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Persuasive speech
Persuasion is "a form of influence that predisposes, but does not impose ... a process of communication designed to modify the judgments of others ... in intended directions" (Simmons, 1986). The goal of persuasive public speaking can be to influence attitudes or beliefs, to refute an argument, or to urge a particular action. For this speech, your specific purpose should be to move your audience to a particular action, to urge them to do something about a particular problem. A specific purpose such as "to make my audience more aware of the problems of pollution in Boulder" is not appropriate. Select a topic that is controversial and that you feel strongly about. You will speak on this topic for 8-10 minutes. Analyze audience opinion on your proposition by conducting interviews or a survey., distributing a questionnaire, or using other opinion-gathering techniques. Use this information about your audience views to sharpen your persuasive speech, using the worksheet "Applying the Motivation Process" (Workbook, p. 79). Conduct research using at least five sources, of which one must be a subjective source (an interview). You are encouraged to also use Internet sources (Chapter 5). Construct an outline using the 5-step Motivated Sequence (Workbook, p. 73-9). Make a claim and support it using persuasive techniques discussed by Osborn/Osborn (Chapter 13), rhetorical strategies (Workbook, p. 8), and audience decentering. Use consistent format, labels, fonts and indentation to show the five steps. For this speech, the outline counts as 20 percent of the overall speech grade. Cite all sources (both in your text and in your bibliography). Use APA format. Compose an appendix, "Audience Analysis," to attach to your outline and turn in at the time of your speech. In this appendix, discuss your efforts to decenter your persuasive speech to your audience's opinion, based upon your survey or questionnaire data. Discuss your goals in each of the five steps, which rhetorical strategies will best meet these goals, and any other problems of audience analysis you encountered in your data. Notify your teacher of any visual or other equipment needs at least one class meeting before your speech. Prepare the Shift of Opinion ballots to distribute to your audience at the time of your persuasive speech. To see an example of the persuasive speech, click here. Return to speech index [click here].
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