Why orators shouldn’t be too slick.

In the Rhetoric (4th century BCE), Aristotle identified the three modes of persuasion, or persuasive appeals, that are in: the character of the speaker (ethos), the emotions of the audience (pathos), and the argument itself (logos).

Ethos, pathos, and logos are referred to as artistic means of persuasion, and contrasted to non-artistic means, that is, to hard evidence, such as laws, witnesses, and contracts.

Unlike dialectic (reasoning), rhetoric (speech-making) has no rules: you can commit any fallacy, so long as you can get away with it. But it is a risky business: if you get caught out, you debase your most valuable asset: your credibility as a thinker and speaker—in other words, your ethos.

According to Aristotle, the three qualities of ethos are soundness, virtue, and goodwill, since the lack of either one is likely to lead to untruths or bad advice.

Ethos and decorum

In a speaker, ethos is also a matter of agreeability and meeting the expectations of the audience in terms of appearance diction, and comportment. The Romans referred to this aspect of ethos as decorum.

Anything that grates with the audience, or sets you apart from it, is a violation of decorum. What this might be varies from audience to audience. For example, an audience of academics would expect some jargon, which, however, would jar with a general audience. Boastfulness and vulgarity can be a violation of decorum, as can be, unfortunately, complexity and subtlety.

In the Rhetoric, Aristotle remarks that it is their simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated before a general audience:

It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences—makes them, as the poets tell us, “charm the crowd’s ears more finely.” Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from common knowledge and draw obvious conclusions.

Becoming one with the audience

Like air or manners, decorum is noticeable only in its lack: when it’s there, you don’t give it a second thought. A decorous speaker is one who blends in or even merges with the audience, forsaking “me” and “you” for “we”.

Martin Luther King merged so entirely with his audience that he co-opted them as orators, with their antiphonal responses transforming his speech into something like a Southern Baptist sermon: “One hundred years later—my Lord—the Negro still is not free…”

Rhetoric that is too obviously rhetorical is a violation of decorum in that it looks contrived and manipulative and, in that much, sets the speaker apart from the audience.

Obama, Churchill, and Harris

Obama is often hailed as the greatest rhetorician of our age. His one weakness, if it can be called a weakness, is that he is too good.

This is the same problem that Winston Churchill had: for a long time, people would turn up to the House of Commons to admire his speeches but, ultimately, pay them no heed.

Reading from a prompter can also be a violation of decorum, and for similar reasons. In the run-up to the 2024 United States presidential elections, Kamala Harris delivered several soaring speeches, undermined by her reputation (fair or unfair) for reading from a prompter.

How to sound less suspect and more natural

In public speaking, a lack of polish is often an advantage.

One technique for sounding more natural and ingenuous is the dubitatio, that is, the expression of doubt and uncertainty about what to say.

An especially effective strategy is to begin with a show of awkwardness, and gradually gain in confidence and fluency as if carried by the force of the argument.

Another approach is to tell a story, start a conversation, and ditch the blatant rhetoric. Instead of trying to sell something, try instead to share or give something. No one is in the least suspicious of a TED talk, although that too is rhetoric, rhetoric in disguise.

Neel Burton is author of How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero