Question

The Speech that Made Obama President

Many say this 2004 speech made Barack Obama our President. Watch the video and then participate

Describe how you try to gain other people’s compliance to do things for you. Define ethos, pathos, logos. Give a relevant example of each one. Then discuss which persuasive proofs, ethos, pathos, logos, are you most likely to use?

Answer 1

Language is the most ancient & powerful tool to influence & persuade people. Language is a key factor for politicians as political persuasion is the most important part of a society where they try to convince people to change their beliefs or behavior. If we closely analyze president Obama’s speech we find it a master piece of persuasion which helped him win 2004 presidential elections. We will analyze different factors in his speech which influenced people to think about him.

1) Story telling: President Obama made his life story core of his speech instead focusing on dry ideas & objectives in a traditional manner. He connected his story to ideas he talked about. This technique allowed him to connect with people in a deep manner. He shared millions of people’s experience & ideas with his story.

2) Imagery: President Obama used power of imagery to a great extent. He described his father in a way which draw his image as a hard working man. He described about himself which gave a personal touch to people’s own expectations & feelings.

3) Sincerity: In his speech he never felt arrogant, fake or rehearsed. He used oratory skills to know them that he feels their pain & have same hopes like them. As it felt that he meant every word he said.

4) Passion: We can feel his passion in this speech. His body language, hand gestures, voice tone, pauses were all spontaneous & natural which reflected his deep passion about his message.

5) Rhetoric: rhetorical devices make speech easier to listen & understand. Obama had large number of rhetorical devices in his speech. He repeated words & phrases in one sentence at the beginning of successive sentences.

I will apply following techniques to gain other people’s compliance to do things for me.

Create a sense of belonging: Since we all are social animals we tend to connect strongly with each other. We need to feel that we have a place in a world where we belong. We can create situations where people feel connected & have a sense of belonging so that they are motivated to do stuffs for you.

Self-feeling: By making people believe that doing something will result in increasing their self-worth will increase compliance to do things for you.

Cooperation: I will try to get others comply by being cooperative & collaborating with them rather than telling what to do.

Ethos: This refers to ethical appeals, means to convince people that speaker is of credible character. The speaker uses ethos to show audience that he is a credible source & worth listening. It can be reflected by choosing appropriate language, making yourself sound & fair & by using correct grammar & syntax.

Pathos: This refers to the emotional appeal, means persuading people by appealing their emotions. Speaker uses pathos to gain sympathy from audience. He makes them feel what he feels. This includes emotional tone, stories, & emotional events.

Logos: This refers to the appeal to logic, means to convince audience by use of logic or reason. This includes facts & statistics, historical event etc.