Mastering the Exordium: Winning Audience Attention and Favorable Disposition

The Exordium: Setting Your Position

This is where you set out your position. It’s the point at which you establish your bona fides as a communicator, aiming to grab the audience's attention and hope to keep it. The strongest appeals tend to come here.

The purpose of the exordium is to put the audience into a receptive and attentive frame of mind. The main objective is to get the audience well-disposed. We structure the material to connect with the recipient, producing a favorable attitude toward the position defended by the speaker.

There are two types of exordium, depending on the degree of defensibility of the case:

• Predisposition: Used when the case is easy to defend.
• Overture: Used when the degree of defensibility is low.

Winning the Recipient's Attention

It is necessary that the creator of the message knows how to get the recipient's attention. Inattention is often due to the insignificance of the topic or disinterest from the public.

In order that the audience remains attentive, even in cases where the cause is of no inherent interest, communicators should insist that the issue being communicated is important. One way to achieve this is to use broad concepts and universal ideas, which serve to attract the receiver's attention, guiding them effectively from the general concept to the particular details.

Means Used to Win Public Interest:

• Explicitly request that attention be paid.
• Promise that the facts will soon be taken into account.
• Present the matter as being of public interest (making it a concern of the audience).
• Produce pleasure in the receiver by describing beautiful objects or appealing concepts.

Related to attracting public attention is ensuring the recipient can easily understand the subject. The most important means to achieve this is providing a concise list of topics (an agenda).

Predisposing the Recipient

In cases where achieving a favorable disposition is difficult, it can be achieved in four primary ways:

1. Praise the Speaker and the Audience: Praise the speaker himself and praise the audience, presenting the cause as worthy of a favorable attitude. (However, avoid giving the impression of arrogance, because that upsets the recipient.)
2. Negative Presentation of the Opposition: Achieve kindness toward our cause by making a negative presentation of the opposing party.
3. Praise the Recipient's Judgment: Another formula is the praise of the recipient, valuing their ability to decide fairly on the matter.
4. Praise the Cause: Achieve favorable disposition with the praise of the cause being defended.