As the United States digests the results of our recent presidential election and all the down ballot races, I find myself reflecting on the power of public speech. I have always loved compelling speeches delivered by skilled speakers, where the alchemy of the soaring words and the speaker’s presence on the stage take an audience on a colorful journey and leave them with a clear call to action. Vote! Volunteer! Commit! Engage! Hope! Persist! Aspire!
Early in my career, I taught public speaking courses, often cited as the most dreaded classes on college campuses. These seminars were required for sophomores and juniors in particular majors at the University of Virginia where I worked. I can still picture my classroom in Cabell Hall, me at the podium going through my syllabus in front of 20 jittery undergraduates who were clearly dreading the semester ahead. “Do we have to stand in front of the class to give our speeches?” they often asked. Or, “Can we just read famous speeches out loud so we don’t have to create our own?” Over the course of 14 weeks I would work to ease my students’ apprehension/terror while coaching them to develop and strengthen their speech writing and their oral communication skills. By the time I submitted grades at the end of the term, each student had delivered four speeches in front of their peers (and a video camera): a process speech, informative speech, celebratory speech, and a final persuasive call-to-action speech.
As we eased into the semester, I would pull into the classroom one of those big media carts with a television and VCR (dating myself!), and we would watch and discuss videos of famous speeches—such as Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech where with growing intensity he repeated the phrase “I Have a Dream” eight times before a crowd of an estimated 250,000 on the National Mall; Ronald Reagan’s televised Oval Office speech to the American public in 1989 when he referred to the United States as a “shining city upon a hill”; and Texas governor Ann Richards’ 1988 speech at the Democratic National Convention where she memorably referred to George HW Bush as being “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
After each of these speeches I would ask my students to identify what made the speech persuasive? What sunk in for them? What techniques did each speaker use to get their point across? How did they stand at the podium and meet the eyes of their audience? How did they modulate their voice, the pace of their words, and the expression on their face?
Of course, I had a mission in these discussions. I wanted my students to more fully understand the three essential ingredients of any good speech. In order to do that, I needed to give my students a history lesson by taking them back to Ancient Greece where oratory in the public square was how folks got things done. Orators like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle knew that to win over a crowd, one needed to apply three persuasive speaking strategies: ethos, pathos, and logos.
Ethos – As speakers, ethos is how we express our character, integrity, and reputation to our audience. We apply ethos at the podium when we share our personal narrative in order to establish our credibility and ensure our audience that we are trustworthy. We want them to respect us. At the same time, we want to demonstrate that we understand them. Our audience’s reaction to our ethos appeal should ideally be, “I believe you.”
Pathos – When we tug at our audience’s heart strings we are applying pathos to our speech, often through metaphor, story, humor, or drama. If we crack a joke or tell a sad story, we are applying a pathos strategy. And if we evoke fear, rage, and hatred in our crowd, that’s pathos as well. If we are successful, our audience’s reaction to our pathos appeal should be, “I am emotionally moved by what you said.”
Logos – Logos responds to our audience’s need for a cogent, linear, logical argument in our speech. We apply a logos strategy when we use facts, figures, metrics, and other forms of evidence to strengthen our argument. We do this to generate an audience’s reaction like this one: “What you have said makes sense to me.”
From the Republican and Democratic conventions last summer, to the swing state barnstorming in the last month, we have seen countless examples of persuasive public speaking, some of it good and some of it horrific. For instance, we have heard specific examples of policies that will improve people’s lives—an effective logos appeal. We watched an imitation of fellatio with a podium microphone—a pathos appeal, albeit a childish one for someone running for high office. We watched one candidate reference a successful legislative track record in government (a reasonable ethos strategy) while the other boasted over fictional past accomplishments (a mis-use of ethos.) You get the idea.
So, as together we experience this moment in American history, I’ll be honest. I am struggling with the application of the three persuasive strategies. On the one hand, we watched a candidate who showcased her high level of integrity (ethos), used repetition to clarify a clear logical agenda for the country (logos), and enhanced her platform with expressions of joy, hope, community, and aspiration (pathos). On the other hand, we witnessed a candidate mis-stating his record, stoking fear, offending and isolating people, and not once bothering to make an articulate case for his plans for the country. This candidate, whose only effective platform strategy was to “weave” his audiences into the darkest corner of the pathos appeal, has won the election to be President of the United States. . .for the second time. Rhetoricians and communication scholars will be studying this outcome for years to come. A majority of Americans were moved by his rhetorical strategies, overlooking his inability to employ any logic to his speech, and smirking and giggling at his application of pathos that achieved nothing more than to ridicule and divide people, kind of like the playground bully of our youth.
Sure, there is much more to this election that speechifying. There is the economy, wars, and immigration. But what is striking to me is how differently each of these legitimate concerns was referenced at the microphone. The most compelling, vivid, thought-provoking, and inspired speeches were not enough for Democrats to cross the finish line in victory.
So then, picture yourself as an instructor today in college-level public speaking class, and think through the countless speeches we have all witnessed in the last several months. What examples of excellent persuasive speeches would you show to your students? How would you use these speeches to help students explore their own approaches to persuading others? How would you help them understand the power of their words and the tone with which those words are delivered?
I kept a live YouTube window opened on my MacBook to watch the concession speech of Vice President Kamala Harris in real time. There she stood on the campus of Howard University, her alma mater, before hundreds of her supporters and countless others watching remotely. The roaring crowd quieted as she stepped up to the microphone. “My heart is full today,” Harris began in full voice. “It is full of gratitude, love, and resolve,” she continued as she urged her audience to support a peaceful transfer of power to her opponent. She asked that we “look at the face of a stranger and see a neighbor.” She reminded us that “hard work can be good work.” And as the camera panned the tear-filled faces of her family, her running-mate, and her supporters (many of them college students) I cried along with them. I witnessed her character, felt her emotion, and absorbed her logic for a sensible path forward. Harris’s speech would have made Aristotle proud. Her final words responded to the palpable disappointment in her crowd. She closed with this brilliant application of metaphor: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
Kamala Harris nailed it by effectively employing ethos, pathos, and logos in just 15 minutes. And if I were teaching a public speaking class today, I’d show this speech as an exemplar of persuasive speaking. I am reminded that in life we all have our audiences and our need to connect meaningfully with those audiences—in our personal conversations, social media posts, work meetings, and community gatherings. And I wonder, given the news we are all digesting this week, will we apply the rhetorical approaches of Ancient Greece for good or for evil?
