Speech is Power
Persuasive Techniques and
Rhetorical Devices
Types of Speeches
Political Speech: focuses on an issue relating to government
or politics. Usually, the speaker tries to persuade people to
think or act in a certain way.
Address: a formal speech that is prepared for a special
occasion (ex: “The Gettysburg Address”)
Sermon: a speech that is usually based on scriptural text
and is intended to provide religious instruction (“Sinners in
the Hands of an Angry God”)
Ethos, pathos, logos
Ethos: appeals to authority
Pathos: appeals to emotion
Logos: appeals to logic

Inductive reasoning: draws a conclusion from specific cases

Deductive reasoning: applies a principle to specific cases

Syllogisms: arguments made up or 2 premises and a conclusion

Analogy: show points of similarity between different topics (using
something familiar to describe the unfamiliar)
Persuasion
Speech or writing that tries to get the audience to think or
act in a certain way.
Persuasive Techniques: the methods that a speaker or
writer uses to sway and audience Most effective speeches
use a mixture of persuasive appeals.
Persuasive Techniques
Logical appeal: build a well-reasoned argument based on
evidence, such as facts, statistics, or expert testimony
Emotional Appeal: attempts to arouse the audience’s
feelings, often by using loaded words.
Loaded words: Words that convey strong emotion
Persuasive Techniques
Ethical Appeal: an appeal showing that an argument is just
or fair
Appeal to Authority: when an appeal shows that a higher
power supports the idea presented (Barak Obama approves
this message)
Rhetorical Devices:
Repetition: restating an idea using the same words (ex: “I
have a Dream”)
Restatement: expressing the same idea using different
words (Lincoln: “we can not desecrate-we can not
consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground”)
Parallelism: repeating a grammatical structure (She is a
goddess in our minds; she is an angel in our hearts)
Rhetorical Devices:
Antithesis: using strongly contrasting words, images, or ideas
(“ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can
do for your country”)
Rhetorical questions: asking questions for effect, not to get
actual answers
Allusions: referring to well-known people, places, events, or
stories.
Allusions:
Literary Allusions: refers to characters, authors, books of
literature (She went down the rabbit hole when she asked her
question.)
Biblical Allusions: refers to people, places, events, stories from
the Christian Bible (Hurt: “I wear this crown of thorns”)
Historical Allusions: refers to people, places, events in History
Greek Allusions: Refers to people, places, events, stories in
Greek mythology (Iron Man: Trojan Horse)
Autobiography and Aphorisms
Autobiography: life history written by the person who
actually experienced it

Auto: meaning “self”

Bio: meaning “life”

Graph: meaning “write”
Aphorisms: short saying with a message (an apple a day
keeps the doctor away)
Negative Persuasive Techniques:
Logical Fallacies: types of reasoning that may seem convincing
but contain inherent flaws

Ad hominem: attack on a person’s character

False causality: an assumption that because A happened before
B, A caused B (war happened, gas prices went up=war caused
high gas prices)

Red herring: distracting listeners from a more important issue
(ISIS dropped more bombs, but Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
get in a fight at the Oscars…more to come on their epic food
fight)

Bandwagon: it is right because it is popular

Propaganda: presenting one side of an argument as correct
(other side is not included)