stop a US cop from issuing us with speeding fines.

Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski, The Independent:

If you’re the kind of person who wants to win people over, this book will help you succeed.

Verdict

Every speech and presentation is an opportunity for persuasion, even those business and scientific talks which speakers casually treat as “just informational talks.” No matter what type of speeches you deliver, your speechwriting skills will improve by reading this book, and your well-constructed arguments will be more persuasive. I learned a great deal, and you will too.

I highly recommend Thank You For Arguing for all speakers.

Similar Articles You May Like... Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking 17 Easy Ways to Be a More Persuasive Speaker What is Logos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-08-14] Book Review: Boring to Bravo (Kristin Arnold) Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-07-10]

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The previous article of the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series defined pathos and described why emotional connection is so important for your presentations.

In this article, we explore how to build strong pathos in your presentations through a variety of emotional pathways.

Pathos Superhighways: 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.

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 cancer in 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

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 versus Showing (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

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

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 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

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 share emotions with them.

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

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

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. 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. For much more on this topic, read Nick Morgan’s excellent article: How to Connect With Your Audience by Moving Closer.

#17: Eliminate Competing 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 delivering 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.

#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. There are many other ways to connect emotionally with your audience as a speaker.

What other techniques do you use? Please share your ideas in the comments.

Next in This Series…

In the next article of this series, we focus on logos, your logical argument.

Similar Articles You May Like... What is Pathos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs) Book Review: Made to Stick How to Connect With Your Audience by Moving Closer Connect With Your Audience: Don’t Hide Your Emotions When Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

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.

In this article of the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series, we turn our attention to pathos, and the role of emotion in persuasive public speaking.

What is Pathos?

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

Think about other words from the same root:

• 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 strategically connect 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.

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

According to translator George Kennedy, Aristotle provides “the earliest systematic discussion of human psychology” in On 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 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:

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.

Positive Emotions versus Negative Emotions

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 with your 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.
• 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?

These questions are addressed in the next article of this series — 18 Paths to Pathos:
How to Connect with Your Audience.

Similar Articles You May Like... 18 Paths to Pathos: How to Connect with Your Audience Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs) Book Review: Made to Stick How to Connect With Your Audience by Moving Closer Connect With Your Audience: Don’t Hide Your Emotions When Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

The core concept of Made to Stick is that your ideas are more likely to be memorable if you communicate them with six principles in mind:

1. Simple
2. Unexpected
3. Concrete
4. Credible
5. Emotional
6. Stories

The authors explore each of these principles in depth, both:

• Illuminating why it is important for memorable messages, and
• Demonstrating how to apply it through a stream of case studies taken from advertising, corporate strategies, movies, inspirational stories, and urban legends.

They also introduce the concept of “The Curse of Knowledge” — knowing something too well so that this knowledge inhibits our ability to communicate the essence of it to our audience. They portray this curse of knowledge as a villain, and address how to overcome this self-defeating phenomenon.

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this hardcover book (291 pages) for only $17.16 from amazon.com. This is 34% off the list price.

Reviews are overwhelmingly positive:

4 Things I Love about Made to Stick

The four things I liked most about Made to Stick are:

1. 100% Relevant to Your Speeches and Presentations

It’s not marketed as a book for speakers, but everything here applies to every presentation you’ll do.

I’m already thinking about how I could have improved past presentations, and how I can make future presentations better.

However, the best part is that the book is also 100% relevant to all other communication that you do, whether it be reports, emails, conversations, meetings, etc.

2. Well-written and organized

The book has just 6 chapters (one per principle), plus a prologue and epilogue. The roadmap is clear and easily understood.

This is not a dense book with nothing but theories. Dozens of concrete examples (or hundreds?) bring emotional stories to life and show how to put the ideas into action. Further, there is wide-ranging variety in the types of anecdotes used, before-and-after studies, and other methods.

3. No Jargon

You don’t need a psychology degree or marketing background to understand any of the concepts. Everything is written clearly and in terms that anyone can understand. There’s really only one term used which may be new to some readers — schema — but it is essential to the book’s message, and they explain it well. (Or, perhaps since I already knew the term, I am suffering from the Curse of Knowledge?)

4. Extras

In addition to the voluminous citations and index, the appendix also includes a very handy 5-page “easy reference guide” which summarizes the entire book in the type of shorthand a speaker might use for cue cards when delivering a keynote. Just the essential details. This is a very useful reference that I’ll refer to often.

For example, consider the follow passage which summarizes part of chapter one. Each of the numbers (which I added) corresponds to a story or set of stories used to illustrate their ideas. As I type them in, I recall each story and its lesson.

1. Simple

Find the Core

[1] Commander’s Intent. [2] Determine the single most important thing: “THE low-fare airline.” [3] Inverted pyramid: Don’t bury the lead. [4] The pain of decision paralysis. [5] Beat decision paralysis through relentless prioritization: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Clinic: [6] Sun exposure. [7] Names, names, names.

How could it be better?

1. Ditch the SUCCESs Acronym

Mnemonics devices are powerful; I’ve used them myself often. However, I cringe when I see any process or framework which is framed as an acronym. In forcing the six principles into the S.U.C.C.E.S.s acronym, I think the authors left more accurate terms out. For example:

• Although emotion is a key ingredient of communication, chapter five is really more about relevance than emotion.
• Chapter two might have been better framed as surprising (or curious) instead of unexpected.
• The authors admit that core might have been a better term than simple for chapter one.
• Stories aren’t really on par with the other five concepts, but rather a way to deliver all five in a convenient package. (The authors point this out near the end of chapter six.) However, they are presented as a parallel concept to the other five.

2. More Before-and-After Examples

The book already has many before-and-after examples where the authors examine the before (non-sticky) message and compare it to the after (stickier) message.

But, I’m greedy. I’d like even more examples built around this template. I find it much easier to see how to get to the sticky message when we have the non-sticky message for context.

What Others Think

Barry Schwartz, Washington Post:

I find the Heaths’ analysis convincing and their recommendations quite helpful. I think I will be a better teacher if I keep SUCCES in mind when preparing materials for my classes.

Jessie Scanlon, BusinessWeek:

The clear writing and myriad examples make the book highly readable, and overall, it scores well on the SUCCESs checklist: It’s simple, includes unexpected ideas, offers concrete examples, draws on credible sources, covers a subject readers have an inherent interest in, and tells some good stories along the way.

Guy Kawasaki:

My prediction for Made to Stick is that it will join The Tipping Point and Built to Last as a must-read for business people. [...] A warning though: If you read this book, you’ll revamp a lot of your marketing material (as you probably should).

Brent Dykes, PowerPoint Ninja:

I strongly recommend this book as it will ensure the foundation of your PowerPoint presentations — your central message or idea — is solid. Not even PowerPoint ninjutsu can save a weak idea or message.

Verdict

I finished reading this book only two days ago, and I’ve already encouraged several people I know to read it. Now I’m encouraging you.

Your ability to communicate your message in a clear, impactful, and memorable way determines your success as a speaker. Made to Stick is the best book I have read which focuses on this key skill.

Highly recommended for every speaker.

Similar Articles You May Like... Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Advanced Presentations by Design by Andrew Abela Book Review: The Story Factor (Annette Simmons) Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-08-14] Book Review: Boring to Bravo (Kristin Arnold) Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-07-10]

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

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

The previous article in the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series defined ethos along four dimensions:

1. Trustworthiness
   Does your audience believes you are a good person who can be trusted to tell the truth?
2. Similarity
   Does your audience identify with you?
3. Authority
   Do you have formal or informal authority relative to your audience?
4. 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.

Caution: Ethos is not an exact measure

Consider the difference between your weight and your overall health.

• Weight is precise. Yesterday, you weighted 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 epiphany, you should also 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.

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.

#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)

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.

#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

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.

#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.

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:

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 organization.

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).

#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).
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 a real 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.

#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.

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.

How to Improve Ethos — After Your Speech

Your talk is done, but your effectiveness as a speaker is not yet written in stone. Here’s 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.

In short, your ethos will rise.

#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. Even if your presentation was great, your influence on their future actions is diminished.

Ethos in the short term versus the long term

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 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.

Next in this Series…

In the next article of this series, we’ll switch our focus to examine pathos: your emotional connection with the audience.

Similar Articles You May Like... What is Ethos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs) Book Review: Made to Stick Should a Speaker Apologize to the Audience?

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.