Final Exam

Module 6 - Persuasion

Prior to completing the following, please read Chapter 6 of your textbook.

NOTE: After reading Chapter 6 in the text and reviewing this module and the Chapter 6 PowerPoints and documents, make sure to complete all of the Module 6 Assignments. Please refer to the course calendar or the bottom of this module for a list of the assignments.

 

IMPORTANT:   Some of the Module 6 assignments are due Tuesday, July 18th and some are due on Wednesday, July 19th. I split the assignments over 2 days to lessen the workload given that you should also be working on your Persuasive Speech worksheet (and the persuasive speech itself). Please pay careful attention to the due dates on the course calendar!

 

Persuasion

This module will expand on the persuasive speaking elements covered in Chapter 5 as well as the persuasive communication concepts discussed in Chapter 6. After reading Chapter 6 and completing this module you should be able to:

1 Define the concept of persuasion

2 Describe and evaluate the main theories of persuasion discussed in chapter 6

3 Differentiate between beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors (and understand the role they play in persuasion)

4 Produce a Specific Purpose and Thesis for a persuasive speech

5 Discern between positions of fact, value, and policy

6 Evaluate a persuasive speech

7 Present an persuasive speech

Review the Persuasive Speech Assignment and Rubric HERE:  Persuasive Speaking Assignment SU17.pdf

 

Review the Persuasive Speech Worksheet Assignment (i.e., the rough draft of your speech outline)  HERE

Defining Persuasion 

Persuasion = using deliberate and strategically-designed messages intended to change beliefs, attitudes, and/or behaviors 

Persuasion involves any movement from the left to the right OR from the right to the left:

For example, if someone is "slightly opposed" to the idea of donating blood, but then becomes "slightly in favor" after listening to a persuasive speech on the benefits of donating blood, then persuasion has occurred. 

 

Beliefs, Attitudes, Values, and Behaviors

· Beliefs – an internal feeling that something is true or that something exists

· Example: "I believe that there is life after death"

· Attitudes – positive or negative orientation toward something

· Example: "I don't like presidential candidate A" or "I love college basketball, but can't stand the NBA."

· Values – a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life

· Example: "I value freedom of speech" or "I value marriage equality" 

· Behaviors – actions (often resulting from beliefs, attitudes, and values)

 

Persuasive Speaking

Persuasive speeches attempt to influence audience members in the following ways:

1 Strengthen audience commitment

2 Weaken audience commitment

3 Advocate audience action

 

Audience Disposition 

It is important to frame your persuasive speech based on audience disposition. Generally, your audience will fall into one of three "disposition" groups: sympathetic, neutral, or hostile.

1. Sympathetic audience members already agree with and/or have a favorable attitude toward the speaker's message, and they may also hold the speaker in high esteem. Sympathetic audiences will likely respond favorably to the speech.

· If your audience is sympathetic, push for more commitment from them; rather than reinforcing their agreement with you, urge them to act on your message.

2. Neutral audience members have neither positive nor negative opinions about the topic and the speaker. 

· If your audience is neutral, determine where their neutrality stems from: disinterest, apathy, or a lack of conviction about you or the topic. Then find ways to overcome the neutrality and get your listeners to agree with you.

3. Hostile audience members oppose the speaker's message (or the speaker personally) and will therefore likely resist listening to the speech.

· If your audience is hostile, you most likely will not succeed in getting your listeners to completely agree with you or take a course of action you recommend.  Aim for incremental changes in attitude, such as getting them to weaken their opposition to you or your topic. 

Step 1: Selecting a Persuasive Speech Topic and Developing Your Specific Purpose & Thesis Statement 

Beliefs, Attitudes, Values, & Behaviors in Persuasive Speaking:

When selecting your persuasive speech topic, it is important to consider whether you are attempting to change your audience members' beliefs, attitudes, values, or behaviors (or some combination of these). Keep the following in mind:

Attitudes are more likely to change than beliefs, values, and behaviors. For example, suppose you are presenting a speech to a group of people who believe that climate change is an annoying hoax. In a 5-7 minute speech, it is more likely that you can persuade them to adopt a slightly more positive attitude toward climate change (or weaken their negative attitude toward it) than it would be to convince them to believe that climate change is real OR convince them to take action by writing congress in support of climate change. 

Beliefs are more susceptible to change than values, but are still difficult to alter. Beliefs are based on knowledge and experience typically acquired from parents, peers, teachers, etc. The most effective way to change beliefs is to provide clear and credible evidence. For example, you might be able to change people's beliefs about climate change and convince them that it is real, but it would require a great deal of evidence that is difficult to dispute and that they haven't already heard a hundred times. When it comes to beliefs, we often have arguments against the other side ready to go.  If we're given the same evidence and arguments over and over, they're easy to attack.  However, when faced with NEW evidence, it can catch us off guard and make us think a little more about the opposing viewpoint.

Values are acquired when we are young and are typically held onto throughout adulthood; thus, they are resistant to change. Political and religious points of view, which are long-held values, are especially difficult to modify as one matures. For example, attempting to alter someone's opinion about marriage equality is an extremely difficult (if not impossible) endeavor because their stance on the issue is likely deeply rooted in their political and religious values. It is possible to change a value, but it takes time and is likely impossible to do so in a 5-7 minute speech. Therefore, you should avoid selecting a speech topic that attempts to change your audience's values.

Finally, values, beliefs, and attitudes all affect our behaviors.  Behavior can be the hardest to modify, especially if the behavior requires a value change. For example, it is unlikely that you could persuade someone whose religious and/or political views oppose the transgender movement to sign a petition advocating for transgender bathrooms on campus. However, this does not mean that you should avoid selecting a speech topic that focus on a behavior change. Speech topics advocating for behaviors that do not require a change in values--such as persuading people to participate in Relay for Life or to volunteer at a local animal shelter once a month--can be effective and successful. 

THE BOTTOM LINE (Important): Select a persuasive speech topic that calls for a reasonable and realistic level of change in your audience members' attitudes, beliefs, and/or behaviors (again, you likely won't be able to change anyone's values in 5-7 minutes). Just as you don't want to select a topic based on a value change or that your audience has an overly hostile disposition toward, you also don't want to present a speech on an idea that they already agree with or about which they already have an overly sympathetic disposition. If they already agree with you, then you don't have anything to persuade them about!   Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about your topic. 

Persuasive Claims 

In any persuasive speech, a speaker will make one of three types of claims (often called 'propositions). They are: 

1 Fact claims: assert that something is true or false.

2 Value claims: attach a judgment (such as good, bad, moral, or immoral) to a subject.

· NOTE: Value claims do not necessarily advocate for a change in values. Rather, they often attempt to persuade people's beliefs and attitudes about the "goodness" or "morality" of an issue. For example, you can attempt to persuade people that it is not wrong to spank children without touching on deep-seated values. 

3 Policy claims: advocate actions by organizations, institutions, or members of your audience.

· There are two types of policy claims: those that seek to gain passive agreement and those that seek to gain immediate action. 

· Speeches to gain passive agreement: the speaker’s goal is to convince the audience that a given policy is desirable without encouraging the audience to take specific action in support of the policy.

· Example: "Today, I am going to persuade you that the age for full driving privileges should be raised to 18.”

· Speeches to gain immediate action: the speaker’s goal is to convince the audience to take specific action in support of a given policy.

· Example: “Today, I am going to persuade you to volunteer at the local animal shelter one day a month.”

IMPORTANT: Your thesis statement for your persuasive speech will reflect either a fact, value, or policy claim.

Fact claim thesis statement: “Today I am going to persuade you that violent video games lead to crime.”

Value claim thesis statement: “Today I am going to persuade you that it is wrong to let children play violent video games.”

Policy claim thesis statement: “Today I hope to convince you to stop playing violent video games.”

 

Specific Purpose

The specific purpose statement is a single infinitive phrase (e.g., "to persuade my audience to...") that states precisely what a speaker hopes to accomplish in his or her speech. 

 

Here is a "formula" for drafting your specific purpose:

General purpose + narrowed topic = specific purpose

To persuade + participate in Relay for Life = To persuade my audience to participate in Relay for Life next month on campus.

General rules for writing your specific purpose:

1 Write the specific purpose as a full infinitive phrase

2 Express the specific purpose as a statement, not as a question

3 Avoid figurative language in the specific purpose statement

4 Be sure the specific purpose is not too vague or general 

5 Limit the specific purpose to one distinct idea

 

After you have drafted your specific purpose you should ask these questions:

1 Does my specific purpose meet the assignment?

· Is is PERSUASIVE?

2 Can I accomplish my specific purpose in the time allotted?

· In other words, can I realistically effect the intended change in my audience members' attitudes, beliefs, and/or behaviors in 5-7 minutes?

3 Is the specific purpose:

· Relevant to my audience?

· Too trivial for my audience?

· Also: are my audience members already sympathetic toward my specific purpose? If so, then it's likely not the best topic.

· Too technical for my audience?

· Also: are my audience members too hostile (strongly opposed) toward my specific purpose? If so, then it's likely not the best topic.

Example persuasive specific purpose statement: To persuade my audience that texting and walking in public places should be punishable by a fine. 

Thesis Statement

After you have completed your specific purpose, it is time to draft your thesis statement. A thesis statement is a single sentence that sums up and previews the major ideas (i.e., the main points) of a speech. 

General guidelines for drafting a thesis statement:

1 Make sure the thesis is not too general

2 State the thesis as a complete sentence

3 State the thesis as a statement, not as a question

4 Avoid figurative language in the thesis

Example thesis statement: In this speech, I will persuade you that texting and walking in public places should be punishable by a fine in Las Cruces.

QUESTION: What type of persuasive claim does the above thesis statement represent? 

ANSWER: The above thesis statement is a policy claim because it is advocating for an action by an institution/administration (local government). Specifically, the thesis statement is a policy claim seeking to gain passive agreement. It's not attempting to persuade the audience that they should take a specific action, but that they should agree with the speaker that a particular action (i.e., implementing a law against texting and walking) should be taken at an institutional level. 

Now, let's put it all together:

· General Purpose: To persuade

· Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that texting and walking in public places should be punishable by a fine in Las Cruces. 

· Thesis: The three reasons texting and walking should be a fined offense in Las Cruces are because it is dangerous to the person texting, it poses a danger to the people around the texter, and it encourages an unhealthy dependence on cell phones. 

Your three main points for the above thesis statement and preview of main points would be:

· The first reason texting and walking should be banned in Las Cruces is because it is dangerous to the person texting.

· The second reason texting and walking should be banned in Las Cruces is because it poses a danger to others.

· The third reason texting and walking should be banned in Las Cruces is because it encourages an unhealthy dependence on cell phones.

For additional help with topic selection and drafting your SP & Thesis Statement, please review the following PPT lecture:  Topic Selection, Specific Purposes, and Thesis Statements.pdf

 

Step 2: Analyzing Your Audience

See the section on "Step 2: Analyzing Your Audience" on the Public Speaking page ( Module 5 ). This information also applies to analyzing your audience for the persuasive speech!  

NOTE: The main addition to audience analysis for the persuasive speech is to consider your audience's disposition toward the topic (sympathetic, neutral, or hostile). Make sure to carefully review the section on "Audience Disposition" above. Although audience disposition is a factor in any speech, it is especially important to consider when attempting to persuade audience members.

Step 3: Researching Your Speech

See the section on "Step 3: Researching Your Speech" on the Public Speaking page ( Module 5 ). The same information applies for researching your persuasive speech!

Step 4: Support Your Ideas

See the section on "Step 4: Supporting Your Ideas" on the Public Speaking page ( Module 5 ). The same information applies for supporting your ideas in your persuasive speech! In addition to reviewing the information in Step 4 in Module 5, please review the following information on using Ethos, Pathos, & Logos in your speech:

Using Ethos, Pathos, & Logos in Your Persuasive Speech

Ethos – Your credibility as a speaker

Establish Ethos by demonstrating competence and trustworthiness

· Share your qualifications

· Present strong and credible sources

· Highlight common ground

· Choose your words carefully

· Show respect for conflicting opinions

· Practice until delivery is fluent

Establish ethos by exhibiting goodwill towards your audience

· Appeal to listeners’ needs and feelings

· Empathize with audience’s views

· Respond quickly to audience feedback.

Logos – Presenting logical reasoning and evidence

1 Use specific evidence

· Not so good: “Lots of people suffer from hearing loss.”

· Good: “Around 28 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss.”   

· Not so good: “GMOs have been linked to a number of negative side effects.”

· Good: “GMOs have been linked to gluten disorders, digestive health issues, and even certain types of cancer.”

2 Use novel evidence.

· Go beyond what the audience already knows and present striking new evidence that will get them to say, “Hmmm, I didn’t know that.”

· For example, in order to show that texting and walking makes people less aware of their surroundings, a speaker can cite an usual experiment in which a researcher dressed up like a clown and rode a unicycle on a busy street in the middle of the day. The results showed that most people who were not on their phones noticed and reacted to the clown. However, the clown only caught the attention of 1/4 of the people who were walking and texting/reading on their phones; the other 3/4 were completely oblivious to the spectacle right in front of them! Although the clown was not a threat, these findings suggest that texting and walking can prevent people from noticing actual dangers in their vicinity. 
NOTE: Finding novel evidence isn’t always easy – you may have to dig! Be sure to verify your source’s credibility and cross-check the information.  If the evidence is too outrageous, it may not be accurate!

3 Use evidence from credible sources.

· Listeners are more likely to be persuaded by evidence from competent, credible sources.

· Listeners are suspicious of evidence from sources that appear to be biased or self-interested.

· Revisit the information on Researching for Your Speech in Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. and all the associated handouts:  Researching Your Speech.pdf   AND   Presenting Evidence in Your Speech.pdf

4 Make clear the point of your evidence

· When using evidence, make sure your listeners know what point you're trying to make.

· Don't just cite evidence and move on - make the connection for your listeners!

· In the above example about the clown in the texting and walking experiment, I made the point of my evidence clear with the final sentence:  Although the clown was not a threat, these findings suggest that texting and walking can prevent people from noticing actual dangers in their vicinity. 

· With this sentence, I connected the evidence (the results of the experiment) to my overall argument (texting and walking is dangerous).

Pathos – Evoking listeners’ emotions

· A speaker can evoke positive emotions (happiness, joy, love, pride, hope, etc.) and provide ways the audience can experience and/or sustain these emotions.

· A speaker can evoking negative emotions (fear, guilt shame, anger, sadness) and provide ways the audience can avoid or get rid of these emotions.

Ways to evoke emotions:

1 Tell vivid stories

· Make an argument or claim, and tell a compelling story (or give a vivid example) that supports to it.

2 Use startling statistics

· Use statistics to shock, intrigue, or excite your audience. 

· Comparing 2 statistics can increase the emotional impact.

3 Incorporate listener relevance links (i.e., statements that connect to the audience directly)

· Emotions are stronger when the listeners are personally involved.

· "Imagine one day you're running late for class and you see a parking spot a few rows down.  As you're heading toward the open spot, a fellow student walks in front of you while texting on her cell phone, completely unaware that you almost hit her and had to slam on your breaks. As she walks slowly past your car, never once looking up from her phone, another car pulls through from the other side and takes your spot. How would that make you feel?"

· "Have you ever thought about what resources will be available when your children are your age? What about your grandchildren?"

4 Use descriptive and provocative language

· Use words and phrases that evoke emotion. 

· Add adjectives to color your argument.

· Metaphors/similes 

· “Air pollution is eating away at the monuments in Washington, D.C., like a giant Alka-Seltzer tablet.

· “America’s cities are the windows through which the world looks at American society.”

5 Use nonverbal elements of vocal delivery to reinforce your emotional appeal.

· Practice using your voice to emphasize what you are saying with the use of pauses, volume, and pitch to heighten and highlight the emotional content of your message.

· Vocal expressiveness! (Being monotone greatly hinders your ability to evoke your audience's emotions!)

 

Steps 5 & 6: Organizing and Outlining your Persuasive Speech

The guidelines and organizational patterns for organizing & outlining your persuasive speech are the same as the guidelines for organizing an informative speech. Thus, when preparing your persuasive speech, please refer to the "Step 5: Organizing Your Speech" and " Step 6: Outlining Your Speech" sections on Public Speaking page ( Module 5 ). In addition to reviewing Module 5's information on organizing and outlining your speech, please read the following: 

Categorical Pattern (can be used for fact, value, and policy persuasive thesis statements):

In terms of selecting an organizational pattern for your persuasive speech, I highly recommend using the categorical/topic pattern. For a persuasive speech using the categorical pattern, the main points are typically worded as reasons (see the texting and walking example above). In other words, you are providing 3 distinct reasons why your audience should believe or do something. 

Categorical/topical main points in a persuasive speech do not need to be worded as reasons, though. Your main points can be different ideas or facts, as long as they are worded as persuasive arguments. Consider the following speech topic using a fact claim to persuade people that the earth is experiencing climate change:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to believe that the earth is experiencing climate change.

Main Points:

I. The first sign that the earth is experiencing climate change is that ocean temperatures have been steadily rising.
II.The second sign that the earth is experiencing climate change is that extreme weather is more frequent.

III. The third sign that the earth is experiencing climate change is that coral reefs have been disintegrating.

In this speech, the 3 main points are different signs indicating that the earth is, in fact, experiencing climate change. 

Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern (can only be used for persuasive speeches using a policy claim):

 

The problem-cause-solution organizational pattern can be useful for advocating a specific course of action. The first main point demonstrates a problem that needs to be addressed. The second point shows how current policies are insufficient and are contributing to and/or causing the problem you described in the first main point. The third point presents a solution to the problem (the solution is the action you are advocating to take place).

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that texting and walking should be punishable by fine in Las Cruces.

Main Points:

I. There has been an increase in pedestrian-related accidents in Las Cruces over the last 5 years. (Problem)

II. More and people are texting while walking around town and are therefore not paying attention to their surroundings. (Cause)

III. Texting and walking should be punishable by fine in Las Cruces. (Solution)


Remember, the problem-cause-solution can only be used for POLICY claims because the third point must advocate an action (i.e., the solution). While this can be an extremely effective organizational pattern, it takes careful thought and research to clearly demonstrate that the cause (Main Point II) is contributing to and/or causing the problem (Main Point I). Additionally, it can be difficult to make a compelling argument that your solution (Main Point III) will solve the problem you've identified. In other words, you must have strong evidence and arguments to effectively show the relationships between the problem, cause, and solution.

A note about Monroe's Motivated Sequence Pattern (pp. 94 in your text):

Your text offers Monroe's Motivated Sequence as a persuasive organizational pattern, which organizes a persuasive speech in 5 steps: 1.) Attention-grabber, 2.) Establishing a need, 3.) Demonstrating how the need can be satisfied, 4.) Creating a "visual" of the benefits associated with accepting the speaker's proposal, and 5.) Providing a specific call to action.

Monroe's Motivated Sequence can be an effective strategy and many COMM 265 instructors require that their students use this organizational pattern for their persuasive speech. I, however, have found that students using this pattern run into a number of problems. The most common issue is that students using this pattern often take their speech in too many directions and go over the time limit. By following the 5 steps, it can also be difficult to figure out where to include important elements of the introduction such as the credibility statement, thesis, and preview of main points. Finally, students tend to "fill up" each of the 5 steps with "fluff" and personal stories, rather than the evidence and research that the persuasive speech requires.

IMPORTANT: That said, although I don't "forbid" Monroe's organizational pattern, I strongly recommend that you give it careful consideration before choosing to use it. Further, if you think you'd like to use this pattern, I recommend that you email me or arrange a time to chat about it. You don't want to put a lot of work into your outline and then realize that it's not the best fit!