Persuasive Speech

Persuasive Speech Assignment*

A 6-8 minute Oral Presentation

 The purpose of your persuasive speech (sometimes called motivational speech) is to change your audience’s attitudes, actions, or beliefs about a topic of your choice. In this speech, you are not only helping your audience understand your topic (informing), but you are also influencing the way that they think, what they feel, or what they do (persuading).

This speech is designed to apply all the tools of this course towards researching, organizing, outlining, and presenting. This assignment emphasizes appealing to your audience, building logical arguments to support your position, and arousing emotional commitment to your cause. Consider what you can do to make your presentation original, personal, compelling, engaging, interesting, and dynamic.

In addition to influencing minds and hearts, the best persuasive speeches accomplish three things:

• Makes the problem clear
• Gives examples and stories illustrating the problem
• Asks us to do something at the end.

The ‘something to do’ at the end should be specific: Win the game. Give money. Buy something. Sign a petition. Write a letter, etc. This “action step” is crucial to persuasive speaking. What do you want your audience to do at the end of your speech?

Another crucial element in most good persuasive speeches is narrative. Persuasive speakers tell good stories of success and failure. “If things continue this way…” stories and “watch out, this could happen to you!” stories. These stories bring a problem to life and make them real.

Like every speech in this class, this assignment should start with you. What gets you riled up? What is a problem that needs fixing? What can we do to change it? But what if your audience does not agree that there is a problem? That’s your job—convince them there is a problem and show them what can be done to fix it.

The best speech topics are problems that your audience may agree with you about, but they have not yet found a way to take actions to solve the problem. That is why a specific action step is so important. It is easy to say “Work for world peace” but this action step is not specific enough. Give your audience something specific to do, preferably right at the end of your speech. This can include signing an email list for more information, signing a petition, or even donating spare change.

Persuasive Speech Objectives

• Incorporate 4 to 6 supporting materials and a personal experience story
• Include a specific “action step”
• Use rhetorical tools such as ethos, pathos and logos
• Demonstrate the principles of effective speaking learned throughout the semester
• Organize your speech using “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence”

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a way of organizing the Persuasive Speech, named after the author of a bestselling textbook. It consists of five steps: Attention, Need, Satisfaction, Visualization and Action. Detailed instructions are provided below in the Step By Step Persuasive Speech Builder.

Considerations for building a Persuasive Speech

• What is the problem or issue you are addressing?
• What is the solution that your audience can contribute to?
• Conduct research. You should include examples from your own experience, and hypothetical examples that illustrate the problem. These do not need to be cited, but you also must cite at least four of the following kinds of support materials:
  • Statistics
  • Expert testimony
  • Lay testimony
  • Quotations
  • Examples
  • Stories from published sources
• What is your action step? Your action step should be specific. ‘Exercise more’ is not specific enough. Instead, get your audience to sign up for a tour of the campus athletic center. For a political issue, don’t just tell them to write their legislator; provide them with pre-written letters and stamped envelopes for them to sign. In other words, don’t provide your audience with any opportunities to ignore your action step. Include your action step on your outline.
• Outline your speech using the Motivated Sequence.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!

Step By Step Persuasive Speech Builder

Steps 1-6 Introduction, Steps 7-15 Body, Steps 16-18 conclusion

Introduction

1) Do something to get the audience’s attention

2) State topic and purpose of speech

3) State what makes you interested

4) State why we should be interested

5) Give preview

6) Transition into Body

Body

7) First main point: State the problem (Need)

8) Provide examples and evidence show the problem

9) Transition into next main point

10) Second Main Point: State the solution (Satisfaction)

11) Provide examples and evidence show the solution

12) Transition into next main point

13) Third Main Point: Help us picture the solution (Visualization)

14) Provide evidence and examples about how your solution works

15) Transition into conclusion

Conclusion

16) Summarize the problem and solution, and help us visualize

17) State the action step, and have us perform it (Action)

18) Close with a clincher

*Adapted from SPC 2600, Student Handbook, 2008, Catawba Publishing