Thank you

Thank you Marc for giving us a glimpse of our topic for today. As he had said, ethos is a mode
of persuasion concerning the character and credibility of the speaker, which affects the
audiences perception of the speaker or source.
I. Definition from philosophers
Rhetoric had been used since the early European civilizations like Greece and ROme. Public
speaking back then was a common form of communication used. As we know, there are three
modes or factors of persuasion. philophers say that ethos is the most effective of the three.
Many of them have different take on it, but of course they have the same meaning
For example
Quintilian roman orator and rhetorician and according to him, ethos is a good man speaking
well
For example, Quintilian, a roman orator, ethos is quality of a good man speaking well. To be
able to achive this, he wrote a 12-volume book on public speaking. He believes that to be an
orator, a man should be trained from infancy. Can you imagine studying these things for that
long haha
Contemporaary authors Gronbeck, McKerrow, Ehninger, and Monroe points out the importance
of the perception of audience of the qualities of the speaker. The higher the degree of how the
audience see the speaker as sincere, trustworthy, and competent, the higher the impact to them.
An author named James McCroskey made an interesting idea on the ethos of the speaker.
According to him, the speaker has three possible proces dimensions
1. Initial credibility your credibility as a person, or credentials, might be zero if the
audience do not know you at all, mmight be high if you are famous
Challenge
a. Zero create credibility
b. High live up to expectations

2. Produced credibility what the speaker present to the audience, quaity of material, high
credibility might lose significant credibility if his message is illogicaly organized which
may cause the audience to not get his message, low credibility might use this chance to
boost his credbility by presenting properly
3. Terminal credibility is what the audience take away with them, but may be unfair

II. Practices affecting speakers credibility

Building your credibility as a speaker is very important in persuading audiences. What affects
the credibility of the speaker? These authors, orators, and writers have noted the following
1. References to self experience tend to increase your perceived trustworthiness and competence.
References to authorities tend to increase your perceived trustworthiness and dynamism
2. Using highly credible authorities to substantiate your claims increases your perceived fairness
3. If you can demonstrate that you and your audiences share common beliefs, attitudes, and
values, your overall credibility will increase
4. well organized speeches are more credible than poorly organized speeches
5. the more sincere you are, the better chance you have of changing your listeners attitudes

III. Last part

Impact rests on the audience
Accodring to McCroskey, the credibility of the speaker is very important, which depends on his
impact to the audience. The audience is also an important factor as the listeners are the one who
will evaluate the qualities presented by the speaker. The audience determines the credibility of
the speaker.
Ethos is also very subjective. Each individual audience has different grasp of the speech of the
speaker. My opinion would definitely vary with yours. Also, the experience of the speaker is an
important factor. Experienced listener and speaker like Sir Arguelles would most probably have
a different impression of a speech than me.
However unique or experienced the audience is, because audience, in general, prefer sincere,
honest, consistent, and knowledgeable
McCroskey stated that, and I quote ethos or source credibility is the listeners reception of the
message source, which impression he processes at a given time or situation in order to assess the
speakers worth
The overall credibility of the message source depends on personal traits like sincerity, honesty,
trustworthiness, knowledge, and competence.
TO give us more examples, please give a hand to Alyssa