Maybe you’ve heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, “One bite at a time.?” It sounds simplistic but that’s how you tackle the challenge of writing a speech. If you haven’t been asked yet, someday you will be. It may be to give a toast at a wedding reception, a eulogy at a funeral, a presentation for your department at work or a keynote address at a conference.
Regardless of the occasion, more times than not the challenge is not in the speech itself, it’s in coming up with what to say (how to present your thoughts).
Keeping with the analogy, I’m asking you to indulge me a bit. Just as an elephant can be overwhelming to look at, being asked to stand up in front of anyone and give a speech (no matter how short or long) can be intimidating to say the least. I say this often, but the most important factor to consider when speaking is to ask yourself the question, “what is the one thing I want my audience to hear from me today?”
What is “THE TAKE-AWAY?”
Once you know that, it’s really just a matter of finding the best way possible to communicate “the take-away.”
There are three ways to appeal to your audience to drive home your point. I didn’t come up with this. In fact, it was the Greek Philosopher Aristotle who first presented this idea over 2,000 years ago.
Aristotle called this, The Persuasive Appeal. Each one builds on the other.
What is THE APPEAL?
Aristotle said there are three ways to communicate a thought to your audience.
They are through –
1. Ethos
2. Logos
3 Pathos
Ethos is relying on ethics or your credibility as the person giving the speech. If you lack credibility or authority, you are at a disadvantage when trying to persuade your audience. In contrast, if you have credibility, you have a much better chance of gaining the attention and respect of your audience.
Logos refers to logic. Make a logical appeal to your audience and they have reason to listen. Convincing your audience through logical means and you have a much better chance of getting through to them.
Pathos can be argued has the power to provide the most persuasive appeal. Pathos plays on the emotions of your audience. These emotions could be positive or negative. For better or worse, we human beings are creatures of emotion. Think of most of the advertising we see today, a large majority of its success hinges on how it “plays our emotions”. If a television commercial can convince us that a product will make us happy, successful or satisfied there is a greater chance we’ll purchase that product. If a service provides peace of mind, financial security or health, we’re all in. Pathos is very powerful.
It’s impossible to cover all the ways these tools of persuasion can help you share a better story, but hopefully this gives you an idea and a place to start when it comes to making your speech one that moves your audience.
I welcome your thoughts and comments below.
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