Developing Arguments for Persuasive Speeches Chapter 25

Introduction Reasoning can be defined as the process of proving inferences or conclusions from evidence. Reasoning through a persuasive speech is a process of building one or more arguments created to change people’s opinions, influence behavior, or justify the arguer’s beliefs or actions. Sound reasoning is based on solid evidence backed by credible sources, and avoids logical fallacies.

What is an Argument An argument is a stated position, with support for or against an idea or issue. Persuasive speeches use arguments to present one alternative as superior to other alternatives. The core elements of an argument consist of: The Claim: Which states the speaker’s conclusion about some issue. The Evidence: Which confirms that the claim is true or valid. The Warrant: Which provides reasons that the evidence is valid or supports the claim.

Stating a Claim To state a claim (or proposition) is to declare a state of affairs about an issue. Claims are often (but not always) presented as a thesis statement. Claims answer the question: “What are you trying to prove”. However, in order to make the claim believable, the speaker must provide proof, or evidence, in support of the claim.

Providing Evidence Every key claim you make in a speech must be supported with evidence, or supporting material that provides grounds for belief. The goal in using evidence is to make a claim more acceptable, or believable, to an audience. If the evidence itself is believable, then the claim is more likely to be found acceptable to the audience.

Warrants: Justifying the Link between the Claim and Evidence Warrants help to support a claim and to create a link between the claim and the evidence. They show why the claim and evidence is valid, or warranted. Other terms for warrants are reasoning and justification. When Formulating an argument: (1)Write your claim (2)List all possible evidence (3) Write corresponding warrants to link the evidence to the claim.