Speaking to Persuade
FACT: Old (young) drivers are
dangerous.
VALUE: Old (young) people shouldn’t
drive motor vehicles
POLICY: Ohio should require rigorous
license testing for old (young) drivers
Question of Fact
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that another major earthquake will hit
California by 2007.
1. California is long overdue. (“Claim”)
2. Many geological signs point to an
imminent earthquake. (“Claim,” etc.)
3. Experts agree that a big one could hit any
day.
Question of Fact
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that long-term exposure to EMF can cause
serious health problems.
1. Lab research on cell cultures suggests that
EMF may promote cancer by interfering with
cell growth and the immune system.
2. Case studies have connected EMF with
health problems.
3. A growing number of scientists have
expressed concern about the long-term
effects of EMF.
Question of Value
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that bicycle riding is the ideal form of land
transportation.
1. An ideal form of land transportation should
meet four standards:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Faster than walking or running
Not exploit animals or other people
Nonpolluting
Beneficial for the person who uses it
2. Bicycle riding meets all these standards.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Bicycles are faster than walking or running
Bicycles don’t exploit the labor of animals or
other people
Not a source of air, land, water or noise pollution
Extremely beneficial for the health of the rider
Question of Value
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that capital punishment is morally and
legally wrong
1. Capital punishment violates the Biblical
commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”
2. Capital punishment violates the
constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual
punishment.”
Question of Policy
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that Ohio should require recertification of
lawyers every ten years.
1. Many citizens are victimized every year by
incompetent lawyers.
2. A bill requiring lawyers to stand for review
every 10 years will do much to solve the
problem.
Question of Policy
Specific Purpose: to persuade the audience
that America should act now to protect the
quality of its drinking water.
1. Impure drinking water has become a
serious national problem
2. Solving the problem requires action of
citizens and government alike.
To Gain Passive Agreement
To persuade my audience that the United
States should institute a national sales tax to
help balance the budget.
To persuade my audience that there should
be tougher enforcement of child-support
payments when parents become separated or
divorced.
To persuade my audience that the federal
government should institute a ban on all
advertising for cigarettes and other tobacco
products.
To Gain Passive Agreement
To persuade my audience that college
scholarship athletes should receive a
$200 monthly stipend for personal
expenses.
To persuade my audience that
businesses should not be allowed to use
genetic testing to screen prospective
employees
To Gain Immediate Action
To persuade my audience
literacy tutors.
To persuade my audience
intramural athletics.
To persuade my audience
presidential election
To persuade my audience
through the Red Cross.
To persuade my audience
for longer library hours.
to volunteer as
to participate in
to vote in the next
to give blood
to sign a petition
Two General Types of “Cases”
The Need Case



Something’s wrong or needed
The plan will deal with it
The plan won’t create new problems
The Comparative Advantage Case


Nothing’s wrong, but we’re always looking
for a better way
No costs, new benefits
Problem-Solution Order
To persuade my audience that urgent action
is needed to deal with the environmental
problems created by disposable batteries
1. Disposable batteries have become one of
America’s most serious environmental
dangers
a.
b.
Disposable batteries are made of three highly
toxic elements – cadmium, mercury and lead.
When thrown away, these toxic elements escape
into the environment, polluting the air and
ground water.
2. The problem can be solved by
business, government and individual
action.
a.
b.
c.
Business should continue its efforts to
develop new kinds of batteries
Government should require recycling of
disposable batteries.
Individuals should use rechargeable
batteries instead of disposable batteries
Problem-Cause-Solution Order
To persuade my audience that colleges and
universities should take stronger action to
control campus crime.
1. Violent crime on college campuses is a
serious problem.
a.
b.
Recent studies show an alarming increase in
reported cases of robbery and physical assault
on American campuses
The problem is worse than statistics reveal
because many crimes are not reported.
2. There are three main causes specific to
college life for the growth of campus crime.
a.
b.
c.
Campus security officials often are unqualified
and poorly trained
College administrators have not given priority to
programs for preventing campus crime.
Students often do not take sufficient
precautions to protect themselves and their
possessions.
3. An effective solution must deal with all
three causes of the problem
a.
b.
c.
Schools must upgrade the quality and
training of security officials
Administrators must develop programs
for preventing crime from occurring
Students must be more cautious in
protecting themselves and their
possessions
Comparative Advantage Order
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience
that the US space program should put a
greater priority on unstaffed scientific
missions that gather information about
planets and the solar system.
1. Unstaffed missions are less constly
2. Unstaffed missions provide many more
practical benefits than do staffed ones.
Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
Attention: get the attention/interest of the
audience
Need: make the audience feel a need for a
change
Satisfaction: satisfy the need by providing a
solution to the problem
Visualization: intensify the satisfaction by
visualizing its benefits
Action: urge the audience to take action in
support of the solution
Speech in Monroe’s M.S.
INTRODUCTION – (Attention)
1. Would you let a perfect stranger examine your
2.
3.
4.
medical files, peek at your personal finances,
eavesdrop on your phone calls, or invade other
aspects of your private life?
Yet all of these are happening as a result of
privacy-invading technology by businesses and
government agencies.
The erosion of personal privacy has become one of
the most serious problems facing Americans in our
high-tech, electronic age.
Today I would like to explain the extent of this
problem and encourage you to support a solution
to it.
BODY (Need – no evidence)
The use of electronic data-gathering by
business and government poses a serious
threat to personal privacy.
a.
b.
Business and government agencies have
compiled massive amounts of information on the
personal lives of most Americans.
There are few laws protecting Americans against
the gathering or misuse of personal information
by businesses and government agencies.
BODY (Satisfaction/Plan – no
detail)
The problem could be greatly reduced
by the passage of federal privacy laws.
a.
b.
These laws should impose strict controls
on the collection of personal information
by businesses and government agencies
These laws should also include stiff
penalties on anyone who uses personal
information for unauthorized purposes
BODY (Visualization)
Similar laws have worked in other countries
and can work in the United States
a. The practicality of privacy laws has been
demonstrated by their success in almost all
the countries of Western Europe
b. If the US had such laws, you would once
again have control over your medical files,
financial records, and other kinds of
personal information
CONCLUSION (Action)
So I urge you to support privacy
legislation by signing the petition I am
passing around to be sent to our state’s
US Senators and Representatives.
As Congressman Jack Fields has said,
“This is not a Democratic or Republican
issue … Privacy is a basic human right.”
Mainly Fact, Value or Policy?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew in
advance about the Japanese plan to attack
Pearl Harbor and allowed it to happen.
If Franklin D. Roosevelt knew in advance
about the Japanese plan to attack Pearl
Harbor, he was wrong in allowing it to
happen.
Using lie detector tests as screening devices
for jobs in private business is a violation of
the employee’s right to privacy.
The use of lie detector tests for screening
employees in private business should be
banned by law.
A federal law should be passed requiring that
anti-lock brakes be standard on all new cars
sold in the United States.
If anti-lock brakes were standard equipment
on all cars sold in the US, we could reduce
traffic fatalities by 5,000 lives every year.
Colorizing classic movies such as
Casablanca violates the artistic integrity
of such movies.
Congress should protect the artistic
integrity of movies such as Casablanca
by passing a law prohibiting the
colorization of classic American films.