Theory deep dive part 2: Pathos

A story about 2 speakers I heard at university. One had everything he needed to be amazing but fell flat. The other was an awkward tech geek who brought down the house. If you make giving the audience value your priority they will love you for it.

3 Questions from Reddit 

Here we have a look at the final mode of persuaion - Logos. The heavy lifter of the three, Logos is the use of facts, evidence and logic in a speech. It is made up of clarity of premise, clarity of argument and concrete examples.

Part two of three exploring Aristotle's theory of public speaking. Pathos is the use of emotion in speech. It can be broken down into contrasting emotions, stories, analogies and metaphors, humour and congruence.

Episode one of three going deep into theory we look at the OG of public speaking Aristotle. Aristotle broke speaking down into three "modes of persuasion" Ethos, Pathos and Logos. In this episode we explore Ethos.  Ethos is the sum total of how the audience perceives the speaker. It is fluid and made up of several components including your similarity to the audience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

How to practice properly is important. The gold standard is Deliberate Practice which is made up of 8 principles Have a clear, actionable goal Work at the edge of your ability Reduce the skill to its smallest components Go slow Variety is key Record your progress Get a coach Focus More important than the method is the willingness to practice at all. At the end of the episode are 4 stages of practice that you can biuld up to on your way to full blown Deliberate Practice. 

A short examination of the need to have a core message and how to find your own. We look at famous examples from President Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King jr and Winston Churchill.

An introduction to speech structure. We look at what a speech structure is and why it's important. includes a breakdown of the hero's journey structure and the signposted speech

Public speaking can be scary and that's completely normal. In this episode we look at why public speaking can be intimidating and what steps can be taken to reduce the fear. The second half features a pre-speech routine based on the culinary concept of mise en place.

Purpose and context are the first things to consider when giving a speech. I break down the 3 purposes of speech - Informing, Persuading and Entertaining - as well as the contexts of place, audience and time.