Aristotle believed everyone listening in the audience was asking three questions about a speaker/teacher:

..| Can I trust you?
..| Do you care about me?
..| Do you know what you’re talking about?

The first question is about a speaker’s “ethos” or character. A listener has to believe a speaker is good and trustworthy (“ethical”) before he/she will really listen to the message.

The second question refers to a speaker’s “pathos” or empathy. A listener must not only believe the teacher is trustworthy, but also wants to make an emotional connection with the listener.

The third question is about a speaker’s “logos” or logic. The content must be credible to be accepted.

Aristotle believed that the best communicators make attempts to answer all three questions a listener is “asking.”

Take a moment and think about your favorite communicators. (1) Do you trust them? Does their life seem real? (2) Do you feel like they care about you when they speak? Do they communicate in such a way that you genuinely believe they care about your well-being? And, (3) Do they know what they are talking about? Does their content make sense and ring true?

Many youth workers unintentionally blow past the first two principles (ethos and pathos) and skip straight to the content. In some ways it’s as if the youth worker is saying, “I’ve got some truth that I believe will be important to you!” When this is the case, preparing the message begins and ends with, “am I saying all the correct things?” That’s fine, but the problem with this sole focus of communication is that your audience doesn’t care about much you know (at first)…they want to know if they can trust you and if you care about them. All three elements are important in good communication.

-Doug Fields & Matt McGill-