Giving a Speech

When delivering a speech it is important to establish credibility with your audience so they know to believe everything you are telling them. Ethos is known as the perceptions of character, intelligence, and good will that belong to the listening audience. If the audience does not perceive much ethos from a speaker, than there is no established credibility. This leads to a narrow understanding of what you have said. When the audience thinks you do not know what you are talking about, they do not pay attention. Who wants to use there time and research on a group of people who are not listening to you? I try to establish credibility with my audience using the ethical factors learned from our book. Trustworthiness, competence, objectivity, and dynamism are the most important factors of ethos and will help you when trying to establishing your own credibility. I create trustworthiness by showing honesty and sincerity in my speech. I use facts and anecdotes to show that I am telling the truth and I really do care about what I am speaking of. I show competence by providing how I obtained the knowledge I learned about my topic and I also introduce facts that are not widely known to my audience. When showing objectivity, I tell my audience my stance on ideas and prove why I think a certain way. I also provide other proven stances and show why I believe mine. Dynamism is the most important factor of ethos to me. I hate watching a speaker who is dull, boring, and mono-toned. I try to be enthusiastic about what I am saying and hope that my own energy sparks a little of your own.