What Does Your Audience Think?
August 22, 2022
Determing what an audience thinks can provide crucial feedback for anyone delivering a multilingual presentation. Every target audience has specific interests based on the group’s demographics but individuals often engage differently with the same presenter. That’s because audience members have unique interests. For example, an attendee may be moved by a persuasive delivery, inspired by an inspirational approach, or educated by an informative speech. Perhaps your most important task as a speaker is to make sure you clearly communicate your purpose so those in attendance can reap the intended benefits. Information that is well organized around a central idea and followed by specific details is always easier for your audience to digest.
"If you don't know what you want to achieve in your presentation, your audience never will.”
Harvey Diamond, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Although your audience’s knowledge of the topic you are delivering can vary widely, it is important to remember that most people who watch TV do not necessarily understand how it works. That said, your ability to persuade or influence attendees will depend heavily on how well you know your audience. It will be easier for you to achieve your goals, if people in your audience feel like you understand them. So regardless of the message you intend to deliver, defining an effective presentation strategy depends on figuring out ahead of time what content your listeners really care about. Whether it is a problem, a pain point, a challenge, a goal, a need, or a personal desire, learning how to craft a strong delivery will help empower you to persuade others to see your viewpoints.
How to Use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Effectively
Knowing what your audience thinks will help you make decisions about the information you plan to present as well as how you should arrange and deliver your message. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are modes of persuasion introduced in the fourth century BCE in Rhetoric, where Aristotle defined speaking as an art form. Aristotle’s concepts were ethical strategies with rhetorical appeal and applications ranging from everyday conversations to a merchant’s sales pitch.
When people become members of an audience, they bring with them expectations. Listed below are three fundamentals to help you avoid violating your audience’s expectations:
- Ethos – Ethos appeals to the presenter’s credentials as the audience seeks to determine whether or not you are trustworthy. Does the audience consider you to be a fair-minded person that uses reputable sources and acknowledges common ground for a counterargument?
- Pathos – Pathos means to persuade an audience by purposely evoking emotional responses. It helps people feel what the presenter wants them to feel, including anger, frustration, sympathy, or humor. A presenter can use meaningful language or relay stories that evoke emotions through deliberate word choices.
- Logos – Logos requires the presenter to appeal to the rational mind by using logic and evidence. This not only includes facts and statistics but also requires the presenter to connect with the audience in a rational way. It stresses the importance of avoiding logical fallacies or hasty generalizations.
In addition to Aristotle’s intellectual approach to categorizing rhetoric, his teachings included the ideologies of Kairos, which defined the concept of using words at the right time. Philosophers and politicians during the Classical period in Ancient Greece found success in structuring what was to be said around a use of words at the ideal time and place. Kairos evolved in Nicomachean Ethics as using words that lead to discourse by delivering them at the most opportune moment. That's why an argument presented at the wrong time or to the wrong group may not produce the results you were hoping to achieve.
Multilingual Presentation Specialists at ProLingo
Finding the right partner for your simultaneous interpretation can be just as crucial as the preparation you do as a presenter. Not only are the words you use important to the message that you intend to deliver, but the rhetoric you employ has to be correctly interpreted and delivered in other languages to people from differing cultures. Whether you are including figures of speech and other compositional techniques, only a professional interpreter can deliver the message exactly as you intended. After all, changing an audience's emotion based on misleading information may be seen as manipulation rather than an effective method of persuasion. So, both your rhetoric and your choice of multilingual event provider must be in sync.
No doubt learning how to make a strong argument to rally an audience around your idea will empower you to deliver a better presentation. However, investing the time and energy to have your script professionally translated in the languages of your attendees can ensure you are persuading others to understand your viewpoints in their native tongue with the correct inflections. Since audiences can be voluntary (genuinely interested) or involuntary and not inherently interested, delivering a message to a multilingual audience is a multi-tiered challenge. Nonetheless, as an effective speaker you must be able to show your audience why the topic you are speaking on should be important to them and it must be correctly interpreted and appreciated for an event to be deemed successful.
At ProLingo, we have decades of experience in helping people prepare for multilingual events. Since you will need to be conscious of your narrative in more than one language, our experienced staff can help coordinate all your translation and interpretation needs. Call 1-800-287-9755 to discuss your requirements.
