The following addresses writing and can directly be applied to creating a speech.
From:
"What Do Students Need to Know About Rhetoric?"
Hepzibah Roskelly
University of North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
The most successful writers use what Aristotle and his descendants
called the appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos.
They appeal to a reader’s sense of logos when they offer clear, reasonable premises and
proofs, when they develop ideas with appropriate details, and when they make sure
readers can follow the progression of ideas.
Writers use ethos when they demonstrate that they are credible, good-willed, and
knowledgeable about their subjects, and when they connect their thinking to readers’ own
ethical or moral beliefs. Quintilian, a Roman rhetorician and theorist, wrote that the
Special Focus in English Language and Composition: Rhetoric Speaker should be the “good man speaking well.” This emphasis on good character meant
that audiences and speakers could assume the best intentions and the most thoughtful
search for truths about an issue. Students’ use of research and quotations is often as much
an ethical as a logical appeal, demonstrating to their teachers that their character is
thoughtful, meticulous, and hardworking.
When writers draw on the emotions and interests of readers, and highlight them, they use
pathos, the most powerful appeal and the most immediate—hence its dominance in
advertisements. Students foreground this appeal when they use personal stories or
observations, sometimes even within the context of analytical writing, where it can work
dramatically well to provoke readers’ sympathetic reaction.
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