1. Chapter 16
Persuasive Speaking

2. Persuasive Speaking: Introduction
A speech can be well organized, with solid supporting materials, and still fail to persuade.
This chapter will explore how to motivate an audience to take a specific action or adopt certain ideas, values, or beliefs.

3. Persuasive Speaking: An Overview
This chapter will cover:
The nature of a persuasive speech
Framing your argument based on audience analysis
Ethical obligations
Organizing your persuasive speech

4. The Nature of a Persuasive Speech: Persuasive Speeches Attempt to Influence Audience Members
The goal is to influence your audience’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions.
Speakers try to do one or more of the following:
Strengthen audience commitment
Weaken audience commitment
Advocate audience action

5. The Nature of a Persuasive Speech: Persuasive Speeches Attempt to Influence Audience Members

6. The Nature of a Persuasive Speech: Persuasive Speeches Advocate fact, Value, or Policy Claims
A persuasive speech makes one of three types of claims:
Fact claim: Asserts that something is true or false
Value claim: Offers a judgment on a subject
Policy claim: Advocates an action by organizations, institutions, or audience members

7. The Nature of a Persuasive Speech: Persuasive Speeches Use Strategic Discourse
Select arguments with the best chance of achieving your rhetorical purpose in an ethical way.
You must understand your audience’s perspective on your topic to choose arguments wisely.

8. The Nature of a Persuasive Speech: Strategic Discourse

9. Framing Your Argument Based on Audience Disposition

10. Framing Your Argument Based on Audience Disposition
Consider your audience’s:
Latitude of acceptance (range of acceptable positions)
Latitude of rejection (range of unacceptable positions)

11. Framing Your Argument Based on Audience Disposition
Boomerang effect: Pushing listeners to oppose your ideas even more vigorously
This happens when your position falls within your listeners’ latitude of rejection and they have a strong and very different viewpoint from yours.

12. Framing Your Argument Based on Audience Disposition

13. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience
Appealing to your audience’s needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Basic-level needs must be met before higher-level needs become important.

14. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience
If you can relate your message to your listeners’ various needs, you are more likely to persuade them.

15. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience: Connecting to Your Listeners’ Values
Values: Core conceptions of what is desirable for your life and society
Values guide judgments
Explain how your argument aligns with audience values

16. Connecting to Your Listeners’ Values

17. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience: Demonstrating How Your Audience Benefits
Help listeners visualize benefits gained if they take the actions you are advocating.
Listeners weigh costs and benefits before responding to your persuasive appeal.
Tip: Show how costs are low.

18. Demonstrating How Your Audience Benefits

19. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience: Acknowledging Listeners’ Reservations
Use a two-sided argument in which you voice your listeners’ objections to your thesis.
Then refute or mitigate these objections with evidence and sound reasoning.

20. Acknowledging Listeners’ Reservations

21. Tailoring Your Persuasive Message to Your Audience: Focusing on Peripheral Beliefs
Peripheral beliefs: Beliefs that have not been held for a long time
Core beliefs: Beliefs held for a long time that are relatively immune to persuasion

22. Ethical Persuasion: Help Your Audience Make an Informed Decision
Present truthful claims and key facts to help your listeners accept your thesis.
Do not manipulate listeners into agreement.
Avoid arguments based on faulty reasoning.

23. Ethical Persuasion: Research Your Facts
Ensure that facts are accurate before presenting them.
If few credible sources support your claim, research other arguments that support your position.

24. Ethical Persuasion: Note Any Biases
Make listeners aware of any rewards that may come to you if they accept your thesis.
Your audience will respect your honesty when you reveal any biases.
Practice full disclosure.

25. Ethical Persuasion: Attribute Your Research Properly
Cite your sources.
Ensure that quotations and paraphrases are accurate.

26. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Fact Claims
Use a causal pattern when you want to argue that one thing causes another.
Example:
Thesis: Fast-food restaurants are a significant cause of health problems in the United States.

27. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Fact Claims
Use a comparison pattern when you want to claim that two things are similar or different.
Example:
Thesis: There are significant differences between the two candidates for the legislature in our district.

28. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Fact Claims
Use a categorical pattern when each main point reflects a different reason that you believe your fact claim is true.
Example:
Thesis: The earth is experiencing climate change.

29. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Value Claims
Use a criteria-application pattern when one point establishes standards for the value judgment you make and the next point applies it to your thesis.
Example:
Thesis: Community service is a valuable part of the college experience.

30. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Value Claims
Use a categorical pattern when listeners understand each point’s relevance to the claim, making it unnecessary for you to explain how each main point supports your value judgment.
Example:
Thesis: Advanced driver-training courses are beneficial.

31. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Policy Claims
Use a motivated sequence to establish five main points:
Attention
Need
Satisfaction
Visualization
Action

32. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Policy Claims

33. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Policy Claims
Use a problem-cause-solution pattern that consists of the following three points:
Present the problem.
Demonstrate how the existing organizational or institutional policies will not solve it.
Present a solution to minimize the problem.

34. Organizing Your Persuasive Speech: Organizing Policy Claims
Use a comparative advantage format to persuade listeners that your proposal is better than the status quo, although a policy change may not be urgent.
The first point on your outline reveals your solution.
Each subsequent point details an advantage of your solution.

35. Organizing Policy Claims: Comparative Advantage Format

36. Tips for Organizing Your Persuasive Speech
Tip: It is easiest to motivate your audience to action when you know that they already agree with your claims.
Tip: Persuasion works best when you tailor your message to the audience, so be sure you know what your audience’s needs, motivations, and values are as they relate to your topic.