Lecture 4 – Persuasive Speech
Persuasive speaking
• Convince your audience to believe something
• Convince your audience to do something
o Question of Policy
ƒ Persuade your audience to take action
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o Question of Fact
ƒ Persuade your audience that one thing or another is a fact
• Man landed on the moon
• Bird flu will be a pandemic
o Question of Value
ƒ Persuade your audience something is good or bad, evil or humane
• Ignoring poverty is wrong
• War in Iraq is unjust
• The legal system is unfair to poor people
Audience Analysis
• Who is your audience? -- age, group, beliefs, etc.
o (Can survey audience to find out feelings on subject and how much they need to
be swayed).
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Types of audiences:
o Supportive Audience
• Already agree with you but are looking for affirmation of their belief.
• Keep them enthusiastic about your idea.
o Uncommitted Audience
• Need information in order to decide whether to be against or for the issue.
• Wants to be convinced one way or the other and needs to be be convinced
• It is very important to appeal to them.
o Indifferent audience
• Bored, apathetic – don’t care about subject or you
• It is hard to be enthusiastic with this group because they give you no
feedback, no encouragement
• This audience might a Captive Audience – they be forced to listen
to you.
o Opposed Audience
• Against your particular view – hostile audience
• Goal: compromise and convince this audience just to listen to your side.
• They don’t have to believe you. You just want them to understand
you
o Let them know:
ƒ You know how they feel – opposition is worthy
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Avoid needless confrontation
No winners or losers
Audience Appeals:
• Logical appeals / Logos
o Offer reason and evidence
o Be organized
• Your researched evidence will appeal to your audience’s logic
• Statistics
• Facts
• Expert opinions
• Emotional Appeals / Pathos
o Hit the hearts of your audience
• Show emotion through your words/tone/gestures. If you are asking for
anger feel angry. If you asking for excitement, be excited.
• Character appeal / ethical appeal / personal appeal / ethos
o Build trust, credibility
• Be genuine
Preparing a Persuasive speech
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Choosing a topic
o Your topic must be specific and offer a debatable solution to controversial
problem.
ƒ “Should not drink and drive” – Not a good topic because everyone agrees.
ƒ “The state should lower the alcohol level that determines it illegal to
drive” – O.K. because not everyone would agree.
o Best place to look is at the Opposing Viewpoints site that the library subscribes to.
ƒ Look at the headlines and get ideas, especially on how narrow the topics
can be.
• Example: “The Dangers of smoking are exaggerated”
o “Smoking should be banned from all public places.”
o Education
ƒ “An emphasis on diversity has harmed education”
ƒ “An emphasis on gender equality has harmed male
students”
ƒ “Computers cannot teach children basic skills.”
o Gangs
ƒ Communities should provide economic and social
support for potential and past gang members
• Once you have looked at different titles, you should have a better
idea of how narrow you can make a topic
o Plus, this is a really good place to get information. A large
portion of your research can come from this source.
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Organizing the speech
o Introduction
ƒ Should be the same
• Attention-getter
• Thesis/proposition
• Explanation of the relevancy
• Preview of main points
o Body (different possible ways)
ƒ 1st way
• Present a history of the problem
• Discuss the present day effects of the problem
• Discuss the causes that brought about the effects
• List possible solutions to the problem; show that they do not work.
• Give your solution
• Show how your proposal will benefit your audience
ƒ 2nd way
• Present a history of the problem
• Show that your proposal is needed
• Show that your proposition is needed
• Show that your proposition is practical
• Show that your proposition is desirable
o Conclusion
ƒ Restatement of thesis
ƒ Summary of main points
ƒ Clincher/Lasting impression/Round off
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Go over visual aid handout
Watch Standard Deviants: Public Speaking
Go over Works Cited
Go over finding information for a thesis handout
Watch student examples of persuasive speech -- College competition; IHSA competition