Persuasion
Speaking to Persuade
Persuasion
 Definition: the communication process of changing a
listener’s beliefs or moving a listener to action
 Some people are easily persuaded, while some are not
 Persuasive speaking includes:
 Selecting a persuasive topic
 Adapting to your audience
 Making yourself believable (credibility)
 Using reasoning (win over your listeners)
 Organizing a persuasive speech
Ethical Issue
 Ethics – the decisions that have to do with questions of right
and wrong
 UNETHICAL SPEAKERS
 Tempted to only discuss one side of an issue in order to
persuade
 Ignore or avoid information that does not support your point of
view
 ETHICAL SPEAKERS
 Consider both sides
 Acknowledge valid points on opposing side
 Argue that your position is still stronger
ACTIVITY TIME!
 What would you REALLY do? (Not what you think you
should do!)
1.You are walking down the street behind someone who is
eating from a fast food bag. He finishes eating and tosses the
bag onto the sidewalk and keeps walking.
2. You are not doing well in a certain class and need to pass
the class to graduate. You go in after school to turn in
some late work. The teacher is not there, the room is
empty, and the test that will be given tomorrow is on the
teacher’s desk.
3. You are romantically interested in someone who hasn’t
paid very much attention to you, but you still have high
hopes. Three weeks before Homecoming, a friend asks
you to go with him/her.
4. Two kids for whom you babysit (ages 5 and 7) have
begun to use racial and ethnic slurs in their everyday
speech.
5. Your mother tells you that she isn’t happy anymore and
has fallen in love with someone else. She tells you she
plans to leave your father after the holidays.
Adapting to your audience
 All humans have the same basic needs
 Figure out which needs you should appeal to
 Appeal to your audiences emotions
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Physical – food, clothing, shelter
 Safety – security and protection for self and loved ones
 Belonging – affection and feeling of belonging to family and friends
 Self-Esteem – need and desire to feel good about yourself;
accomplishments, helping others
 Self-Actualization – need to be the best person you can be
Make yourself believable
 ESABLISH YOUR CREDIBILITY
 Knowledge of the topic –a MUST
 Connection to the topic – for you and your audience
 Interest in the topic – use your voice and gestures to sound and
appear enthusiastic rather than bored
Reasoning
 Use credible evidence to support your ideas (recall the lesson
on finding quality information)
 What is wrong with the following two statements?
“There are 32 reasons why this school needs a swimming pool.
I don’t have time to list them, but I hope you will support the
swimming pool campaign.”
“Senior citizens are lonely. We need to create a new seniorcitizen center in town.”
Two Types of Reasoning
 Inductive Reasoning: using specific pieces of information to
reach a general conclusion.
 Ask the following questions:
 1. Are there enough examples?
 2. Are the examples typical?
 3. Are there important exceptions or special cases
 Examine the following examples:
 “14 children in our school received state writing awards. Our school
trains good writers.”
 “In our class, Sam, Brent, and Kimberly have the chicken pox. Chicken
pox is becoming an epidemic in our school.
 “I met 5 unfriendly people in Lewistown. Lewistown is a very unfriendly
town.”
Two Types of Reasoning (cont.)
 Deductive Reasoning: using a general idea to reach
conclusions about specific instances.
 Ask yourself the following questions:
 1. Is the general statement true?
 2. Is the specific statement true?
 3. Does the specific example apply to the general statement?
 Examine the following examples:
 “ People in Advanced Algebra are smart. Tom is in Advanced Algebra.
Tom must be an excellent student.”
 “Debaters like to argue. Sherry is a good debater. Let’s ask Sherry to
argue for an extension on the test.”
Faulty Reasoning
 Faulty reasoning –incorrect information or poor evidence
 As audience members, you need to be able to recognize these
 Emotional appeal – stressing emotion over logic
 “If we don’t play games in class, we will all get cancer.”
 Glittering generalities – vague statements
 “Women are bad drivers.”
 “Mary Alexander is an excellent mother. She should be the
PTO president.”
Faulty Reasoning (cont.)
 Card stacking – giving many examples or reasons without
explaining them carefully.
 “Join the speech team! You will make friends, learn new skills, get to
know the teachers, and become smarter! Sign up today”
 Bandwagon appeal – suggesting the audience do something
because everyone else is doing it.
 “You should not go to the meeting. No one else is.”
 Unrelated testimonials – linking things that are not related
 Lebron James states, “You should eat Cookie Crisp cereal!”
 Name calling – attacking a person/people rather than the idea
 “You are an idiot if you don’t vote for Kanye West for president.”
Organizing a persuasive speech
 Monroe’s motivated sequence – when you want to sell
something or want your audience to take a specific action
 1. Attention – grab audiences attention in introduction
 2. Need – show your audience there is serious problem that
needs attention
 3. Satisfaction – present a solution to the problem and show
how it will work
 4. Visualization – paint a picture of results (either positive or
negative)
 5. Action – specifically tell your audience what they can do
Organizing (cont.)
 Problem-Solution – show that a problem exists, then
present a solution
 Main points of speech will be “A. Problem” and “B. Solution”
 Be specific with your solution or call to action: What can the
audience really do? Ask, but do NOT pressure!
 Sign a petition?
 Raise hands in support?
 Donate to a cause?
 Make a phone call or write a letter?
Activity -Application
 In a group of 3-4, come up with brief television commercial
to present to the class. Use Monroe’s Motivated sequence to
organize your speech.
 Examples:
 Buying a certain brand of a product
 Exercising at a specific gym
 Donating to a charity
 Voting for a certain person