17. Persuasive Speaking

1. AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES 17. Persuasive Speaking Lecture by Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine based on Clella Jaffe’s Public Speaking

2. Structure of the Lecture • 1. Select Your Persuasive Topic • 1.1 Finding Your Subject • 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • 1.2.1 Factual Claims • 1.2.2 Definition or Classification Claims • 1.2.3 Value Claims • 1.2.4 Policy Claims • 1.3 Narrow Your Persuasive Purpose

3. Structure of the Lecture • 1.4 Focusing on Beliefs and Actions • 1.4.1 Unconvinced • 1.4.2 Unmotivated or unfocused • 1.4.3 Inconsistent • 1.4.4 Consistent • 1.5 Focusing on Values • 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes

4. Structure of the Lecture • 2. Choose a Persuasive Pattern • 2.1 Problem-Solution Pattern • 2.2 Monroe's Motivated Sequence • 2.3 Direct Method Pattern • 2.4 Comparative Advantages Pattern • 2.5 Criteria Satisfaction Pattern • 2.6 Negative Method Pattern • Summary

5. Associative Statement “Power of speech, to stir men’s blood” William Shakespeare “Speech is power: Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel” Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. Thesis of today’s lecture: • Thesis: • The best subject for persuasive speeches come from the things that matter most to you personally • We consistently argue for our ideas in an attempt to influence one another’s beliefs, actions, values and attitudes and we strategically organize our speeches and adapt our ideas to different types of audiences

7. 1. Select Your Persuasive Topic • The Process of Changing or Reinforcing • Attitudes • Beliefs • Values • Behavior • Values Most Deeply Ingrained

8. 1. Select Your Persuasive Topic • Definition: • Persuasion is vital in a democracy where core values include citizen participation and freedom of speech

9. 1. Select Your Persuasive Topic • Choosing persuasive topic for your classroom speech can be daunting • Select a topic that matters to you

10. 1.1 Finding Your Subject • It is pretty hard to persuade others if you are neutral about the subject • My strong beliefs: What ideas and issues would I argue for? • My strong feelings: What makes me angry? • My social ideals: What changes would I like to see in society? • My personal ideals: What can make life more meaningful for others and for me?

11. 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • After you know your topic area, ask yourself what claim you want to defend • A claim is an assertion that is disputable or open to challenge • A statement that requires some sort of evidence or backing to be believed

12. 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • Factual Claims. • These three types of factual claims are common: • 1. Debatable points are things that either are or are not true, that did or did not happen • 2. Causal relationships argue that a particular phenomenen is the result of something that preceded it and led to it • 3. Predictions content that something will happen in the future

13. 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • Definition or Classification Claims. • Claims of definition or classification are need when we must decide what kind of entity or phenomenon we have, when we categorize • Early in a discussion of issues, it is important to define terminology by setting the parameters of the category, then showing why the specific entity fits into that category

14. 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • Value Claims. • When you judge or evaluate something using terms such as right or wrong, you are making a value claim • Value conflicts are hard to resolve when people arguing disagree on criteria or standards for deciding whether something is • Right or wrong • Fair or unfair • Humane or inhumane

15. 1.2 Making Persuasive Claims • Policy Claims. • Policy claims often deal with problems and solutions, assessed by terms such as should and would • There are two major types of policy arguments: • Arguments against the status quo: are arguments for he change • Arguments supporting the status quo: are arguments for the way things are, arguments against change

16. 1.3 Narrow Your Persuasive Purpose • Narrow your focus and specific purpose in light of what your listeners already know and do, how they feel, and what they consider important

17. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • What we believe to be true affects how we act • Our beliefs and actions are influenced by our values and our attitudes • To illustrate, students who spend time studying outside of class believe their hard work actually benefits their learning and their grades • They feel it is good, even moral to study hard, considering the amount of money they are spending on tuition

18. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • They have positive attitudes toward education • This combination of beliefs, values, and attitudes leads them to act by scheduling time for reading their texts, working on class projects and joining study groups

19. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Unconvinced. • Unconvinced audience members neither believe nor act • You must produce enough evidence to convince to persuade them to believe your factual claims before you call for action

20. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • The general following strategies are useful when your listeners are unconvinced: • 1. Begin with logical appeals. Build your factual case carefully, using only evidence that passes the test for credible supporting material • 2. Prove your competence by being knowledge about the facts • 2.1 Show that you have respect for listener's intelligence and for their divergent beliefs • 3. Use comparatively fewer emotional appeals

21. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Unmotivated or unfocused. • Sometimes your audiences are already convinced, often because they know a lot about your subject • However, they do not act on their beliefs due to apathy or indifference (unmotivated listeners) or lack of specific know-how (unfocused listeners)

22. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Unmotivated or unfocused. • When your audience is unmotivated, give them good reasons to act • Use emotional appeals to show that behaving as you propose as you propose will fulfil their needs and satisfy them emotionally • When they lack focus, provide a detailed plan that spells out specific steps they can take to implement your proposal

23. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Inconsistent. • If people act in ways that differ from their beliefs, they experience what various theorists call inconsistency, or dissonance • Dissonance theory argues that humans, like other living organism, seek balance and equilibrium • When challenged with inconsistency they feel psychological discomfort • Inconsistency between belief and action is one of the best motivators for change

24. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Inconsistent. • Here are a few specific strategies you can use when your listener's actions are inconsistent with their beliefs • Support faltering beliefs by concentrating on logical appeals, using as much persuasive evidence as you can muster • Include emotional appeals as well, giving reasons for listeners to want to strengthen their wavering beliefs • When you want behaviours to change, appeal to emotions such as honesty and sincerity • Use narratives or testimonials that exemplify how you or someone else succeed in a similar situation

25. 1.4 Focusing on beliefs and Actions • Consistent. • When people act in accordance to their beliefs, the may need encouragement to “keep on keeping on” • Here, your narrowed purpose is to reinforce both their beliefs and actions by following this set of guidelines: • Help listeners maintain a positive attitude about their accomplishments • Relate yourself personally to their fundamental beliefs and values

26. 1.5 Focusing on Values • Value claims argue that something should be judged or evaluated as moral or immoral, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong, important or insignificant and so on: • What criteria do we use • Where do these criteria come from • Why should we accept these sources

27. 1.5 Focusing on Values • Here are some tips for arguing a claim of value: • Establish the criteria you have used to make your evaluation • Appeal to your audience’s emotions • Use examples to help listeners to identify with the issue • Appeals to authority can be persuasive if the audience accepts the source as authoritative

28. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes • Listeners can have positive, negative, or neutral attitudes about subjects • When you face an audience that is hostile toward you personally • In this case, it is important to emphasise common ground between yourself and your audience

29. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes • The following guidelines will help you plan effective speeches targeted toward attitudes: • When listeners are positive, strengthen their emotional ties to the topic by using

30. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes

31. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes

32. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes

33. 1.6 Focusing on Attitudes

34. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2. 1 Problem-Solution Pattern. • The problem-solution pattern is commonly used in both informative and persuasive speaking • The goal of informative speaking is to increase your audience's understanding of the issue and the proposed solution or solutions • In persuasive speeches your purpose is generally to convince or to advocate the implementation of a specific policy

35. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. • Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is modified form of a problem-solution speech

36. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.2 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. • Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is modified form of a problem-solution speech • Here are the five easily remembered steps in the sequence • 2.2.1 Attention Steps. You begin by gaining the audience’s attention and drawing it to your topic

37. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2. 2. 2 Need to Step. Monroe suggests four elements in establishing the need: • a) Statement: tell the nature of the problem • b) Illustration: give a relevant detailed example or examples • c) Ramifications: provide additional support such as statistics or testimony that show the extent of the problem • d) Pointing: Showing the direct relationship between the audience and the problem

38. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2. 2. 3. Satisfaction Step. After you have demonstrated the problem or need, you then satisfy the need by proposing a solution • This step can have as many as five parts: • a) Statement: briefly state the attitude, belief, or action you want the audience to adopt • b) Explanation: make your proposal understandable (visual aids may help at this point) • c) Theoretical demonstration: show the logical connection between the need and its satisfaction • d) Practicality: use facts, figures, and testimony to show that the proposal has worked effectively or that the belief has been proved correct • e) Meeting objections: show that your proposal can overcome your listener's potential objections

39. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.2.4 Visualization Step. This step is unique from other patterns • In it, you ask the audience to imagine what will happen if they enact the proposal or if they fail to do so • a) Positive: describe the future if your plan is put into action • Create a realistic positive scenario showing what your solution provides • Appeal to emotions • b) Negative: have listeners imagine themselves in an unpleasant situation because they did not put your solution into effect • c) Contrast: compare the negative results of not enacting your plan with the positive results your plan will produce

40. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.2.5. Action. In the final step, call for your listeners to act in a specific way: • a) Call for a specific, overt action, attitude or belief • b) State your personal intention to act • c) End with impact

41. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.3.Direct Method Pattern • In the direct method, sometimes called the statement of reasons pattern • You make a claim, then directly state your reasons to support it • Each point provides an additional rationale to agree with your views

42. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.3.Direct Method Pattern • It is a good pattern to use when the listeners are • apathetic or neutral • Consider it when your goal is to convince • You can also use it to organize a speech to actuate (motivate the audience to do something)

43. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.4 Comparative Advantages Pattern • Use comparative advantages pattern for policy speeches arguing that one proposal is superior to competing proposals by comparing its advantages to those of the competition

44. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.5 Criteria Satisfaction Pattern • Criteria are standards that form a basis for judgement • The criteria satisfaction pattern first sets forth the standard to judge a proposal • Then show how the solution, candidate, or product meets or exceeds these standards

45. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.5 Criteria Satisfaction Pattern • Because it describes the standards for evaluation at the outset, it is useful in speeches that argue value claims

46. 2. Choosing A Persuasive Pattern • 2.6 Negative Method Pattern • When you use the negative method pattern • You concentrate on the shortcomings of every other proposal • Then you show why your proposal is the one logical solution remaining • Point out the negative aspects in competing proposals • Then after you have dismantled and undermined everyone else’s plan, you propose your own