Chapter 12

PATHOS

Appealing to one's sense of emotion can be a powerful form of persua- sion. Advertisers do it all the time because it works. There are essentially two types of emotional appeals. Positive Emotional Appeals. Usually try to get us to feel good, happy, warm, loving, and upbeat about the issue. This is most often used in sales. My favorite lines I've been told while shopping for cars: This car is sporty, This is a fun car, You look good in this car, Women will be attracted to you in this car (really . . . and no, it didn't work). Negative Emotional Appeals. Usually in the form of scaring us or mak- ing us feel guilty. However, they work. Can you think of a recent advertise- ment that you saw that was trying to scare you into buying a product? Do they work? The answer is, oftentimes, yes. Especially if they will reinforce the emotions we already have. However, research shows they are less effective at changing our emotions (see the classic work on per- suasion by Petty & Cacioppo)

ETHOS

Aristotle wrote in great detail about ethos or the ethics and credibility of a speaker (see the University of Tennessee's website for a detailed de- scription of his life and writings). There are essentially four things that you as a modern day persuasive speaker can do to add credibility to your speech. 1. Use Credible Research What makes your sources credible? The answer depends on the audience again. What is credible to one group may not be so credible to another. Think of newspapers as an example. What are some of the newspapers you find credible? Perhaps the Los Angeles Times comes to mind. What about the San Luis Obispo Tribune? Which do you find more credible between the two? How about the Mustang Daily? Is that newspaper credible? What defines credibility is the reputation the source has earned. If you have a source from Harvard University, we will likely view that as a credible source, because in the United States we tend to hold Harvard in high esteem. The university has an excellent reputation. Now, think about the bias that a newspaper may have. Without overanalyzing and getting into a philosophical debate, wouldn't you agree that all newspapers are somewhat biased? Everyone of us has our own biases and all we can do is hope to set those aside and do our best to be neutral. But in reality, we often cannot do that. When you are called to jury duty, the judge asks you if you can set aside your biases and make a fair and just decision based on the law. You are NOT asked if you have NO biases. We ALL do. It may surprise you to realize the most credible (as in least biased) newspaper of the three is the Mustang Daily. After all, it is the ONLY newspaper that is not at the mercy of a for-profit corporation and paid by advertisers. Would a Fox News affiliate have to think very carefully if they had a news story that was negative about Rupert Murdoch (the man who owns the majority of Fox News)? Aristotle brought up a good point: To be an ethical speaker, you must first recognize that you have certain biases, and then rather than attempt to hide that from your audience, you must admit your biases and then illustrate why they are not interfering with your message. And most importantly, to add credibility to your speech, remember to cite the source of each and every idea that is not your own during the speech each and every time that you use it. 2. Deliver Well Wouldn't you agree that the confidence and competence with which you deliver your speech would add to your credibility? Practice so that you sound confident. 3. Connect with Your Audience If you were asked to go back to your high school and talk to the students about college, you probably wouldn't dress like a business professional. Think about when you were in high school. Would it have been harder to relate to or identify with a college student wearing a suit and tie? 4. Show Your Similarity to Your Audience It may seem sad to you, but there are people out there in America who really do identify with and relate to television celebrities. That is why they are paid so much to be spokespeople for products. It does sell product. Once Oprah Winfrey told her viewers they should buy the book East of Eden by John Steinbeck. That night so many people went online and ordered the book that the publisher literally ran out (some reports estimated that over 50,000 copies were ordered in a 24-hour period). It became impossible to find a copy of the book anywhere in the US. The publisher had to reprint the book to keep up with demand. In the end, the book club resulted in 1.7 million copies sold (Nielsen). It may surprise you to know how many celebrities do television commercials but don't show their faces. Instead, they are the voice-over or narrations. Here are just a few: Lowes Home Improvement Stores uses Gene Hackman; Cingular used to use Charlie Sheen; Blockbuster uses Alec Baldwin; Cadillac uses Gary Sinise; Pizza Hut uses Queen Latifah; and Go RVing uses Tom

Defective Testimony

Defective, also known as false testimony, is when someone is untruthful, deceitful, or misquoted. An extreme example of this occurred when Dr. Lenore Weitzman published her book in 1995, The Divorce Revolution: The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences for Women and Chil- dren in America. She claimed in her book that divorced women with children experienced a decline in their standard of living after their di- vorce, while the former husbands experienced a rise in their standard of living. As a result of this publicity, some states changed the way they al- locate child support and alimony payments to divorced women. How- ever, when other sociologists attempted to verify her data, they were unable to find the same results. It wasn't until 1996 that she publicly admitted her conclusions were wrong. But, by then it was too late.

Sample Outline of Problem-Solution

I. Introduction (use a good, strong, catchy intro that grabs your audience, and at the same time establishes YOUR credibility). II. Thesis (preview the speech, but no need to be too direct. You should summarize the problem and your solution and hint at how the audience can help, without saying something as direct as, "I'm here to persuade you."). III. Body (a great option) A. Problem 1. Explain what the problem is, for whom, and use lots and lots of details. (who, what, when, where, why, how) B. Solution 1. Explain why THIS solution is the BEST solution. You may need to deal with some objections and the opposition here. IV. Conclusion. Must include your persuasive appeals and a clear direct call to action that tells the audience what you want them to do and when and how and why it will work. Remember (again), it MUST be a public policy solution. V. References

Non Sequitur

In Latin this means nonsequential. The claim in the argument doesn't lead us to the conclusion. Former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott once said during an ESPN interview in May 1996 while praising German dictator Adolf Hitler saying, "Everybody knows he was good at the be- ginning, but he just went too far."

Ad Hominem

In Latin, this translates to against the man. It is a personal attack. In col- legiate debate, personal attacks are prohibited. One must not claim "my opponent is an idiot" but rather "my opponent has misrepresented the facts." In politics, they seem to be strongly encouraged.

Step One: Attention

In addition to the introduction of your speech (which also serves to gain the attention of your audience and focus them on listening to your speech), the primary goal of the first step is to focus the audience's at- tention on the severity and importance of your topic and convince them that it relates to them so they will care about it enough to listen (and eventually take action). This can be accomplished in many of the same methods that we use to open the speech with. You could make some startling statement(s) about your topic that would arouse curiosity or suspense. You could use a relevant quotation from a credible source. You could pose a question (such as a rhetorical). You could share some powerful data or statistics that illustrate the context of your topic. And finally, you could tell a dramatic story or anecdote. This step is the foun- dation of your argument and must be well thought out, powerful, and structured effectively.

Step Three: Satisfaction

In step three, your goal is to show the audience that there is a way to satisfy this problem by providing them a solution. This occurs by taking the form of a detailed plan, or vision, that you will outline and explain in an effort to get the audience to want to accept your solution and take action. It is important that the speaker clearly describes the action or change that you desire the audience adopts. This plan must be ex- plained in a way that is complete and detailed enough that the audi- ence will be able to make a decision. Speakers will need to address all of the concerns (as reasonably possible in the time limit) that their listeners may have or be thinking about. For some speaker topics, it will be ap- propriate to use a demonstration (either showing it or describing it in the speech). This will serve as a model of the desired condition or state of the audience after changing the current situation. Again, using credi- ble sources and detailed facts, figures, testimony, and expert sources are vital to persuading the audience to support this plan. If there are complex statistics and data involved, the speaker should plan to illus- trate these with charts and graphs whenever possible. Since many pub- lic policies will have obvious objections, it is appropriate for the speaker to prepare counterarguments and handle the objections in the audi- ence members' minds. Once the listeners understand the solution, they will begin to wonder how it will work for them and what they can do.

Step Four: Visualization

In this step, the speaker is now trying to get the audience to imagine exactly what their lives will be like if either (a) nothing changes or (b) the plan is adopted. Perhaps one of the most important things for speakers to do effectively in this step is be detailed, but realistic and believable. Many topics with serious problems have complex and varied solutions that, even in a perfect world, are likely to have bumps in the road to change. Although all persuasive speeches will have time limits, speakers will need to provide enough details to help the audience see the results of the solution/plan and feel that these results are possible and practi- cal. When speakers have not done enough research into the problem, they run the risk of offering solutions that may be unrealistic and infea- sible given the current state of affairs in government, the economy, and organizations. The more evidence the speaker can offer, the more likely the plan is going to be something the audience can clearly visualize. There are three ways to get the audience to visualize the solution. The speaker must make a choice (given the likely time constraints of the speech) about which method will be most powerful for the audience. The first option is to create a positive vision approach. Here the speaker will focus on describing the situation if the solution is adopted. You should help the audience to see how much better things will be with your plan in place. If you are limited with time, and have a clear plan, this is a great approach to take. Another option is to use the method that paints the picture of a negative vision. With this approach, the speaker is trying to show the audience what life would be like if the proposed so- lution is rejected. Essentially, you are showing them what will happen without your plan in place. And the third option is to combine the two methods and use a contrasting vision approach. Here you would try to show the audience how great life will be with your plan in place and how awful it would be without it. Clearly, this requires more time and may not be an option in every speaking situation. However, this ap- proach is more susceptible to the fallacies if the speaker uses too many hypothetical examples. It is important that every situation you describe as a possibility of occurring without your plan in place is supported by credible evidence and logical reasoning.

Step Two: Need

In this step, you are trying to convince your audience that they need to take action and do something about this topic. Here you should begin to describe the problem(s) with the current situation and show them how and why there is a strong need for change. Your goal is to make them feel that the change is something that must take place. You want the audience to feel compelled to desire change. This can be done con- necting the problems to their own lives and letting them see how seri- ous the problem is. Clearly the speaker must provide good credible sup- port in this section (logos as well as pathos). The speaker should also try to illustrate the problem with detailed, specific, and realistic examples. This can occur in the form of testimony as well as credible statistics, data, and research. If the speaker is successful at convincing the audi- ence of the need for change, they will be primed and open-minded to the next step.

LOGOS

Logical arguments are ideally suited for an audience that is prepared and motivated to analyze your arguments and evaluate your message. Logical arguments use evidence to support the claims. The structure of a logical argument is as follows: (Rhetoric, by Aristotle) 1. Claim 2. Evidence 3. Conclusion

Monroes Motivated Sequence

Monroes Motivated Sequence Another useful organizational style for your persuasive speech was de- veloped by Professor Alan H. Monroe of Purdue University and is now called Monroe's Motivated Sequence (Ehninger, Monroe, & Gronbeck, 1978). This sequence is considered by many public speaking teachers to be one of the most important organizational designs in persuasive speaking. The sequence involves organization of your speech around five steps that lead your audience toward successful persuasion.

Step Five: Action

The final step involves the call to action. Here you are not only summa- rizing your message, but also you are now trying to get the audience to do something to make your solution become reality. The most effective calls to action are detailed, but very specific and tell the audience ex- actly what you want them to do or to whom they should contact, and exactly what they should say, when it should be done, etc. A good call to action should also be easy for the audience. Something as simple as providing a letter for them to sign and return to you is more likely to be successful than asking them to send it on their own. One option in this step is to make the appeals in the form of an offer or a challenge. You can begin with something small and work your way up to greater com- mitment. An example of this could include starting off by asking them to raise their hands if they want something better. This gets them in the habit of agreeing with you before you ask them to take further action. Some of the things that can be done as part of the appeals to action can involve using powerful quotations that inspire the audience. You can also create very detailed illustrations and descriptions that will help the audience to move forward. But most importantly, the speaker should seek to get commitment from the audience to take action. Despite all of the persuasive appeals, tricks, and techniques, don't forget that the most important is to ask for commitment. If you don't ask, they may not do anything. As I mentioned above, many consider this to be a highly effective tool at creating and delivering persuasive speeches. Hopefully, you now feel that you have another tool to help you organize your persuasive speech to be more persuasive and effective.

Statistical Fallacies

The problem with statistics is that they are confusing. There is an old joke that goes something like this: "Research shows that 82% of all sta- tistics are made up on the spot." I have personally seen many instances when reputable media organizations misuse statistics. Recently, Time Magazine ran a health report in which they reported the following alarming statistics: One child dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds. Someone in the world dies of TB every 18 seconds. One pregnant woman dies of complications every 60 seconds. One person is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds. While those numbers make for dramatic statements, they are inaccurate. In fact, they are averages. A statistical average or mean is calculated by taking the estimated annual number of children who die of malaria in Africa each year and then dividing that down from days, hours, minutes, and then seconds. However, in the 58 seconds you were reading this it is false to say two children died. How- ever, you may make these claims as long as you state "on average."

Red Herring

The red herring is a diversion to move the audience away from the real issue. Why should we worry about the amount of violence on television when so many children are injured in automobile accidents? This is a red herring. So is, we should lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 because you can join the military at the age of 18.

Slippery Slope

The slippery slope fallacy occurs when we assume that taking the first step will lead to other steps, yet there is no logical reason to assume this. For example, when Californians had the option to legalize marijuana for medical use, the opposition attempted to make the following argu- ment: If we legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, the drug advo- cates will soon be able to get it legalized for all uses, and before we know it all drugs will be legal. That is a slippery slope.

Speech Structures

There are several common organizational structures for persuasive speeches. The basic "problem-solution" is an effective organization structure for many public policy speech topics. In this format, the speaker begins with showing the audience a problem that directly af- fects their lives. The speaker then lays out a solution to that problem in the form of an improved public policy that will fix (or at least help solve some of) the problem.

Persuasion versus Information

There is a difference between inform- ing an audience member and persuading them. Informative speaking is educating your audience. If they happen to change some behaviors based on the information, then they were not necessarily persuaded. The reason they changed behavior has to do with the information, NOT the speaker. Persuasion is caused by a speaker. Usually because the speaker appeals to the audience, thus causing them to change.

Post Hoc

This is a statistical error that occurs when a correlation is misunderstood to be the same as a cause-effect relationship. I have seen reputable me- dia organizations misquote researchers to imply that the research found the cause when they did not. As an example, major news sources reported on the findings of a study conducted at the Maryland Medical Research Institute. The study found a correlation (meaning a relation- ship) between girls who ate breakfast and being slimmer (measured us- ing Body Mass Index as a scale). This does not prove that IF a girl eats breakfast, doing so will cause her to lose weight. Yet the title of the article was misleading. It was: "Study: Breakfast, Cereal keeps girls slim." Not true. Breakfast cereal doesn't keep girls slim. Perhaps slim girls eat break- fast. Perhaps it gives the metabolism a jump-start. Perhaps they eat healthier all day. All of these were mentioned in the article, despite a mis- leading headline. Shame on the AP. Did I mention the funding for this particular study also came from cereal maker General Mills . . . hmmm.

Hasty Generalization

This is simply making too quick a judgment with too little facts. My friend got a "D" in Teitelbaum's class, so he must be a tough teacher. One "D" does not make a teacher tough.

Bandwagon

This is the "everybody's doing it, we should too" argument. Sometimes it begins with "California is the last state to adopt this plan . . ." However, that in and of itself is not a logical reason to adopt any plan. Perhaps the plan isn't good for us. Also, this is used with public opinion polls to per- suade us. As in "eighty percent of Californians would support an in- crease in . . ." and the assumption is that YOU should too. There are bet- ter reasons to support or not support a public policy than everyone else does. My other favorite: We should lower the drinking age to 18, be- cause everyone drinks anyway.

Either-or

This is the mistake of assuming that only one of two possibilities is the solution. Be sure that you do enough research to consider all solutions. There is often more than just the Republican and Democratic solution floating around Congress. For example, with social security reform there are about six plans. Use the above 10 fallacies as a checklist to make certain you don't commit any of the fallacies. For even more fun, watch a political debate and see how many of these our elected and aspiring officials commit over and over again.

Questions of Policy

concern things that are rules, laws, and/or regula- tions. These are the issues that affect us the most. After all, the laws and policies of our government often dictate how we live our daily lives and what we can or cannot do. So it should come as no surprise that these questions are not only contentiously debated, but oftentimes consid- ered the most important topics of ours lives (think of the issues that you are most concerned with). Once you have decided on a topic, found the issue, researched the current policies on that issue, and decided how you would like to change the current policies (notice that IS the process of putting together your speech topic—see below). The three types are: Logos (Logical Appeals), Pathos (Emotional Appeals), and Ethos (Speaker Credibility).

Questions of Fact

concern what is true or not true. Aren't all facts true? Not necessarily. We tend to believe that facts are true. But, haven't there been facts that we thought were true, but later found out to be false? Of course, and that is why there are often persuasive speeches and debates on questions of fact. In fact (pun intended), there are plenty of books, movies, and television shows that attempt to persuade us to believe some facts are true or untrue.

Questions of Value

concern what we think is good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust, fair or unfair. Since these are the issues that many people hold near and dear to their hearts, their faith, and their way of life, these are often contentiously debated and argued

Persuasion

is the act of changing another's attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and/or behaviors. Notice a key term of that definition is to cause change. Attempting to change one's behaviors, but failing is NOT persuasion. It was a "failed attempt at persuasion