After reading Chapter 1 regarding the communication tradition the history of rhetoric, I found it very useful to learn about Aristotle’s three communication method; ethos, pathos, and logos. Being educated about the communication methods allows me to strategically choose my words and position my arguments. I was also able to identify the communication methods that some public speakers use. I have always wondered how those public speakers relate to their audience or how they get the audience to cooperate. I believe that I will be somewhat of a better communicator from now on because I will definitely take advantage of the different communication methods to get my message across. I think that all of the three communication methods can useful so I won’t stick with just one. I also believe that a great speaker is someone who uses all of them in one speech! That would make the individual an extremely persuasive strong speaker.
The next information I found interesting is the canons of rhetoric created by Cicero. The canons of rhetoric describe the five major topic areas of communication. I look at it as steps to formulating speeches or messages. These canons will be very helpful to me in the future when I’d like to tell a story. The two steps of the canons that I will mostly take advantage of the memory and the delivery. I am always fascinated by how speakers like President Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remember their infamous oration. I remember taking COMM 20 and as an assignment, we had to deliver a 10 minute speech. It was very hard for me to memorize the whole speech. I had to improvise when I’d forget some parts and of course, that lowered the value of my speech. So therefore, instead of reading my speech aloud, sentence by sentence, over and over again, I’d like to learn how to correctly memorize my speech.
I would also like to learn how to deliver my speeches using gestures, emotions, and tone of voice. Dr. King was an amazing speaker because he would raise and lower his voice at the right point in his speeches and this directs the emotions of his excitement. I get excited every time President Obama raises his voice to emphasize a point and I feel serious when he speaks calmly and slowly on an issue. I would like to be able to utilize these skills in my communication with others.
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I also found that Aristotle's communication method very useful. Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.
ReplyDeleteOf the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. Secondly, persuasion may come through the hearers, when the speech stirs their emotions. Thirdly, persuasion is effected through the speech itself when we have proved a truth or an apparent truth by means of the persuasive arguments suitable to the case in question.