Creating an effective message:
The credibility of the speaker (ethos) is crucial to an
effective message. If the audience does not believe that the speaker is worthy
of teaching/discussing/presenting a topic, then the speaker essentially loses
his/her effectiveness from the very being of the speech. There are hundreds of different ways that a
speaker can establish his/her credibility: he/she could be an expert on the
subject, he/she could have worked for years to gain the trust and respect of
the audience, he/she could be accepting an award, he/she may have been a
first-hand witness to a national scene, etc. No matter what gives the speaker
his/her credibility, it is necessary that it be established in order to capture
and maintain the audience’s attention and respect.
Pathos is another key element to constructing an effective
speech. The use of pathos helps the speaker connect to the emotions of the
audience. If the audience is emotionally involved in a speech, they are more
likely to react to the speaker. The context of the speech is extremely
important to determining what type of pathos will be most effective. In some
instances, a sad story will captivate the audience and draw them into the
speaker’s presentation; however, in other cases, humor may be the ticket to
connection with the audience. It is important for the speaker to study the
audience prior to developing a speech in order to determine what is the most
effective use of pathos in his/her speech. Being able to appeal emotionally to
the audience will greatly increase the effectiveness of a speech.
Finally, what the speaker is saying must make sense. In
other words, the speech must be logical (logos) in order for it to be
effective. The points the speaker should just a logical format for the
structure of the speech. In addition, the speech is much more effective when
the speaker uses facts, research, statistics, inductive/ deductive reasoning in
order to further his/her point.
The best types speeches incorporate ethos, logos, and
pathos. Moreover, they take into consideration the audience, as well as the
overall purpose of the speech. The combination and BALANCE of all of these
factors is what ultimately makes a speech effective or not effective.
Newpsring Church’s senior pastor Perry Noble uses ethos,
pathos, and logos every week to create messages that affect the audience. Last
Sunday, Noble gave a sermon titled the “The Cross.” Noble’s credibility (ethos) was established
long before he walked on the stage. He is the founder of Newspring Church, and
has served as the pastor for over ten years. The congregation (over 25,000
people) has a deep respect for Noble as both a person and as a Pastor. Throughout
his sermon, Noble uses humor (a form of pathos) to keep the audiences’
attention. In addition, Noble uses stories and past actions to relate to the
audience on an emotional level. By doing this, he is able to create a deeper
bond between some of the listeners, which in turn, helps boost his credibility
and respect from the audience. Finally, Noble structures his sermons in a
logical way. In this particular sermon, he starts off with a big, well-known image
and breaks it down into different, smaller parts. Each part relates to someone
in the audience. Noble references the Bible, which in this context is a form of
logos (research, facts, “the truth”). Through the combination of his
credibility and respect, the emotional appeal he has to the audience, and the
structure and facts presented in his sermon, Noble creates a purposeful (in
this example, a message about “The Cross”) message for his audience (Newspring
Church attendees).
No comments:
Post a Comment