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METHODS OF PERSUASION

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“Persuasive speakers are credible, logical, and emotionally affecting.”

For an upcoming persuasive speech, Maya picked a unique topic that hit particularly close to home. Three years earlier, her uncle was released from a twenty-two-year imprisonment after DNA tests revealed that he hadn’t committed the murder for which he was jailed. During her presentation, she planned to ask the audience to lobby for states to provide compensation to innocent prisoners who are exonerated by new DNA evidence.

Maya knew she would face a challenge in persuading her listeners. After all, not many people are wrongly imprisoned, so why should her audience members take time out of their busy lives to lobby state governments for a new policy? In short, why should they care?

To build the most persuasive case possible, Maya decided to use three powerful tools—ethos (demonstrating her credibility), logos (presenting sound reasoning for her claims), and pathos (evoking intense emotion in her audience). She established her credibility by citing trusted researchers’ findings on the accuracy of DNA testing and the inaccuracy of eyewitness accounts (which typically lead to wrongful convictions). She demonstrated solid reasoning for her proposal by presenting statistics about the difficulties that exonerated prisoners face in finding paid work after their innocence is proven. And she evoked her listeners’ compassion and empathy for exonerees by describing the harsh realities that her uncle had endured since his release from prison—including long stretches of unemployment.

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Maya’s presentation proved a resounding success. By skillfully blending ethos, logos, and pathos, she not only captured her listeners’ attention but also convinced them that exonerees deserve to be compensated for the ordeals they suffer as a result of errors made in the justice system. By the time Maya wrapped up her speech, some students were jotting down the tips she shared for lobbying state governments to introduce an exoneree compensation law. Her audience embraced her proposal, and some listeners intended to take the actions she recommended—solid evidence that she had given an effective persuasive speech.

You can use these strategies as successfully as Maya did. In this chapter, we discuss the use of ethos, logos, and pathos to create an effective speech.