Effective Persuasion

Talking is easy, communication is hard and persuasion is even more difficult.

Persuasion is a conscious attempt to influence people's opinions and behaviour. In this brief article in outline form, I will present three ingredients for effective persuasion: logos, pathos and ethos. All three ingredients must be present and in agreement for effective persuasion to take place.

ETHOS - Ethos refers to the credibility of the speaker which flows from the perception of the speaker's character. When your audience finds you trustworthy and competent, they are likely to believe you and your speech.

(a) Credibility: The Audience's Perspective
Your audience wants to know whether you are credible and competent (i.e., you had personal experience of the subject matter and you know what you are talking about).

What this means is that you should not speak on matters that you had not experienced or wrestled with. Early in your persuasion attempt, you should establish a common ground with your audience … communicate "like you, I had been there, done that and this is what I discovered …"

(b) Character: The Real Person
- The basic requirement is your life matches up with what you are talking about.
If not, you would find it difficult to communicate your message with conviction and your audience may be able to discern that. Even if the audience can't, the LORD can. You can't hide anything from Him and you know that.

1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,
2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
3 ... they say things and do not do them.
4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves are unwilling to move them
with so much as a finger.
5 "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men
for they broaden their phylacteries
and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
6 "They love the place of honor at banquets
and the chief seats in the synagogues,
7 and respectful greetings in the market places,
and being called Rabbi by men. Matt 23:1-7

1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren,
knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. Jas 3:1

- You need to be honest with your materials
(i.e., you should not exaggerate or twist facts to influence people).

John Calvin wrote, "We must not pick and cull the Scriptures to please our own fancy, but must receive the whole without exception."

You also need to be honest about different views. When you are honest then your audience sees you as ethical and it solicits trust in all that you had said and will say.

LOGOS - Logos is appeal based on logic or reason. Your audience is more likely to be persuaded if your speech meets their needs and you provide facts and logical reasons for your views. Your speech should have an orderly and logical structure. Here is a suggested structure (assuming a 3-point speech).

Introduction - Establish the purpose and relevance of speech
Body

- Proposition #1
(a) Explanation of Proposition
(b) Scriptures, Reasons, Proofs and Illustrations

- Proposition #2
(a) Explanation of Proposition
(b) Scriptures, Reasons, Proofs and Illustrations

- Proposition #3
(a) Explanation of Proposition
(b) Scriptures, Reasons, Proofs and Illustrations
Conclusion - Call for a specific action from the audience
Your arguments may be able to convince the audience logically, but the apathetic may not follow through on the call to action. Appeals to pathos can arouse emotions and propel them to act on what they have heard.

PATHOS - Pathos refers to the emotional appeal of the speaker's speech. Your audience is more likely to be persuaded when your speech stirs their emotions. Think about it … our opinions when we are warm and friendly are not the same as when we are cold and hostile.

Speech relevant to your audience

(a) The speech must be relevant to your audience's felt needs.

(b) To be able to relate the speech to your audience's needs, you need to gather information about your audience. Who are they? What is the age range? What are their needs at their stage of life? What are some possible issues they are struggling with?

(c) The felt needs must be addressed adequately before proceeding to the real needs.
Passionate about the speech

(a) To involve your audience emotionally, you need to be excited about your speech.

Tell stories. Use vivid descriptions to recreate emotion-producing situations so as to help your audience "experience" these same situations. Be excited. Your excitement stimulates the audience's interest in your speech.

(b) To be excited about the speech, you must first be convinced about its truth and its value for your audience.

for our gospel did not come to you in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit
and with full conviction; ... 1 Thess 1:5
Compassionate toward your audience

... night and day for a period of three years
I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Acts 20:31

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to her!
How often I wanted to gather your children together,
the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
and you were unwilling. Matt 23:37

Not only must you be concerned for them, you must be able to express that concern. How to do that?

- Look at them and listen to them. Express sympathy and understanding for their situations.

- Deal with their felt needs by answering their questions adequately. Handle questions even hostile objections graciously.

As you are speaking, ask yourself, "What are their feelings toward the subject matter of my speech?"

Note that while you may be able to sway an audience by appealing to emotions, your speech will not lay a strong lasting foundation in your audience because emotions rise and fall. It is better to appeal based on logic.

Persuasion requires hard work. It is most effective when all three ingredients of logos, pathos and ethos work together to communicate the same message instead of contradicting one another. Know that persuasion is God's work!

ETHOS

EXAMPLE: ACME Gizmotronics - The company that you\'ve trusted for over 100 years, has recently entered the World Wide Web! Now you can purchase our fine products through the Internet. Our quality gizmos and widgets can be shipped to you within minutes. All come with the famous lifetime guarantee that makes ACME the company that the world depends on for its gizmo needs.

I'm not really a coyote, but I play one on TV. I've used ACME products for years. Their slingshots, rocket launchers, crowbars, pogo sticks and power pills are the best around. And don't forget their high-powered dynamite! I buy everything from ACME. They are the company that I trust the most.

EXPLANATION: Back to reality - ACME Gizmotronics is not a real company; it's something we made up to use as an example of ETOS. The ACME homepage is an example of ETHOS because of the way it keeps referring back to the character of ACME ... a company that “you've trusted for over 100 years”. They even have a spokesperson vouching for their products.

LOGOS

EXAMPLE: By combining cesium and dihydro-oxide in laboratory conditions, and capturing the released energy, ACME has promised to lead the way into a new era of clean, safe, efficient and globally-available power source. No pollutants will be produced in the process.

Our scientists are exploring ways to use the same process in cars, houses, airplanes, and almost anything else that needs power. ACME batteries will be refitted with small dihydro-cesium reactors. Once the entire world is powered by ACME's generators, we can all relax and enjoy a much easier life from then onwards.

EXPLANATION: LOGOS is an argument based on logic or reason.The ACME research is primarily logos-based because it appeals to the reason. It suggests that cesium will provide the world's energy for a very long time. It is clean, safe and efficient ... all of which are appeals to the logic of the audience. By using such convincing reasons in its argument, ACME hopes to provide the world's energy.

PATHOS

EXAMPLE: A baby turtle breaks free from the leathery shell of its egg, unsuspecting of the danger that lies nearby ... a small pile of metal - cesium. As the tide comes in, the water finally touches the cesium. Boom! The nest is torn to bits in the resulting explosion, destroying even more of an endangered species.

Why does this happen? One name: ACME. ACME Gizmotronics is dumping their waste cesium onto our shores, threatening the environment and its inhabitants.

How can they get away with this? Don't let them get away with it! Boycott ACME products! And call your government representatives, and tell them you support stricter legislation to prevent things like this!

EXPLANATION: PATHOS is an argument based on emotion, playing on sympathy, fears, and desires. The call to boycott ACME products is PATHOS-BASED because it relies on an emotional response from the people reading it. By stressing the helplessness of the (endangered) turtle, it attempts to sway people to its side, against the \'commercial hordes\' of ACME.

RELATED: The Anatomy of Exposition: Logos, Ethos and Pathos
A Verbal Communication Model