Assignment 1. Study the Formula of Persuasive Speech.

Simple Formula for Persuasive Speeches

When you speak to persuade, you act as an advocate. Your job is to sell a program, to defend an idea, to refute an opponent, or to inspire people to action. Persuasive speeches may center on questions of fact, questions of value, or questions of policy.

Some questions of fact can be answered absolutely. Others cannot— either because the facts are murky or because there is not enough information available to us. In giving a persuasive speech about a question of fact, your role is akin to that of a lawyer in a courtroom trial. You will try to get your listeners to accept your view of the facts.

Questions of value go beyond the immediate facts to involve a person's beliefs about what is right or wrong, good or bad, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical. Although questions of value have strong implications for our actions, speeches on questions of value do not argue directly for or against particular courses of action.

Once you go beyond arguing right or wrong to urging that something should or should not be done, you move to a question of policy. When you speak on a question of policy, your goal may be to evoke passive agreement or to spark immediate action. In either case, you will face three basic issues— need, plan, and practicality. How much of your speech you devote to each issue will depend on your topic and your audience. In most circumstances you will arrange your speech in problem-solution order, in comparative-advantages order, or in a more specialized order called Monroe's motivated sequence.

Whether you speak on a question of fact, value, or policy, you must adapt to your target audience—that part of the whole audience you most want to reach with your message. If your listeners are persuaded, it will be for one or more of four reasons—because they perceive you as having high credibility; because they are won over by your evidence; because they are convinced by your reasoning; because they are moved by your emotional appeals.

Your credibility will be affected primarily by how the audience views your competence and character. Although credibility is partly a matter of reputation, you can take some specific steps in your speech to build your credibility. Let listeners know why you are competent to speak on the topic. Establish common ground with your listeners. Above all, speak with genuine conviction. Your spirit and enthusiasm will carry over to your listeners.

If you hope to be persuasive, you must also support your views with evidence—examples, statistics, and testimony used to prove or disprove something. Whenever you say something that is open to question, give evidence to show that you are right. As you prepare the speech, try at each point to imagine how your audience will react. Anticipate their doubts and answer them with evidence.

Assignment 1. Study the Formula of Persuasive Speech.

INTRODUCTION
"Tells your audience what you are going to tell them" and establishes the foundation for your speech.
A good Introduction 'draws the map' for the journey. For a Persuasive Speech an Introduction consists of:

1. Attention-Getter: A statement that gains the attention of the audience and makes them believe that this issue is relevant to them. Please, do NOT use a rhetorical question here. Instead, think of your intro like a funnel. Your thesis (in this case, your position statement) is the narrow part and you slowly broaden out from that to a broad statement that applies to many, in not all, people.

2. Bond > Link-to Audience: Identify a personal connection in the audiences' life, i.e. their use of the 'device' or system, or their emotional experience (grief and sorrow, happiness).

3. "Credentials" of Speaker (Credibility): Demonstrate how you are an 'expert' through your own use, experience or study.

4. Destination / Position Statement: State clearly why you are speaking at this moment. State your Goal, Thesis or what you expect as an Outcome. State your Destination. An example may be... "This evening/today I am here to convince you that.... is the most effective way to do business today."

5. Explain my Map to my destination > Preview of Speech: Briefly outline what you will cover in your persuasive speech. This is where you will..."Tell what you are going to tell them".

6. Transition: A transition is how you move from one section or point to the next. It is a linking idea. You could say..."Let's begin by...", "Let's start with..." or I prefer "Let's consider..."

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