E100, Pérez
Speech Week #1 Guidelines
Overview/Goals:
In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, Minerva frequently stands up for her beliefs and
persuades others to see things her way. This week you are going to practice your own powers of
persuasion and public speaking by delivering a persuasive speech to an audience of your peers. The
goal is to hone your public speaking skills and to practice crafting a persuasive argument with strong
support.
Topic:
“Though most people believe X, I am going to persuade you that Y is the case.”
When selecting a topic, there are several things to keep in mind.
 pick a topic you know and care about so that you can speak knowledgeably and passionately
 you have an audience of peers and one teacher and your speech must be persuasive. Thus,
your topic must be something most of your audience needs to be persuaded of rather than
something they already agree with. In other words, no preaching to the choir.
 Your topic needs to hold some tension. It must be debatable and it must be something that
piques your audience’s interest. A tensionless argument will lose your audience’s interest.
Preaching to the choir:
--We have too much homework.
--We should have more vacation.
Topics without tension:
--Cigarette smoking causes cancer.
--The earth is round.
Guidelines for argument:
While the way you choose to present your argument is up to you, your argument must have the
following components.
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a strong introduction that asserts what most people believe and what you will offer as an
alternative belief (you do not have to use the wording above: “Though most people believe
X, I am going to persuade you that Y is the case.” In fact, I encourage you to come up with
another way of stating your objective.)
how you know that most people believe X, and any points of agreement you have with that
side, despite your overall disagreement
at least three strong reasons why your audience should believe Y. Depending on your topic,
you may have to bring in some outside research to support your beliefs.
smooth transitions between reasons
a strong conclusion
Guidelines for presentation:
 Your speech will last approximately 3 minutes
 You may use one index card for reference, but you should not READ from your index card.
 No props allowed.
Things to think about:
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While it may help you to write out your whole speech, you do not need to and you will not
turn in a written version of your speech.
E100, Pérez
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It may, however, be helpful to write out your introduction and conclusion, as these are what
bring your audience into your speech and leave your audience with a strong impression at
the end.
Are there stories you can tell to support your reasons? Do you need to do some outside
research?
Practice, practice, practice! Practice with your dog, your mirror, your parents, your friends.
Remember your audience wants you to succeed. We are all on your side and are rooting for
you while you speak.
This kind of chart may help you to determine a topic—
Things I know/care about
football
Common beliefs others have
about this topic
dangerous, only interesting to
jocks, violent
What I believe to be true
about this topic
Football can be quite
interesting even to non-athletes
Potential argument: “While most people believe football is only interesting to athletes, there are many aspects of the
sport that can interest the non-athlete.”
OUTLINE IS REQUIRED AND WILL BE GRADED. Save as “lastname.outline” and
submit with your keyword in the subject line before class on Friday.