Public speaking is important, and we use it in our everyday lives. Hartranft (2013) noted that, “No matter what your ambitions and interests are, developing speaking skills will benefit your personal, professional, and public life” (p. 2) Public speaking effects all those areas for me. For example, my best friend got married a year ago and I was the maid of honor. She wanted me to give a short speech, and I didn’t want to disappoint.
So, as someone who is an introvert, I prepared myself every day! I was so proud of myself that it gave me great self-confidence. As a dental assistant I also benefit from the skills of public speaking. I don’t necessarily have to get up and give speeches all the time, but I do have to communicate with my boss every day because he is the dentist, and I work under him.
Employers want someone who has effective speaking skills. McKay (2005) stated that, “articulating thoughts clearly and concisely will make a difference in both job interview and subsequent job performance” (p. 2) Public speaking also intersects in my public life as well. With all the news media I’ve had to learn how to listen carefully and use my critical thinking skills to understand public problems.
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My husband and I are always talking about things that are happening in the real world and understanding them allows me to form my own opinion, that comes with a great conversation! Aristotle divided the means of persuasion into three categories ethos, logos and pathos. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, it is the means of convincing the credibility of the persuader. Let’s say that a commercial talks a about a specific kind of toothpaste and then says 4 out of 5 dentists use it, that is an example of ethos.
Another would be the saying “I’m a doctor, trust me.” We can gain the trust of the audience or the readers by talking about the topic intelligently to help build credibility. Logos is an appeal to logic and is a way of persuading the audience by obvious reason. Here’s an example from an article I read, ‘ladies and gentlemen of the jury: we have not only the fingerprints, the lack of an alibi, a clear motive, and an expressed desire to commit the robbery… We also have video of the suspect breaking in. The case could not be more open and shut.’ It uses facts and evidence to convince the listeners of the jury that the robber is guilty.
Finally, the third means of persuasion is pathos. It is an appeal to emotion. There’re so many examples of this on TV commercials. One example would be the animal shelter ads that shows all the sad animals needing love and a home. That pulls on the audience and makes them feel bad for the animals and gets them to donate to their cause.
