Persuasive Speech: Communication Skills

Persuasive Speech: Basic Communication Skills

• Students will learn to appreciate the importance of persuasive speaking.
• Students will learn the purposes of persuasive speaking.
• Students will become familiar with methods of analyzing an audience.
• Students will understand facts, opinions, and expert opinions.
• Students will understand various strategies and methods to persuade an audience.
• Students will understand the motivated sequence of persuasion.
• Persuasion involves a listeners movement any direction and is influenced by values, attitudes, and beliefs.

Topic Outline

• The purposes of persuasive speaking
• Selecting a topic
• Analyzing the audience
• How listeners process persuasive messages
• Methods of persuasion include:
  • Persuading through speaker's credibility or ethos
  • Persuading through evidence and reasoning or logos
  • Appealing to emotions or pathos
  • Persuading by using the Monroe's Motivated Sequence
• Generating emotional appeal
• Persuasive speech outline examples

The Purposes of Persuasive Speaking

• To convince people to take action. Speeches like this are called speeches to actuate. Accomplished through motivation.
• To reinforce or strengthen listeners' existing attitudes, beliefs, behavior, opinions, or values.
• To convince people to change their attitude toward a particular subject.

How to Select a Topic

• Confidence and credibility are essential when selecting a subject.
• Offering accurate information is important.
• Potential topics include:
  • Convincing them to take a form of action
  • Reinforcing or strengthening their existing attitudes, beliefs, behavior, opinions or values
  • Changing their attitudes or opinions to agree with the position

Resources for Selecting a Topic

• Personal experience
• Print media
• Electronic media and libraries
• Social media

What makes a good persuasive speech topic?

• Current
• Controversial
• Have important implications for society

Controversial vs Inflammatory Topics

• Topics that are current are also often controversial and get attention.
• Current and controversial topics will be more engaging.
• Controversial is not the same as inflammatory.
• An inflammatory topic evokes strong reactions for the sake of provoking a reaction.
• Being provocative for no good reason or choosing a topic that is extremist will damage credibility.

Implications of a Topic

• Choosing a speech topic that has implication for society applies public speaking skills.
• Ethical obligations dictate speakers should take the opportunity to speak seriously.

Ensuring the Topic is Persuasive

• Draft a thesis statement and ensure your stance is clear.
• Main points should support the thesis.
• Identifying arguments that counter the thesis helps guarantee the topic is persuasive.
• An arguable topic and approach is identifiable by a competing thesis statement and supporting reasons.

Tips for Choosing a Topic

• Choose a current topic. For example, "People should not text while driving".
• Choose a controversial topic. For example, "Recycling should be mandatory by law".
• Choose a topic that meaningfully impacts society. For example, "Colleges and universities should adopt zero-tolerance bullying policies".
• Write a thesis statement that is clearly argumentative and states your stance. For example, "Homeschooling does not provide the same benefits of traditional education and should be strictly monitored and limited".

Analyzing Your Audience

• In every persuasive speech, you encounter listeners with varying opinions:
  • Strongly in favor of your position
  • Neutral
  • Strongly opposed
• Persuasion involves any movement by listeners, no matter how great or small.
• How well you tailor the message will affect the values, attitudes, and beliefs of audience.
• Turning audience is a difficult task.
• Convincing an audience to make even a slight change in direction requires a carefully planned approach.

Questions to Consider When Analyzing Your Audience

• What are the goals? (specific purpose in speaking)
• How does the audience feel toward the purpose and position?
• What emotional or psychological appeals will move these people?
• What logical reasoning will "reach" them?
• Are they willing to accept new ideas?
• Why should this audience listen?
• Understanding the audience's attitudes, feelings, and motives helps you strategize.

How Listeners Process Persuasive Messages

• Persuasion is something a speaker does with an audience.
• Listeners access the speaker's:
  • Credibility
  • Delivery
  • Supporting materials
  • Language
  • Reasoning
  • Emotional appeals
• Persuasive speeches should feature kinds of mental dialogue with the audience.
• Anticipate possible objections the audience will raise and answer them.

Methods of Persuasion

• Four principal methods of changing people’s attitudes:
  • Persuading through speaker's credibility or ethos
  • Persuading through evidence and reasoning or logos
  • Appealing to emotions or pathos
  • Persuading by using the Monroe's Motivated Sequence

Persuading Through Speaker's Credibility or Ethos

• Credibility is affected by competence and character.
  • Competence is how an audience regards a speaker's intelligence, expertise and knowledge of the subject.
  • Character is how an audience regards a speaker's sincerity, trustworthiness, and concern for the well-being of the audience.
• Credibility exists in the mind of the audience.
• Types of credibility include:
  • Initial credibility which is the the credibility of the speaker before she or he starts to speak
  • Derived credibility, credibility of the speaker produced by everything she or he says and does during the speech itself.
  • Terminal credibility, the credibility of the speaker at the end of the speech.

How to Persuade Through Credibility

• When an audience believes a speaker; the speaker enjoys credibility.
• Credibility is earned through personal characteristics such as:
  • Sincerity and concern for listeners
  • Tact and friendliness
  • Reputation and character
  • Self-confidence and poise
  • Experience and special knowledge of the subject

Persuading Through Evidence and Reasoning or Logos

• The formal term for this action is argument.
• Evidence consists of facts and expert opinions.
• A fact is information that can be proved documented, and verified.
• The most valid type of opinion is the "expert opinion", which is expressed by a recognized authority in a particular field.
• Using non-expert opinion could put your talk in jeopardy.
• When searching for statistics, keep in mind the following:
  • Source is the information from the original source?
  • Reputation of the source
  • Recency of data

Statistics

• Inject life into statistics by painting them in understandable language.
• 90% who had plagiarized admitted that this was not the first time.
• 74% cheated on a test at least once
• 72% cheated on written work
• 52% had taken material from a web site without submitting any citation

Appealing to Emotions or Pathos

• What Aristotle referred to as pathos are intended to make listeners feel sad, angry, guilty, afraid, happy, proud, sympathetic, reverent or the like.
• Emotions include:
  • Fear of serious illness, natural disasters, sexual assault, personal rejection, economic hardship
  • Compassion for the physically disabled, battered women, neglected animals, and starving children
  • Pride in one's country, family, school, ethnic heritage, and personal accomplishments
  • Anger at terrorists, business leaders who act unethically, landlords who exploit student tenants, vandals and thieves
  • Guilt about not helping those less fortunate, not considering the rights of others, or not doing one's best
  • Reverence for an admired person, traditions, institutions, or one's deity
• Audience members are more easily persuaded when you can suggest ways to fulfill their basic needs, wants, and desires.
  • Self-preservation
  • Sexual attraction
  • Feeling good and looking good
  • Social acceptance
  • Wealth
  • Curiosity

Fulfilling Needs

• Self-preservation means needing food, clothing, and shelter. We want to escape accidents, fires, violence, and other risks to our well-being and our family's well being.
• Sexual attraction is the desire to be admired by and fulfilled by the opposite sex.
• Feeling good and looking good is a universal want.
• Social acceptance means people crave acceptance by their peers at school, work, and in social activities.
• Wealth includes jewels, stocks, land, real estate, art objects, or just plain old cash.
• Curiosity is needing knowledge about many topics such as science, business, sports, government, entertainment, other people, and especially themselves.

Persuading Via the Monroe's Motivated Sequence

• Steps include attention > need > satisfaction > visualization > action.

Generating Emotional Appeal

• Use emotional language.
• Develop vivid examples.
• Speak with sincerity and conviction.

Example of Persuasive Speech/Outline

• Opener building on areas of agreement.
• Statement of specific purpose.
• Preview of main points.
• Body.
• Summary.
• Memorable concluding remarks.

Example: Acupuncture Speech

• General topic is acupuncture.
• Specific purpose is to consider acupuncture when you are sick or in pain.
• According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical technique.
• In 1997, scientists at the National Institutes of Health determined that acupuncture had been proven to be effective against a variety of medical problems and diseases.
• The Food and Drug Administration reclassified acupuncture needles from "experimental devices" to the same category as medical and surgical instruments.
• According to the Medical Acupuncture Online Journal, there are virtually no chances of side effects.
• Acupuncture has been proven to help people with allergies, asthma, and heart problems.
• Clinical studies have shown that acupuncture is effective in treating patients with chronic pain.

Persuasive Speech Preparation Worksheet

• Choose three controversial topics that interest you.
• Determine your purpose for speaking about each of the topics.
• Formulate a specific statement of purpose for each of the topics.
• Choose one topic, purpose, and specific claim.
• Write three reasons why people might be indifferent or opposed to your topic.
• Prepare an opener building on areas of agreement.
• State your persuasive claim.
• Write the main points of the body.
• Prepare a summary.
• Prepare memorable concluding remarks.