Your Persuasive Speech You have to write one, so make it a good one.

Introductions and Conclusions

Purposes of Introductions In the first 10% of your speech, you must:  Get the Audience’s Attention  Introduce the Subject  Give the Audience a Reason to Listen  Establish Your Credibility  Preview Your Main Points

Methods for Developing Introductions 1. Use Illustrations or Anecdotes 2. Provide Startling Facts or Statistics 3. Use Quotations 4. Use Humor 5. Ask Questions 6. Refer to Historical Events 7. Use Personal References

Purposes of Conclusions 1. Summarize the Speech 2. Reemphasize the Central Idea in a Memorable Way 3. Motivate the Audience to Respond Persuasive: encourage audience to think a certain way or take action 4. Provide Closure

Methods for Developing Conclusions  Can use the same techniques used for the introduction (illustrations, quotations, etc.)  Very Important: Refer to the Introduction!  Issue an Inspirational Appeal or Challenge  Appropriate for persuasive speeches

Developing Your Speech

Writing the Speech  Select Organizational Pattern  Select Main Points  Subdivide Main Points into Subpoints

Developing Your Speech  Topic Selection  General Purpose: To Persuade  Specific Purpose  Behavioral objective—the specific behavior you expect from your audience   “At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to…”  Explain, list, describe, write (not understand, believe, know, feel, etc.)

Central Idea (a.k.a. Thesis)  One-sentence summary of speech  Focuses on the content of the speech  Should communicate a single idea  Look for logical divisions (main points)  Look for multiple reasons why central idea is true or false  Look for a series of steps that supports the central idea (chronological progression)

Example Topic: Boycotting Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to list the reasons why they should boycott Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand Central Idea: Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand poses a hazard for the residents of Orange County and should be boycotted

Develop Signposts  Transitions  Verbal—In addition to; Not only/as well; In other words; Therefore; In summary  Nonverbal—A change in facial expression, a pause, an altered vocal pitch or rate; can be used with or without a verbal transition

Signposts, cont.  Previews  Initial Previews—Preview statements of what the main points will be  Internal Previews—These introduce and outline ideas or points that will be developed as the speech progresses  Can be used as a transition

Signposts, cont  Summaries  Final Summary—Serves as a transition between body and conclusion, and summarizes the main points of speech  Internal Summary—Occur within speech; can act as a transition. Are often used with internal previews.

Supporting Material  Smoothly Incorporate Sources  State the point  Cite the source  Present the supporting material  Explain how is substantiates the point

Organizational Patterns

Chronological  Good for step-by-step process or historical events  Begin with a specific point in time, move ahead or back from there  The principle of recency—the event discussed last is the one that the audience will remember best

Spatial  Organizes according to space or physical relationship  Arranges ideas according to their location and direction  Can progress up or down, east or west, forward or backward  Ideas must be developed in logical order

Categorical  Arrange by distinct topics  Addresses  types  forms  qualities  aspects  Can organize in a variety of ways  Recency—highlights one point more than the others  Primacy—puts the most important or convincing point first  Complexity—moves from simple to complex

Climactic  Simple to difficult, least to most, neutral to intense  Effective for gaining audience agreement or action  Can also reverse the pattern, from most to least

Cause & Effect  Moves from cause to effect, or effect to cause  Good to explain how an event unfolded  Chronology does not equal cause  Guard against over-simplification  Must be able to demonstrate that one event actually caused something else to occur

Problem-Solution  Typically used in persuasive speaking  Speaker usually proposes a best solution  Reflective Thinking Sequence  Causes & extent of problem?  Effects of problem?  Criteria by which solutions should be judged?  Possible solutions (strengths & weaknesses)  Best solution?  Put into effect how?  Definition & limits of problems

Motivated Sequence 1. Attention— get listeners’ attention 2. Need— establish problem or issue and convince audience of the need for change; demonstrate that this need affects audience directly 3. Satisfaction— identify how your plan will satisfy the need and explain solution 4. Visualization— use positive visualization to explain how great life will be after your solution is implemented, or use negative visualization to show how terrible life will be if it is not 5. Action— tell audience the specific action(s) they must take to implement solution

Visual Aids

Visual Aid: PowerPoint  Be careful when using sensitive images (9/11, natural disasters, etc.)  Do not use images that are too small or distorted  Be sure to label charts and graphs  Only use relevant images and/or visual representations of data  Avoid the use of sound effects and animations

Typeface  Serif = includes small flourishes or strokes at the tops and bottoms of each letter.  Examples:  Times New Roman, Courier New, Garamond, Book Antiqua.

Typeface  San Serif = more block like and linear do not have the small flourishes or strokes.  Examples:  ( Arial Narrow, Verdana, Century Gothic).

Font  The size of the typeface.  12 pt.  24 pt  36 pt  48 pt  For PowerPoint presentation you want to use a font of 24 or larger.

8 x 8 Rule  No more than eight words across.  No more than eight lines down.

Backgrounds  Keep the background color constant  If you use color, limit the number of colors you use to two or three (4 max)

Colors  Bold/ bright colors emphasize important points (yellow, red and orange)  Soft colors de-emphasize less important areas of the presentation (for example background colors)  It is easier to read dark colors on a light background