Communications Discussion Post
Chapter 16: Persuasive Speaking
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Basics & Goals
Persuasion is the process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions.
Osborn and Osborn (1997) define persuasion as: “the art of convincing others to give favorable attention to our point of view”
The ability to speak persuasively is beneficial in everything from personal relationships to career aspirations to civic deliberation.
Rhetors (or speakers) must motivate their audiences to think or behave differently by presenting reasoned arguments.
Functions of persuasive speeches
Speeches to convince refer to when the speaker seeks to establish agreement about a particular topic.
For instance, a climatologist who believes that global warming is caused by human behavior might try to convince an audience of government officials to adopt this belief through the use of statistics linking human productivity with global warming
Speeches to actuate are designed to motivate particular behaviors or reinforce actions.
Think of a time when you found yourself up at 2 a.m. watching infomercials and suddenly you found yourself wanting to buy this particular product that you never knew you needed. Or while you were scrolling your social media and you felt like you needed something that someone else had
types of persuasive speeches
A proposition of fact may focus on whether or not something exists.
Questions of fact ask whether something “can potentially be verified as either true or false.” While some propositions of fact deal with the existence of a particular phenomenon or the accuracy of a theory, others focus on causality.
Propositions of fact may be used to make predictions concerning what will happen in the future.
EX topics: existence of global warming, is the world flat, the cause of a major disaster, or someone’s guilt or innocence in a court of law.
types of persuasive speeches
Propositions of value make an evaluative claim regarding morality, aesthetics, wisdom, or desirability.
Sometimes a proposition of value compares multiple options to determine which is best. Consumers call for these comparisons regularly to determine which products to buy.
Since propositions of value tend to be more subjective, speakers need to establish evaluation criteria by which the audience can judge and choose to align with their position.
An example occurred in 2005 between family members over removing a woman’s feeding tube after she had been in a coma for 15 years.
The husband of the woman in the coma used the evaluation criteria of quality of life and argued that she would not want to continue to live in a vegetative state
The parents of the woman also claimed to value life and, with the support of religious groups, relied on the evaluation criteria of the sanctity of life to contend that she should be kept alive
(The courts ultimately sided with the husband )
types of persuasive speeches
A proposition of policy may call for people to stop a particular behavior, or to start one. Questions of policy ask the speaker to advocate for an appropriate course of action.
This form of persuasive speech is used every day in congress to determine laws, but it is also used interpersonally to determine how we ought to behave. When answering a question of policy, speakers will typically begin by describing the status quo (this is often used in debate). If you are arguing that a change must be made, you must first identify the problem inherent in the current behavior, and then demonstrate that the problem is significant enough to warrant immediate consideration.
This type of speech often uses the problem-solution format
MP1: problem
MP2: solution (policy)
MP3: benefits of solution/policy passing
What should I look for In a topic?
Consider your audience: Some demographics that may be useful as you craft your speech include, age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or cultural background, socioeconomic status, religion, and political affiliation
Informative but has two sides
Must have an intention to persuade the audience
Database for inspiration:
Opposing Viewpoints
(Gale)
Audience Needs
Audience Relevance
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)*
Listeners process information in one of two ways depending on the perceived importance of the message
Central processing
Motivated by personal involvement
Critical thinking; questioning; consideration
Peripheral processing
Dismiss information
Strategies (Aristotle’s Rhetorical Proofs)
Ethos
ethics of speaker
Show your audience that you are a trustworthy source on the topic.
Use expert testimony to prove your knowledge and ability to research the topic
Work to appear confident, but not arrogant, and be sure to maintain enthusiasm about your topic throughout the speech
Pathos
By making an emotional connection with your audience:
Your audience will be more likely to understand your perspective (via the shared emotion or experience).
Your audience will be more likely to accept your claims.
Your audience will be more likely to act on your call-to-action.
Positive emotions (e.g. surprise, joy, awe) should be associated with your claims, or your “side” of the persuasive argument.
Negative emotions (e.g. fear, contempt, disappointment) should be associated with your opponent’s claims.
Sometimes, you may have a human opponent (e.g. a political debate).
Other times, your opponent may be the status quo which you are seeking to change.
Logos
Reasoning
Line of Rationality
Judgments (based on reasoning)
When offering an argument you begin by making an assertion that requires a logical leap based on the available evidence.
The claim is an assertion that you want the audience to accept. (ex: people shouldn’t eat meat)
Data/Grounds refers to the preliminary evidence on which the claim is based. (this answers the “why” question; ex: because meat consumption puts a strain on the environment and it’s not good for our health).
Data/grounds MUST be backed by cited evidence.
social judgment theory
When listeners are confronted with a persuasive message, their responses fall into one of three categories:
a latitude of acceptance
(2) a latitude of rejection,
(3) a latitude of noncommitment, in which they are not yet committed either to agree or disagree—they are not sure how to respond
Choosing your topic
This site offers a myriad of controversial topics in which people argue for BOTH pro and con. You will also need to cover the pros and cons in your speech. You can get started with ideas on procon.org but you can NOT cite procon.org