1. Eminem’s Rules of Decorum The Agreeable Side of Ethos
Get Them To Like You

2. Get them to like you…
An agreeable ethos matches the audience’s expectations for a leader’s tone, appearance, and manners. **Important Term** Decorum—A term coined by the ancient Romans to describe character-based agreeability.

3. Get them to like you…
Rhetorical decorum is the art of fitting in—everywhere you happen to be. --The terrific shoes worn by salesmen --Naval ring Decorum—from the Latin meaning “fit” or “suitable”.

4. Get them to like you…
In other words… The speaker should sound like the collective voice of his audience… a walking, talking consensus. Act in the way your audience expects you to act? What is required of you in your position?

5. Get them to love you…
For example, an adult speaking baby-talk to a three-year-old is the wrong approach.
Ethos—In Greek originally mean ‘habitat’. How does this idea work with what we are discussing?
“You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his.” --Kenneth Burke, 1950

6. Get them to love you…
Remember…this is a powerful rhetorical tool. In other words, follow your audience’s rules. For example, at a fundamentalist church, you say, “Merry Christmas”…not “Happy Holidays!” Political correctness at Ivy League schools…

7. Get them to love you…
To put it another way, “When in Rome…” VIDEO— (from 6:27…(language) Final Rap Battle from 8 Mile ?v=uh9LGytJOHk

8. Make them love you…
Remember—ask yourself what your audience expects. Also, it is important that the approach you choose “works” for you. (The example of the writer and his brother, who gave a random woman on the street a flower and called her “doll”.) (The example of the new editor and her offensive bumper sticker.)

9. Get them to love you…
Persuasion Point… We’ve been taught that a successful debater never admits ignorance. The Romans, however, saw doubt as a rhetorical skill. They called it aporia. When you “think out loud” or “struggle to find the word”, you get your audience to start reasoning themselves in your intended direction.

10. Get them to love you…
What was the writer’s experience with clothing? The salesman—Joe—advised to not “…buy the shoes. Buy the colors.” This figure of speech is called dialysis. The ‘this-not- that’ figure of speech. People take your wisdom more seriously when you put it cryptically.

11. Get them to love you…
It is important to modulate your speech to fit your audience. Remember the example of the same PowerPoint delivered to different audiences. (With the department head…sitting on the edge of the table; vice-president…; with the rude CEO.)

12. Get them to love you…
Get your audience to identify with you, and you have won half the persuasive battle. The level of decorum rises.

13. Video for discussion…
(From 1:26:42) (A Face in the Crowd) 7w6z98

14. Vocal Fry…
Vocal Fry— M 4