Persuasive Strategies
Chapter 22
Analyze your Persuasive Goals
• Identify whether you need a
proposition of fact, value, or of
policy (more shortly)
• Use stock issues to help you
analyze your topic
• ** Use a specific, planned
organizational pattern **
Sprague
Chapter 22
2
Adjust Your Content Based
on Your Audience Attitudes
• Favorable audience
• Neutral audience
• Unfavorable audience
Sprague
Chapter 22
3
Favorable Audience
• Use emotional appeals to
intensify your listeners’
support
• Seek a public commitment
from listeners
Sprague
Chapter 22
4
Favorable Audience
• Tell your audience exactly
what actions they can take
• Give your listeners ammunition
to answer opposing points
Sprague
Chapter 22
5
Favorable Audience
• Create an environment by
letting your listeners “fill in the
blanks” in your argument
– Enthymeme -- an informally stated
syllogism (a three-part deductive
argument) with an unstated assumption
that must be true...
Sprague
Chapter 22
6
Neutral Audience
• Use plenty of attention factors
• Make sure your point is clear
and understandable
Sprague
Chapter 22
7
Neutral Audience
• Present the most recent
evidence and examples you can
find
• Send your message in multiple
ways to engage the senses
• Blend logic and emotional
appeals
Sprague
Chapter 22
8
Unfavorable Audience
• Be realistic about what change
you ask listeners to make
• Emphasize common ground
• Be very thorough in your
reasoning
• Build your credibility by being
fair and open minded
Sprague
Chapter 22
9
Organize Your Points for Optimal
Persuasive Impact
• Use Monroe’s Motivated
Sequence to engage your
audience
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sprague
Attention step
Need step
Satisfaction step
Visualization step
Action step
Chapter 22
10
Organize Your Points for Optimal
Persuasive Impact
• Compare the advantages of
two proposals as a way of
organizing your speech
• Place Your Strongest Points
First or Last
• Consider Dealing with
Opposing Arguments
Sprague
Chapter 22
11
What kind of proposition?
• Proposition of fact
– Draw inferences from available date
– Is / is not
• Proposition of value
– Good or bad, right or wrong
• Proposition of policy
– Most common, most complex
– Advocates specific course of action
– Should / should not
Types of claims
(propositions)
• When addressing whether something is true
or not, or something will or won’t happen-make a claim of fact
• When addressing an issue that relies on
individual judgment of right or wrong for its
resolution, make a claim of value.
• When proposing a specific outcome or
solution to an issue, make a claim of policy.
• Write your specific purpose to include one
Organizing Persuasive
Messages
•
•
•
•
•
Problem-solution (p. 148)
Comparative Advantages (p. 324)
Refutation Pattern (p. 325)
Motivated Sequence
1. Attention
2. Need
3. Satisfaction
4. Visualization
5. Action
You must use one of these -- list at top of
outline
Example: Problem-Solution
•
•
•
•
I. The Nature of the Problem
II. Reasons for the Problem
III. Unsatisfactory Solutions
IV. Proposed Solution
The Bottom Line
• Read and peruse lots of sources
• Use the best 10 or so sources -Retrievable reminder
• Make it clear to the audience where
your information comes from
• Define terms, identify people
• Know the topic well and speak with
conviction
What type evidence?
• Examples, stories, testimony, facts,
statistics…
• Distortion -- what is truth?
• Historical vs. contemporary views
• Sources of your evidence
• Sources of visual aids
• APA style -- accurate does matter
Ethics and appeals
•
•
•
•
•
•
Teleological vs. deontological
Emotional vs. rational appeals
Audience sensitivity
Life Cycle analysis
Demographics differences
Culture and subcultures
Persuasive Speech final topics...
...questions
Modes of Delivery
Chapter 23
Use of Four Steps to Prepare an
Extemporaneous Speech
• Begin with a fully developed
outline
• Convert the full-sentence outline
into a key word or key phrase
outline
• Word the speech
• Convert your keyword outline to
speaker’s notes
Sprague
Chapter 23
21
Remember Four Steps When
Speaking Impromptu
• Keep your composure
• Select a theme
• Select organizational framework
• Whenever possible, plan your
first and last sentence
Sprague
Chapter 23
22
Speaking from a Manuscript
• When the time allotted is specific
and inflexible / duplicate
deliveries required
• The wording is extremely critical
• The style is extremely important
Sprague
Chapter 23
23
Prepare an Easily
Readable Manuscript
• Don’t write it out by hand
• Use capital and lowercase letters
in a standard sentence format
• Print on heavy paper
• Make sure letters are dark and
legible
Sprague
Chapter 23
24
Memorize Certain
Manuscript Speeches
• Memorize the structure first
• Read the speech aloud several
times, then paragraph by
paragraph
Sprague
Chapter 23
25
Memorize Certain
Manuscript Speeches
• As you practice, visualize giving
the speech
• Do not go into a trance when
delivering the speech
• If you go blank, recall the
structure of the speech
Sprague
Chapter 23
26
Practice Sessions
Chapter 24
Get Effective Feedback
• Form a feedback support group
• Get guidelines for feedback
Sprague
Chapter 24
28
Allow Time for Three
Stages of Practice
• Use early sessions to flesh out
your outline
• Use middle sessions to get
feedback
Sprague
Chapter 24
29
Allow Time for Three
Stages of Practice
• Practice in front of others and
ask for their feedback
• Record your practice session and
analyze your performance
Sprague
Chapter 24
30
Allow Time for Three
Stages of Practice
• Use final sessions for
refinements
• Make it as realistic as possible
Sprague
Chapter 24
31
Prepare Speech
or Speaker’s Notes
• Include key words, phrases and
material that is to be cited
directly
• Prepare speech notes in a format
that aids delivery
• Preparing speech notes on note
cards
Sprague
Chapter 24
32
Fit Your Speech
into the Time Limit
• If your speech is too long
– Consider cutting out an entire point
– Eliminate redundant evidence
– Reduce narratives
Sprague
Chapter 24
33
Fit Your Speech
into the Time Limit
• If your speech is too long
– Eliminate long stories
– Use visuals or handouts
– Speak simply
– Is this too complex a topic?
Sprague
Chapter 24
34
Fit Your Speech
into the Time Limit
• If your speech is too short
– Make sure all of your points are well
developed
– Use repetition
– Is this a good enough topic?
Sprague
Chapter 24
35
Fit Your Speech
into the Time Limit
• If your speech is too short
– Make sure you have proved all of
your points
– Do some more research
– Change organizational pattern?
Sprague
Chapter 24
36
Avoid Common Practice Pitfalls
• Doing mental rather than oral /
physical practices
• Avoid too many critics
Sprague
Chapter 24
37
Avoid Common Practice Pitfalls
• Avoid over preparation
• Avoid self-consciousness rather
than audience consciousness
Sprague
Chapter 24
38
Adapting to the
Speech Situation
Chapter 28
Prepare & Adapt
to Audience Reactions
• If your audience seems bored or
restless
• If you are not getting the
agreement from the audience
you expected
Sprague
Chapter 28
40
Prepare & Adapt
to Audience Reactions
• If your audience is less informed
that you expected
• If your audience is more
informed than you expected
Sprague
Chapter 28
41
Prepare & Adapt
to Audience Reactions
• If you audience is more
heterogeneous than you
expected
Sprague
Chapter 28
42
Take Steps to
Prevent Distractions
• Check for possible sources of
distractions
• Ignore low level distractions in
your speech
• Incorporate distractions into
your speech
Sprague
Chapter 28
43
Take Steps to
Prevent Distractions
• Make necessary interruptions as
short as possible and draw your
listeners back into the speech
Sprague
Chapter 28
44
Responding to Hecklers
• The verbal heckler
– First-level tactics
– Second-level tactics
• The nonverbal heckler
Sprague
Chapter 28
45
Answering Questions
Chapter 29
Answering Questions
• Come prepared
• Invite & answer audience
questions straightforwardly
Sprague
Chapter 29
47
Manage SelfIndulgent Questioners
• The person who wants to give a
speech
• The person who wants to have
an extended dialogue
• The person who wants to pick a
fight
Sprague
Chapter 29
48