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Supporting Material
Ethos
A lot of ethos came from Doug Nielsons biography in the pamphlet we
received at the conference. His ethos is covered in several ways in this
pamphlet. Firstly in his education; Doug Nielson earned his bachelors degree
in Clinical Social Work and Psychology and later he received his masters in
Behavioral Science from UNLV. His ethos was covered through this with his
speech because he knows how people work the best; he knows how people
are the most successful through his education. He also knows this through
his experience in helping people by the thousands to gain a distinctive
competitive edge against others. Hes done this for years through building
his own company where that is all they do; they help people perform at their
highest levels through speech and overall communication. This pamphlet
established his ethos far before his speech even started.
Ethos was also shown in several different ways throughout this speech. One
of the more prominent ways it was demonstrated was through selfexperience. Doug Nielson mentioned different experiences he had
throughout his life that exemplified he knew what he was talking about. His
life experiences included failing throughout childhood in school, going
through college and wanting to give up, leading up to today where he is now
a Psychotherapist. This was the other demonstration of ethos that Doug
Nielson gave. He mentioned that he is a psychotherapist giving him ethos
purely through being an expert on the topic he was talking about.
The way he presented himself and stood was another example of ethos. He
presented himself with confidence and authority on each topic that was
presented. This gave the audience a sense of ethos throughout because the
audience felt that he could be trusted through these demonstrations of
ethos.
Pathos
In bringing up the subject of his own personal experiences pathos was
established between Nielson and the audience. There was a trust built
because he believed in what he was speaking about. He talked about his
personal life experiences and how he wanted to be in a band and dropped
out of college to do so. Later he realized that that's not what he wanted to
do. The little voice he described (his conscious essentially) throughout the
speech told him to go to college. This appealed to his specific audience
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emotionally because many of the audience members are going into college
and hear that same "voice" inside of themselves as of now. Doug Nielson
accurately described the argument that goes on frequently inside ourselves
which is deciding to stick with what we know is best or taking the easy way
out.
Later in the speech Doug Nielson told the story of a scene he witnessed at an
airport. He said that he saw a little boy with a sign that said Welcome home
Dad, our hero. As he stood in the airport he watched the hero start to walk
up. The little boy holding the sign took off running and hugged his dad, his
hero. Doug Nielson appealed to the audience's emotions by mentioning this
story. Because the audience was filled with leaders this story was brought up.
It was brought up because most leaders want to be heroes. They want to be
the ones that make the difference. This emotionally appealed because that is
who the audience would want to ultimately become one day.
Logos
Through each topic Doug Nielson went through he made appeals to logic.
One of these appeals was mentioned when Nielson talked about making a
plan for your future. In order to make plans people generally need to know
what those plans are. Nielson then said that as leaders there has to be
clarity. People have to be specific and clear about their goals in order to
achieve them. Logically this appeals because it makes sense. No one can
have goals without clarity, without knowing what their vision is.
That is one very specific example of how Doug Nielson used appeals to logic
in his speech. His entire speech was an appeal to logic though. Logically to
be able to become the person you want to be you have to listen to who you
are and what you want, write it down and make it a plan, and lastly follow
through with that plan. Listen, write down, follow through was truly the entire
premise of this speech. Logically it makes sense to do all of these things in
order to accomplish your goals and become the person you would like to be.
Its important to follow these steps because they work.
Delivery
Doug Nielson was a prepared public speaker. He had an informative
PowerPoint to go along with his speech. This PowerPoint helped the audience
follow along with his speech. He also demonstrated himself being prepared
because he knew exactly what he was going to say next. There were no
pauses or hesitations in his speech. He had little to no disfluencies in his
speech. All of these together showed that he was prepared. His delivery as a
whole was extremely impressive.
Motivation
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