Public Speaking Tips for Logos
I am listening to you, but are you making any sense?
Aristotle identifies three ‘artistic’ ways of appealing to or persuading your audience in a presentation.
‘Artistic’ in as far as, if they are to succeed, they require a degree of skill or creativity from the speaker. The three means are through:
(i) Ethos (credibility of the speaker)
(ii) Logos (credibility of the argument)
(iii) Pathos (the ability of the speaker to arouse an emotional response in their audience)
A law is an example of a ‘non-artistic’ appeal: it is the law you must obey; no amount of persuasion changes the law.
(Unless, of course, you intend to encourage me to break the law!)
If I am trying to persuade you to take a course of action and I cannot order you or force you to do what I want, I may have to rely on the reasoned, rational power of my argument appealing to your sense of logic.
In short, I want you to walk away thinking:
‘That makes sense!’ – or even
‘You cannot argue with that!’
As humans, we like to believe that we are logical and reasonable creatures.
Motivational speakers like to play on the word ‘rationalise’ as meaning ‘rational lies’, explaining that most of the time when we claim to be ‘rational’ we are in fact merely justifying a less rational, emotional response to a situation and dressing it up in an appearance of logic.
We will justify laziness, selfishness, or prejudice under a cloak of ‘reasonableness’
In truth, we often end up fooling ourselves more than we fool others.
So, the garden furniture we bought was ‘a real bargain’ – even though we don’t actually need it.
but without creating a logical ‘fig-leaf’ we would have to admit that we were impulsive or foolish in our purchase.
And that decision you made to move home that you claim benefits your children’s education was first and foremost considered because you wanted to move nearer to the Golf Club.
And without that logical ‘fig-leaf’ we would have to acknowledge that when it comes down to major decisions we put ourselves first over our children’s interests – and that is not very admirable in a parent is it?
Sometimes there is an unspoken conspiracy between the speaker and the audience.
On some level, we both know that a proposed course of action is an appeal to prejudice or selfishness, but the justification will still be dressed up in a thin veil of rationality.
And in an age of political populism, more and more crude nationalist policies of self-interest and prejudice are being justified with arguments claiming to be purely logical or rational.
A speaker who states they intend to appeal to our sense of reason will always be accepted, whereas one who suggests they will be playing on our emotions will be looked upon with suspicion.
This is why politicians will scatter their talks with phrases like:
‘I am sure every reasonable person would agree…’
‘Clearly, logically…’
‘it stands to reason…’
Yes – they want us to respect their character, their Ethos – and
Yes – they will also try to reach our emotions, through Pathos,
but they know the best way to pass through our defences is to claim that reason and common sense are on their side, Logos.
Therefore…
10 tips for establishing Logos in your presentation
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Structure your argument
If you want to impress through Logos, you will want to be sure that your argument is structured in a way that makes sense to the listener, and that when you reach your conclusion it feels like the inevitable result of a reasoned argument. If we simplify the preparation for a presentation down to Aristotle’s:
Beginning: Middle: End
most of the time as we are preparing our presentation we will find ourselves
either starting in the middle;
that is we know what we are going to talk about – we now need to make sure that we have a good conclusion to end with,
or we will be starting at the end ;
that is we know what message we want to put across – we now need to find a logical argument to get us there.
For the presentation to be effective the Middle must lead inevitably to the End and the End must be the logical conclusion that we draw from the Middle. If those two do not match the result of the presentation is open to confusion.
Therefore if you have decided what your final message will be you may need to tweak the journey to make sure you get there ‘logically’.
Otherwise – which can be just as valid – you may find that the journey you have taken in the Middle leads to a slightly different conclusion than you had originally expected.
Either way, the Middle should lead logically to the End: The End should be the inevitable conclusion of the Middle.
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Argument through deduction
An argument through deduction starts with a general principle and works back to the specific.
If the audience buys into that general principle, all you need to do is show how your example belongs to that general principle and all the characteristics and associations connected to that principle will immediately apply to your example.
Logic classes teach this in the form of a syllogism
The most common example of a syllogism is
- All men must die
- Socrates is a man
- Therefore Socrates must die.
By establishing the universal truth that all men must die we can deduce that if Socrates belongs to the category of man, then he must die as well.
Sometimes a major part of our presentation is spent proving or justifying that key principle, because we know that if the audience agrees with the principle they will have to agree with the example.
Consider the general statement:
‘All men are inherently sexist.’
That statement will probably need to be justified or ’proven’.
However, once that statement is 'proven' to the audience, the fact that I am a man will automatically condemn me to being a sexist.
You need to buy a present for a 15-year-old nephew.
General statement:
‘All teenage boys love football.’
Your nephew fits into that category, therefore a new football, football shirt, or football book is the answer.
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Argument by induction
An argument through induction works the other way around examining specific examples and then drawing the general conclusion.
My nephew loves football.
My friend has three teenage sons and they all love football.
I notice that our neighbour’s sons are always kicking a ball in the garden.
Therefore I conclude:
‘All teenage boys love football.’
In both cases, whether using deduction or induction, the argument must ‘make sense’ to the listener before they will accept the message.
A proper syllogism has very precise rules and laws which help us to recognise whether the argument is correct or fallacious.
In Public Speaking Aristotle refers to the enthymeme, which is a shortened version of the syllogism.
Rather than going through each step, we can simply state:
‘Socrates will die in the next few years.’
That is self-evident. We already know that he is a man and all men are doomed to die.
And immediately you can see the dangers of arguments with false conclusions or circular reasoning, especially when the speaker is deliberately playing on an emotion or a prejudice.
Imagine there was a country called Euronia.
General statement:
‘All men from Euronia are criminals.’
(And you will find some people are already very quick to accept such a claim - maybe through their belief in the speaker (Ethos) or because the statement already resonates with their feelings (Pathos))
All I now need to do is confirm that John comes from Euronia and through ‘deduction’ (Logos) he is instantly condemned.
Or, I might approach it from the other end:
'I met a man from Euronia – I thought he looked a bit shifty.'
My friend said he had his wallet stolen last week and there was an Euronian in the room at the time.
Therefore through induction I will conclude
‘All men from Euronia are criminals.’
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Pace of voice
A common problem for many speakers is the tendency to rush and to speak too fast.
At worst the speech might be unclear or difficult to understand, at best a fast pace reveals passion and excitement. If you want to appeal through the logic of your argument, then speaking very quickly can be misinterpreted as lacking the calm reasoning necessary.
Let the facts ‘speak for themselves’; too much passion and pace will detract from the apparent sureness of your reasoning.
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Eye contact
If eye contact expresses a sense of confidence and honesty, then it is important to be able to look your audience in the eye at key moments. Not only does it express confidence in yourself, but that confidence transfers itself onto confidence in your argument, and matched with a measured pace of delivery, eye contact will assert a sense of conviction and belief in your words.
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Use rational language
Advertisers know that if the product is the best in the field, they do not need to come up with funny situations or touching stories to win us over, they simply need to tell us what it does, because ‘you cannot argue with the facts’.
Therefore in a speech, by avoiding over-blown and bombastic language, you show that your logic ‘speaks for itself’.
Clear joining words like: ‘therefore’, ‘hence’, ‘and so’, ‘which means’ all imply a simple inevitable logic to your argument
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Unembellished stories
The use of emotive language in stories or painting pictures may have a counter effect to the one desired because the ‘over-blown’ language might suggest that you are trying to play on the audience’s emotion rather than give them the ‘bald facts’
One of the most memorable presentations I have heard remains one delivered by a social worker who in a measured unemotional tone of voice simply recounted what she had experienced on a visit to a troubled family. Her lack of emotive language reinforced the impression that we were ‘hearing it as it was.’
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Sign-posting
Sign-posting lets the audience know where they are in the presentation. You can recap the main points, let the audience know where you are going next, you can let them know you are reaching your conclusion.
All of which suggests a clarity of thought and a transparency of structure.
Therefore it would seem that you are not trying to confuse or hide anything
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Keep it simple
I remember the Labour politician Hillary Benn introducing his analysis of a conflict in the Middle East by telling us that the situation was ‘at its heart very simple’.
It is the speaker’s skill to take a complicated subject and break it down into manageable pieces.
An over-complicated argument may still be ‘rational’ and ‘logical’, but if I cannot follow it easily, I might not be convinced that it is!
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Quote credible sources
Isaac Newton said:
‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.’
Not only does his point of view make logical sense, but in case we need any further reassurance, he tells us that he is not alone in his discoveries.
This makes us much more inclined to accept his findings, as not only is he basing them on the findings of those who went before him, but he is also letting us know that he is quite humble, which will also make us more inclined to listen to a speaker’s argument.
When you speak, are you credible (Ethos),
does your message resonate (Pathos),
but most of all, does it make sense (Logos)?
