Missing Questions

B5a. Sources
(0) Unsatisfactory/Not Present	(1) Needs Revision	(2) Satisfactory
The candidate does not provide APA citations/references for the included sources.	The candidate provides appropriate in-text citations and/or references with major deviations from APA style for the included sources.	The candidate provides appropriate in-text citations and/or references with no readily detectable deviations from APA style for the included sources.
Criterion Score: 1.00  Comments on this criterion: 11/12/14: Documentation strategies are present. The visual elements require appropriate in-text citations and corresponding references list citations. For instruction on referencing, please revisit the section titled  Performance Assessment  (under “Application Assessment”) in the study plan for this course by following this link: https://wsdi1.wgu.edu/cos/courses/30106/activity/82551. Communications: Principles For a Lifetime, Unit IV, Chapter 12, page 329 (follow the link to Purdue Online Writing Lab under “Developing an Outline” and look for “APA Formatting and Style Guide”) may be particularly helpful.
C. Potential Questions
(0) Unsatisfactory/Not Present	(1) Needs Revision	(2) Satisfactory
The candidate does not identify any appropriate potential questions that the audience may ask about the topic.	The candidate identifies 1–2 appropriate potential questions that the audience may ask about the topic.	The candidate identifies 3 appropriate potential questions that the audience may ask about the topic.
Criterion Score: 0.00  Comments on this criterion: 11/12/14: Interesting information is presented. Three questions are not present. For instruction on identifying appropriate potential audience questions, please revisit the section titled  Performance Assessment  (under “Application Assessment”) in the study plan for this course by following this link:https://wsdi1.wgu.edu/cos/courses/30106/activity/82551. Communications: Principles For a Lifetime, Unit IV, Chapter 15 (Speaking to persuade), pages 398-400 may be particularly helpful.
C1. Responses to Questions
(0) Unsatisfactory/Not Present	(1) Needs Revision	(2) Satisfactory
The candidate does not provide an appropriate response for any of the 3 questions identified in part C.	The candidate provides an appropriate response for 1–2 of the 3 questions identified in part C.	The candidate provides an appropriate response for each of the 3 questions identified in part C.
Criterion Score: 0.00  Comments on this criterion: 11/12/14: Interesting information is presented. Three responses are not present. For instruction on providing appropriate responses for audience questions, please revisit the section titled  Performance Assessment  (under “Application Assessment”) in the study plan for this course by following this link:https://wsdi1.wgu.edu/cos/courses/30106/activity/82551. Communications: Principles For a Lifetime, Unit IV, Chapter 15 (Speaking to persuade), pages 398-400 may be particularly helpful.

For Citation Assistance, Follow this link

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

For the Questions, It asks to reference these pages on the book as a guide.

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Adapting Ideas to People and People to Ideas

Rhetoric scholar Donald C. Bryant’s definition of rhetoric emphasizes the principle of appropriately adapting a message to an audience, which he calls the process of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas. 14  With this thought, we’ve now come full circle in the process of developing a persuasive message. As we have emphasized throughout our discussion of presentational speaking, analyzing your audience members and adapting to them is at the heart of the speech-making process; it’s one of the fundamental Communication Principles for a Lifetime. In a persuasive presentation, adapting begins with identifying your specific purpose and understanding whether you are trying to change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavior. It continues when you select an organizational strategy.

For example, if your audience members are unreceptive toward your ideas, you might organize your speech by refutation and address their objections directly. Both research studies and experienced speakers can offer other useful suggestions to help you adapt to your audience. Let’s look at some specific strategies for persuading receptive, neutral, and unreceptive audiences.

The Receptive Audience

It is usually a pleasure to address an audience that already supports you and your message. In these situations, you can explore your ideas in depth and can be fairly certain of a successful appeal to action.

One suggestion to help you make the most of such a speaking opportunity is to identify with your audience. Emphasize your similarities and common interests. A good place to do so is often in the introduction of your message.

Another suggestion is to state your speaking objective overtly, telling your audience members exactly what you want them to do and asking them for an immediate show of support. If your listeners are already receptive, you don’t have to worry that being overt will antagonize them. Rather, it will give you more time to rouse them to passionate commitment and action.

A third suggestion for persuading a receptive audience is to use emotional appeals. If your listeners already support your position, you can spend less time providing detailed evidence and instead focus on using strong emotional appeals to move them to action.

Most audiences will start out fairly neutral toward your persuasive goal. To persuade such an audience, you can establish common ground between their needs and your goals and appeal to their interests.

Digital Vision/Thinkstock

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The Neutral Audience

Many audiences will fall somewhere between being wildly enthusiastic and being hostile and will simply be neutral. The listeners’ neutrality may take the form of indifference: They know about the topic or issue, but they don’t see how it affects them, or they can’t make up their minds about it. Alternatively, their neutrality may take the form of ignorance: They just don’t know much about the topic. Regardless of whether they are indifferent or ignorant, your challenge is to get them interested in your message. Otherwise, they may escape by sleeping through your presentation or engaging in such self-distracting activities as texting on their cell phones or surfing the web on their laptops. The following suggestions can help you engage your neutral audience members:

· • Appeal to them early. “Hook” a neutral audience with an especially engaging introduction or attention step. Brian provided such an introduction to his persuasive presentation about the number of Americans who live with chronic pain:

· “I can’t shower because the water feels like molten lava. Every time someone turns on a ceiling fan, it feels like razor blades are cutting through my legs. I’m dying.” Meet David Bogan, financial advisor from Deptford, New Jersey; Porsche, boat, and homeowner; and a victim of a debilitating car accident that has not only rendered him two years of chronic leg pain, but a fall from the pinnacle of success. Bogan has nothing now. Life to him, life with searing pain, is a worthless tease of agony and distress.15

· • Appeal to common ground. Another strategy for persuading neutral audiences is to refer to universal beliefs or common concerns. For example, protecting the environment and having access to good health care might be common concerns.

· • Appeal to their interests. Show how the topic affects not only them but also people they care about. For example, parents will be interested in issues and policies that affect their children.

· • Limit your appeals. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. People who are neutral at the beginning of your presentation are unlikely to change their opinion in just a few minutes. Persuasion is unlikely to occur all at once or after only one presentation of arguments and issues.

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The Unreceptive Audience

As a speaker, one of your biggest challenges is to persuade audience members who are unreceptive toward you or your message. If they are unreceptive toward you personally, you need to find ways to enhance your credibility and persuade them to listen to you. If they are unreceptive toward your point of view, several strategies may help.

First, don’t immediately announce your persuasive purpose. Immediately and explicitly telling your unreceptive listeners that you plan to change their minds can make them defensive. Instead, focus on areas of agreement. As you would with a neutral audience, refer to universal beliefs and concerns. Rather than saying, “I’m here this morning to convince you that we should raise city taxes,” you might say, “I think we can agree that we have an important common goal: achieving the best quality of life possible here in our small community.”

Second, if you think that your audience may be unreceptive, follow the principle of primacy and advance your strongest arguments first. If you save your best argument for last (the recency principle), your audience may already have stopped listening.

Third, acknowledge the opposing points of view that audience members may hold. Summarize the reasons they may oppose your point of view; then cite evidence and use arguments to refute the opposition and support your conclusion. In speaking to students seeking to hold down tuition costs, a dean might say, “I am aware that many of you struggle to pay for your education. You work nights, take out loans, and live frugally.” Then the dean could go on to identify how the university could provide additional financial assistance to students.

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Finally, when speaking to an unreceptive audience, be especially aware of and effectively use nonverbal messages. One study suggests that unreceptive audiences may more negatively evaluate speakers who do not gesture than they do those who use gestures.16

In the following persuasive presentation on breast cancer, Kailey Slone argues a proposition of policy. She supports her presentation by being a knowledgeable, well-prepared speaker; using evidence and reasoning; and making emotional appeals. She organizes her persuasive presentation according to a problem–solution pattern.