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.

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

Do they have high expectations?

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

If not, you are suffering from poor ethos.

The first article in the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos series introduced these core concepts for speakers.

In this article, we define ethos, we look at ways that an audience measures your ethos, and we examine why it is so critical for a successful speech.

What is Ethos?

Ethos was originally defined by Aristotle in On Rhetoric as being trustworthy. He stated that we are more likely to believe people who have good character.

Aristotle later broadened this definition of ethos to add that we are more likely to be persuaded by someone who is similar to us, whether by their intrinsic characteristics (e.g. physical age) or the qualities they adapt (e.g. youthful language).

Aristotle does not include the concept of either a speaker’s authority (e.g. a government leader) or reputation (e.g. an industry expert) in his definition of ethos, but this reflects the rather narrow role for public speaking in his world. In our world, where speaking takes so many forms and where we often know a great deal about the speaker, we will include both of these elements in our definition of ethos.

So, then, we will measure the ethos of a speaker by four related characteristics:

1. Trustworthiness (as perceived by the audience)
2. Similarity (to the audience)
3. Authority (relative to the audience)
4. Reputation or Expertise (relative to the topic)

We will explore each of these characteristics below. In a later article, we look at specific things you can do to improve your ethos as defined by these root characteristics.

1. Ethos = Trustworthiness

An audience is more likely to be persuaded by someone who they trust, and this is largely independent of the topic being presented. If the audience trusts you, then they expect that what you are telling them is true.

Your trustworthiness is enhanced if the audience believes you have a strong moral character, as measured by concepts like:

• Honest,
• Ethical or moral,
• Generous, or
• Benevolent

Additionally, your audience tends to trust you if you are a member of a group with which these qualities are often associated (e.g. a pastor; a firefighter).

2. Ethos = Similarity to the Audience

Your audience is more receptive to being persuaded by someone with whom they can identify. Like trustworthiness, this aspect of ethos is largely independent of the topic.

If you share characteristics with your audience, great!

If you don’t, you can adapt your language, your mannerisms, your dress, your visuals, and your overall style to match your audience. Consider this the chameleon effect. Keep in mind that there are limitations to how much you can adapt your speech and delivery. Beyond this limit, your audience will see you as lacking authenticity and that’s bad.

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

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

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

3. Ethos = Authority

The greater a person’s authority, whether formal (e.g. an elected official) or moral (e.g. the Dalai Lama), the more likely an audience is inclined to listen and be persuaded.

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

• Organizational authority
  e.g. CEO, manager, supervisor
• Political authority
  e.g. president, political leader
• Religious authority
  e.g. priest, pastor, nun
• Educational authority
  e.g. principal, teacher, professor
• Elder authority
  e.g. anyone who is older than us

In addition to these, every speaker has authority just from being the speaker. When you speak, you are the one at the front of the room, often on an elevated platform, sometimes with a microphone or spotlight. You control the moment and thus, have temporary authority.

4. Ethos = Reputation (or Expertise)

Expertise is what you know about your topic.

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

Your ethos is influenced by your reputation. Of the four characteristics of ethos, reputation is the one most connected to the topic of your presentation.

Your reputation is determined by several related factors:

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

How do these characteristics combine?

Ethos cannot be assessed with a checkbox (“yes, you have ethos” or “no, you don’t.”) like you can with, say, pregnancy. It’s more like beauty in the sense that there’s a whole range of beauty and many ways to obtain it. (And, it’s in the eye of the beholder… your audience!)

This is easy to see if you examine how the four characteristics of ethos combine in various ways. Consider the following examples:

• A CEO speaking to her employees
  As the CEO, she has organizational authority, and this is usually accompanied by a reputation built on years of success within the company. However, she may not be very similar to most of the employees (older than most; richer than most; perhaps more reserved and analytical). Nonetheless, her trustworthiness is solid based on past history of honest communication with employees.
• The U.S. President giving the State of the Union address
  The President has more authority than most people on the planet based on his job title.  His reputation and trustworthiness probably depend a fair bit on your political beliefs. As for similarity to his audience, it’s a mixed bag — He’s American, and he’s not too old nor too young. But, he’s a politician and in a socio-economic class which puts him apart from most citizens.
• A Teacher speaking to his students
  He probably has a record of trustworthiness, as long as he truthfully announces when assignments are due and exams are scheduled.  He has authority over the 16-year-olds, both by way of position and by age. He has taught in the school for 10 years (expertise), including many of his students’ older siblings (reputation). Unfortunately, he’s not really similar to his students in terms of age, wealth, career, or choice of music.

All of them have significant ethos as they score high on several measures. In particular, authority and reputation often are closely related. (The things you did to earn the reputation often earn authority as well.)

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

Why is Ethos Critical for Speakers?

If you have high ethos, your audience is listening and attentive from your first word. They expect that you have something valuable to say, and they are eager to hear it. They are likely to be persuaded by you, provided that your speech is compelling. A bad speech will still sink you, but you’ll have more leeway.

If you have low ethos, your audience may not be listening or paying attention. (In fact, they may not even show up! Poor ethos doesn’t attract a crowd.) Expectations are low, and a poor opening will kill you. Your audience can be persuaded, but your speech needs to be much better to do it.

How do you Establish Ethos?

Unlike pathos and logos (about which we will learn in future articles), your ethos as a speaker is primarily established before you speak your first words. For example, either you have expertise about your topic, or you don’t. Either you are the CEO of the company, or you aren’t.

Having said that, there are many ways to establish ethos and to boost your ethos throughout your speech. We examine this in the next article of the series: 15 Tactics to Establish Ethos: Examples for Persuasive Speaking.

Similar Articles You May Like... 15 Tactics to Establish Ethos: Examples for Persuasive Speaking 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.

2300 years ago, Aristotle wrote down the secret to being a persuasive speaker, the secret which forms the basis for nearly every public speaking book written since then.

Do you know the secret?

If you don’t, you might be wondering what a 2300-year-old theory has to do with public speaking in the year 2010.

In a word — everything!

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

What are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?

So, what are ethos, pathos, and logos?

In simplest terms, they correspond to:

• Ethos: credibility (or character) of the speaker
• Pathos: emotional connection to the audience
• Logos: logical argument

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

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

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

Many teachers of communication, speech, and rhetoric consider Aristotle’s On Rhetoric to be a seminal work in the field. Indeed, the editors of The Rhetoric of Western Thought: From the Mediterranean World to the Global Setting call it “the most important single work on persuasion ever written.” It is hard to argue this claim; most advice from modern books can be traced back to Aristotle’s foundations.

In The Classic Review, Sally van Noorden points to George Kennedy’s modern translation as the standard reference text for studying On Rhetoric. Kennedy’s translation is the source that I use. (At the time of this writing, it is available from amazon.com for $24.56, 18% off the list price.)

Ethos

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

There are many aspects to building your credibility:

• Does the audience respect you?
• Does the audience believe you are of good character?
• Does the audience believe you are generally trustworthy?
• Does the audience believe you are an authority on this speech topic?

Keep in mind that it isn’t enough for you to know that you are a credible source. (This isn’t about your confidence, experience, or expertise.) Your audience must know this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived by your audience.

We will define ethos in greater detail, and we will study examples of how to establish and build ethos.

Pathos

Pathos is the quality of a persuasive presentation which appeals to the emotions of the audience.

• Do your words evoke feelings of … love? … sympathy? … fear?
• Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? … envy?
• Does your characterization of the competition evoke feelings of hate? contempt?

Emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker, perhaps most notably by stories. The goal of a story, anecdote, analogy, simile, and metaphor is often to link an aspect of our primary message with a triggered emotional response from the audience.

We will study pathos in greater detail, and look at how to build pathos by tapping into different audience emotions.

Logos

Logos is synonymous with a logical argument.

• Does your message make sense?
• Is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?
• Will your call-to-action lead to the desired outcome that you promise?

We will see why logos is critical to your success, and examine ways to construct a logical, reasoned argument.

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

Suppose two speakers give speeches about a new corporate restructuring strategy.

• The first speaker — a grade nine student — gives a flawless speech pitching strategy A which is both logically sound and stirs emotions.
• The second speaker — a Fortune 500 CEO — gives a boring speech pitching strategy B.

Which speech is more persuasive? Is the CEO’s speech more persuasive, simply because she has much more credibility (ethos)?

Some suggest that pathos is the most critical of the three. In You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard, Bert Decker says that people buy on emotion (pathos) and justify with fact (logos). True? You decide.

Aristotle believed that logos should be the most important of the three persuasive appeals. As a philosopher and a master of logical reasoning, he believed that logos should be the only required persuasive appeal. That is, if you demonstrated logos, you should not need either ethos or pathos.

However, Aristotle stated that logos alone is not sufficient. Not only is it not sufficient on its own, but it is no more important than either of the two other pillars. He argued that all three persuasive appeals are necessary.

Is he right? What do you think?

Next in this Series…

In the next article of this series, we examine ethos in greater detail.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs) 17 Easy Ways to Be a More Persuasive Speaker What is Logos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? 18 Paths to Pathos: How to Connect with Your Audience What is Pathos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Book Review: Made to Stick

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.

However, I recently argued that there are very few public speaking rules.

• Is “never apologize” a strict rule?
• What is the rationale? What’s wrong with apologizing to the audience?
• Under what circumstances, if any, is it okay to apologize?

Is “never apologize” a strict rule?

No.

I think that, in general, too many speakers apologize for too many things unnecessarily, but it isn’t a universal rule.

What is the rationale? What’s wrong with apologizing to the audience?

The fundamental rationale for this guideline is twofold:

1. You usually gain little by apologizing.
2. You may damage your credibility.

Consider the situation where you are designing a presentation. You’ve assembled a wealth of information, and it is time to edit your material. With each component — a slide, a prop, a story, a joke — you ask yourself whether it adds to the core message, or whether it detracts. Is there a net gain by keeping this?

You might ask the same question of inserting an apology into your presentation. There is often very little to gain by apologizing. On the other hand, you may damage your credibility with the audience. If you apologize for not being an expert, for example, your audience will begin to question why they are listening to you.

Under what circumstances, if any, is it okay to apologize?

There’s no magic eight ball which will tell you when an apology is warranted. Having said that, you may find it helpful to consider these questions:

Question #1: Is the audience even aware of what you are apologizing for?

• Norman Wei recently suggested: “Never tell your audience you are nervous!” The audience is usually completely unaware of your nerves. They can’t feel your butterflies. They don’t know if you lost sleep over this presentation.
• Similarly, you need not apologize if you forget to include something that you had planned. Only you know what the plan was. The audience will never guess.

How to handle it:

• Don’t call attention to negatives. They will only distract both you and your audience.

Question #2: Are you apologizing because you are really sorry, or because you are embarrassed?

• If it is the latter, it is quite possible that an apology will only call attention to and amplify the source of your embarrassment.
• For example: “I’m sorry. I was rushing to get these slides together.” The audience has probably already judged the quality of your slides. They likely don’t care that you are embarrassed, and are unlikely to think “Oh, that’s okay. No problem.” Instead, their mental response is more likely “You didn’t prepare adequately. You are wasting my time.“

How to handle it:

• Prepare adequately so that you have nothing to be embarrassed about or apologize for. Additionally, your confidence level will increase and improve your delivery.

Question #3: Are you apologizing for something completely out of your control?

• Example: Your presentation is interrupted by a very noisy air conditioning unit that has just “clicked on.” Some speakers may ignore it. Others may express their own disappointment with an apology “Oh… sorry for that.“
• Example: You are booked to teach a course into a room which is too small to accommodate your students comfortably.

How to handle it:

• If there is some action you can take, and that action improves your ability to deliver your message, then act decisively. (“Why don’t I move closer to you so that everyone can hear over that air conditioner.“)
• If there is no meaningful action for you to take, you might try to relieve the stress of the situation with some appropriate humor. The key is to acknowledge the problem without apologizing for it.

Question #4: What if I need to apologize?

• A speaker I mentored once told me of a presentation where she felt a compelling need to apologize. She described a strong feeling of guilt which was negatively affecting her ability to speak. Ideally, such feelings would not impact her ability to continue, but that was not reality for her.

How to handle it:

• If you feel this need, then deliver the apology quickly and sincerely. Don’t dwell on it or repeat yourself. Just resume your presentation. You may or may not lose credibility points from the audience, but there are far worse things you can do.
• The key thing is sincerity. A sincere apology may even gain favor of the audience. It all depends on the context.

Similar Articles You May Like... Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking The Only Thing to Do When Disaster Strikes Your Speech Book Review: Made to Stick 15 Tactics to Establish Ethos: Examples for Persuasive Speaking What is Ethos and Why is it Critical for Speakers? Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun)

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.