"Never give in"

When it comes to speakers that I admire, Winston Churchill immediately comes to mind. As a speaker and orator he used the three of Aristotle’s Appeals; ethos, pathos, and logos with great skill and effectiveness. What made him a great speaker was that his power to persuade didn’t come from just one of the Appeals, but rather the use of all three. 

Aristotle’s classification scheme works for Churchill, but isn’t fully encompassing. In some speeches he would keep his rhetoric to only two of the three Appeals. Churchill’s speeches almost invariably followed the five Cannon’s of Rhetoric. Even when speaking informally with little to no preparation he was able to come up with great and meaningful speeches that fit with his audience as well as being relevant to current events as the situation warranted.

 

I do not fancy myself as a motivational speaker. My strengths generally come from well planned, logical arguments. I can be passionate when speaking, but I generally don’t do well in passing that passion on to my audience. My persuasiveness comes from cold logic, if that isn’t sufficient to sway my audience, then I’m not going to succeed in persuading them of much.