Introduction
In this essay, the preview of the Book “How to speak, How to listen” by author Mortimer J. Adler will be discussed on the foundation of 3 Basic Philosophical/ religious questions by Dr. Behr. The author’s main points of discussion and the big picture of author’s point of view will be previewed. The main idea of the author like how does the author describe and perceive the human nature and how do we have to act to live a happy and better life will be explored by the book.
Discussion
In this book, the author has provided us with many useful tips and tricks for effective communication. The main idea of the book is to provide the readers detailed information on improving the listening and speaking skills. The main idea of the author is to provide guidelines for two basic forms of speaking which include persuasive speech and interactive speech. In chapter 4 “Sales talk and other persuasive speech,” the author has discussed the guidelines to improve the level of persuasiveness. The author talked about three main tactics discussed by Aristotle to be a persuasive speaker, i.e., the Greek words ethos, pathos, and logos. These are the tactics that can make a person persuasive and he related it to the sales talk as advertising required convincing and persuading people to buy from you.
To convince people, the author suggested that ethos is important as it involves the character and credibility of the speaker and the ethical implication. One can gain the trust of the audience in many ways including telling them stories about his own life experiences or underestimate your skills to talk about the matter which will provoke the audience to dismiss your undervaluation. In this way, one can make the audience trust him and his audience will not only listen to him but also get attracted to what he is talking about. According to the author, as ethos indicates the character of a person, the first step to become a persuader is to develop one’s character. One must portray himself as a person having a character that suits the purpose for which he wants to persuade the audience. He must portray himself as a likable, attractive and trustworthy person to the audience. He should show that he can be trusted for his good will and honesty.
The other convincing factor discussed by the author is pathos. Pathos is considered as a motivating factor by the emotional involvement of the audience. The persuader should try to keep the emotions of the audience running on a right path by appealing their emotions. The persuader can implement pathos by telling audience some emotional stories using emotional tone etc. The third factor is to create logos. Logos can be defined as the logical reasoning about the matter, and it can be presented by the persuader through advance logical abstract and logical facts by historical data, etc. Logos comes at last as feelings in favor of the matter have been produced then it is time to bring the passion into play. According to the author, persuaders should not provide lengthy arguments and mathematical interpretations. He should avoid and omit many steps of reasoning so that audience does not lose interest from the speech.
In chapter 5, the author has provided the recommendations on how effectively you may prepare and deliver formal lectures. Lectures can be oral in speaking, and it can also in written form to teach and persuade. Lecturing and teaching do not always aim to convince but also involve persuasion. Sales talk include all types of practical persuasion. Reading is easier than listening likewise writing is easier than lecturing as both listening and speaking occur for a limited span of time. Instructive speech is easier and effective when there is two-way communication. While silent listening and continuous speech are difficult, the lecturer should do whatever he can to avoid any disturbance which can destroy the audience attention. The speaker should speak clearly, words that are simple to understand, and with the clarity of voice. Bring something new for them. While delivering the lectures, ethos and pathos should also be embedded in the lecture to increase the emotional responses and sympathetic ears. The lecturer should put some extra physical energy in his voice, his body gestures, and stance of the body to make the audience more involved. The author has mentioned these non-physical elements of trust, emotions, the character of a person, energetic voice and body gestures as real physical elements that can help a person to be effective in persuasive and instructive speech.
According to author’s viewpoint, it is human nature that he will get attracted to the speaker whom he trusts and those who have succeeded to make themselves a credible and trustworthy person. People pay attention to the stories of speakers’ own life experience and pay attention to them. It is human nature that they get attracted to the speech where they find emotional attachments or some logic based discussions. As the author has provided an example of speech of Brutus from Shakespeare’s play, which showed persuasive by including ethos pathos and logos factor. The author believes that lecture should be prepared and practiced before so that it should not be time taking and keep the audience indulged in it. For explaining this, the author gave an example of a professor who was invited to deliver twelve lectures a week, but the professor was used to give one lecture a week. He rejected the offer just because he thought he could not prepare that many lectures. The author with his personal experience suggested that the lecturer should not talk about a topic which the audience already know and understand. It is human nature that people try to avoid repetitive information, or if there is any disturbance, their focus will get shattered.
The author believes that a person can lead a good life and stay successful and happy by effectively doing his tasks. To be happy and effective, he should have strong communication power for both persuasive and interactive speech. Non-physical elements like trustworthiness of audience, portraying a credible character to them, and energetic body gestures, etc. should be considered as real and they can lead a lecturer or a persuader to have effective communication skills. This results in his success prosperity and happy life.
Works Cited
Adler, Mortimer J. How to Speak How to Listen. Touchstone, edition (2008) pp. 288
