Communication has been around since the beginning of time. From the pictures inside of caves that told stories to me writing on this blog today. Communication takes on many forms. Only the best communicators are able to persuade though. It takes the perfect balance between Ethos, Pathos and logos to appeal to an audience. The optimal goal is to reach 100% of all. While some see this as possible others do not. Many will argue mathematically that if you have 100% of one thing you have to have 0% of another and 300% is unimaginable. If this is true then you are saying that someone with an abundance of logic (100%) will have absolutely no emotional appeal? If so, they would be a vegetable and not go very far in life. Since we can all attest to having heard some great public speakers and persuaders this is not true.
I have heard many great speakers, but one that stands out is Brad Whitworth. He works for Cisco and gave a speech to PR students at PR Day last year. Even though he was just talking about global communications, he had the entire audience captivated. He pulled from his entire bag of tricks: ethos, pathos, and logos. Not one triumphed over the other. He gave us logic with the ability to relate and emotional understanding of what he was saying. I try to do this as well in all of my public speaking episodes. After learning all the aspects of a good public speaker I am adjusting my speaking skills to become the best I cam be.
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I hate math. I really do. Math, in my illogical opinion, was put on this planet to make me angry (along side onions and mushrooms). However, your argument about the percentages I found to be very interesting. I really liked when you said "if a person is an abundance of logic..." It was completely logical! ;)
ReplyDeleteI liked your example about Brad Whitworth as well. The fact that he was talking about something simple (global communications) yet was able to captivate the audience is indeed a sign of a great speaker. A great speaker is one who no matter the topic, is able to make the audience pay attention, and not fall asleep.