1. Understanding Principles of Persuasive Speaking
Chapter 23
Understanding Principles of Persuasive Speaking

2. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
Persuasion Defined
The process of changing or reinforcing…
Attitudes - Learned predisposition to respond favorably/unfavorably about something
About lawyers, School, Work – Least difficult to change
Beliefs - Something you understand to be true or false (Often based on experience)
Your Faith, fire is hot, - More difficult to change than attitudes
Values – An enduring concept of Right/Wrong, Good/Bad (Instilled early in life)
Religious values, Family values, Most difficult to change
Behaviors - Usually determined by one of the above predispositions
Why do you think values are the most difficult to change?

3. Persuasive Speaking Choosing a persuasive topic
As you choose your topic, here are some things to keep in mind
First – consider the persuasive goal of your speech
Ask yourself what does my audience (think /feel/do) now
What do I want them to (Think/feel/do) after my speech
Some topics could have multiple goals
Legalizing Marijuana
Belief, behavior, etc.
No medicinal value, Vote against it,
what other angles does it have?

4. Persuasive Speaking
Second – Make sure your persuasive goal is feasible
Can the audience make the change you are requesting
Persuading a person struggling financially to take an expensive trip
Convincing people with recent tattoos or underweight to donate blood (they are automatically excluded by the red cross)
You may be able to convince them of the idea but they can’t follow through
Third – Large controversial topics
Very difficult to change people on these
Require audience to re-evaluate belief system
Religion, Politics, Abortion, Death Penalty, etc
A brief speech won’t change positions so look for a smaller change

5. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How Persuasion Works
2 ways of persuasion
Persuaded by logic, reasoning, arguments and evidence presented
You do research on something and are convinced that you need it
Have you bought anything recently?
Have you seen any movies recently?
Indirect persuasion
Based on the feeling you get from the presentation
Music, Trustworthy salesperson
Emotional charge
Which of these would be best for persuading others?
Does It depends on your audience?

6. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How to motivate listeners
Use Dissonance
Feeling when you hear something against your attitudes, beliefs, values
You’re a smoker, speaker says smoking is harmful
Example
A student decides to cheat on an assignment
A classmate gets caught cheating and fails the course
The student feels uncomfortable about their desire to cheat
Changes their attitude about cheating (Now feels that it isn’t worth the risk)

7. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How listeners cope with dissonance
Listeners may discredit source
To deal with the discomfort, audiences may find a reason to question your credibility
(Bias, Personal motives, etc)
Reinterpret the message (Hear what they want to hear)
Focus on what they agree with & ignore what they don’t

8. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How listeners cope with dissonance
Listeners may seek new information
May do additional research
Listeners may stop listening
Selective Exposure – seek information matching views
Audience may tune you out if they feel your content will upset them
Listeners may change attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavior
In order to balance the discomfort, audience may decide to change

9. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How to motivate listeners
Use listener needs
Physiological needs
The most basic needs for all people (Food, Water, Air, Shelter, etc)
Safety Needs
Need to feel safe, secure, protected
Seatbelts, smoking health, exercising, etc
If physiological need are met you can persuade audience about safety

10. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How to motivate listeners
Use listener needs
Social Needs
Need to feel loved, valued, friends, etc
Self-Esteem Needs
Need to think well of ourselves (often the base of persuasive messages)
Self-Actualization Needs
Persuading listener to achieve their highest level of needs

11. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How to develop your persuasive speech
Consider the audience
Your audience will determine methods you use to develop persuasive content and presentation
Select & Narrow Your persuasive topic
Don’t just pick a random topic, Find an interested or passion you have
Consider your audience
Controversial Topics – make excellent persuasive presentations
Be careful with these
Media/internet resources – Use these to stay on top of important issues
Laws, Policies, News stories, Etc

12. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
How to develop your persuasive speech
Determine your persuasive purpose
It’s hard to change a person after one short speech
Set goals
Opening audience mind to the possibility of change
Getting audience to think more about my topic
Develop central idea and main points
Central Idea
Once sentence summary of your speech
A proposition is often used in for this (Fact, Value, Policy)
What would it take to convince you to change an attitude, value, or belief?
Example from “A time to kill” (Know your audience and what it would take)

13. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
Review Persuasive Speech Handout
Discuss possible Topics
Questions about persuasive speeches
Choosing Your Persuasive Topic
Excluded topics
Abortion, Death Penalty, Gun Control, Global Warming
Topic must have a logical opposition or present a problem
“I will persuade my audience not to drink & Drive” (Not Acceptable)
“Drunk driving is becoming a problem in our community” (Acceptable)

14. Principles of Persuasive Speaking
Persuasive will be the last Major speech
Focus on developing a strong speech argument
Include your sources in outline and speech
This hurt some on the informative speeches
There will be no opportunity for make-up
If you miss for ANY reason (other than arrangements with me) you will get a zero
No Outline/No Speech!!!
Next – Chapter 24
Using Persuasive Strategies