Aristotle’s Advice on Persuasion: The 3 Things You Need to Know

PEL. Just write those three letters on a piece of paper. That’s all you need from this article. You can thank Aristotle later.

My Old Presentation Paradigm

Allow me to tell you about my quick meditation before each of my training classes: ECM. Minutes before I taught, I’d l remind myself that every class needed to be all three of those things: 

These two entrepreneurs won me over with their Pathos, Ethos, and Logos.

Entertaining for the class (and hopefully fun). 

(High) Content - Something of value for the student.

Marketable - The class had to be good enough and fun enough so that my participants would spread the good word and my contract would continue.

I trained thousands during computer training’s heyday of the 1990s into the 2000s. My ECM method worked well.

Time passed and my “ECM” became “PEL.”

I was reading on the train when I found an article on PEL and Aristotle. PEL stands for Pathos, Ethos, Logos. I found Aristotle’s PEL to be a solid construct for my presentations. (I’m sure he was pleased.)

PEL is known by many names. Some call it “Aristotle’s Power of Persuasion.” Others describe it as “Aristotle’s rhetoric.” It’s also called “Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion.” It reminded me of my old model of ECM, only more cohesive.

Here’s what PEL means to me in my work as a teacher and presenter. 

Pathos

Passion. Whatever you present, you need to have some passion for it. It’s easy for me to be passionate about teaching. It gets a bit harder to find the passion in some meetings, but I find a way, a purpose.

The last time I spoke in front of an audience of hundreds was on behalf of a new foundation named after my good friend Paul who died too young. You better believe I spoke with passion! Fifteen minutes after I spoke, the organization raised $90,000 in his honor. It was partially my passionate re-telling of his life that kept them awake after dinner, but it was his life’s story that opened their checkbooks.

So, find the Pathos when you speak. Either speak with passion or don’t speak at all. 

Ethos

Some Internet articles call this Ethics. You present with high moral character. You are credible. One article I read called this “competence.”

Wikipedia believes Ethos means character. Another article described Ethos as credibility.

So PEL and my old ECM (Entertaining, high Content, Marketable) have another thing in common. What Aristotle called “ethos” I had called “high content.” If you present, in any role, know your content. If you don’t know what you’re talking about why are you standing in front of an audience?

The software instructor knows the product they are teaching. The committee chairperson knows their topic as they present to volunteers. The corporate executive who discusses his company’s financials knows his content.

Logos

Whatever you present needs to make sense to the audience. It needs to be organized and memorable.

Britannica.com describes Logos as word, reason, discourse. Logos does not mean PowerPoint. 

Years ago, when I taught 3 days out of 5 every week for 50 weeks a year for a decade, my training outlines were organized. They had logos. I even paced the outline to match the attention span of my adult learners.

But how do you make good presentations to audiences using PowerPoint presentations made by a committee? You hope that your Pathos and Ethos will be strong enough to carry a presentation designed with the Logos of a well-meaning committee.

When PEL Comes Together

If you’re like me, you make presentations on a regular basis. You never take your presentations for granted. The word is “hubris.” Yes, it’s a Greek word for “this person isn’t as smart or as good as they think they are”.

Please consider PEL before you make a presentation and immediately after you make a presentation. Each presenter is being judged for their pathos, ethos, and logos by their audience, whether they realize it or not. Speakers persuasively communicate to the extent that they demonstrate PEL competence to their audience. Even if your Pathos isn’t as strong as usual, your strong Ethos and Logos will carry the day.

Richard Kraneis, PMP, is a project management professional and trainer in Chicago, Illinois. Read more at richardkraneis.com.