Unit Four: Part Two

The End

Persuasion & Evidence

Use evidence fairly and strategically. Always stay audience-centered with your arguments

Unlike the invitational speech round, persuasive speaking often crafts issues as binary or two sided

• Two-sided message: persuasive strategy that address both sides of an issue, refuting one side to prove the other is better (298)
• Counterarguments: arguments against the speaker's own position are refuted or discredited (298)

Tips for Success

Enhance your credibility by establishing your competence in the intro and throughout, establishing common ground, and deliver your speech effectively

• Common ground is similarities, shared interests, and mutual perspectives held by a speaker and his or her audience (294)

Remember logos, ethos, pathos?

• logos is your arguments
• ethos is your credibility
• pathos is emotional appeals

Use pathos in your speech but use it carefully. Do not manipulate or use fear appeals: threat of something undesirable happening if change does not occur (298)

Persuasion and Credibility

In order to be persuasive, you must establish your credibility

Credibility is an audience's perception of the speaker's competence and character

• Competence is an audience's view of a speaker's intelligence, expertise, and knowledge of a subject (293)
• Character is an audience's view of a speaker's sincerity, trustworthiness, and concern for others well-being (293)

There are also stages of credibility:

• Initial credibility
• Derived credibility
• Terminal credibility

Implications of Persuasion

Always connect to your audience. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) explains that receivers process persuasive messages in either a central processing or a peripheral processing route depending on how motivated the audience is to think critically about a message (291)

• Peripheral processing is distracted and unengaged
• Central processing is engaged and active

Use specific evidence, novel information, and credible sources

Unit Four: Part Two

Org. Patterns Con.

Narrative: uses one or more stories to construct an argument (this is difficult)

Ex. 289 Rehabilitation programs change lives

Comparative Advantages: illustrates the advantages of one solution over others

Ex. 289 new training program to increase sales

Monroe's Motivated Sequence: step-by-step process used to persuade by gaining attention, demonstrating need, satisfying the need, visualizing results, and calling for action

Ex. 290 (Video) Infomercials

Organizational Patterns

Problem-Solution: specific problem exists and can be solved or minimized by a specific solution

Ex. 286 Light pollution (gov. regulation & personal action)

Problem-Cause-Solution: identifying specific problem, causes of that problem, and a solution to the problem

Ex. 287 Feeding wildlife (individual procedures & actions)

Causal: cause-and-effect relationship based on a specific problem

Ex. 288 Introduction of wolves decreased elk populations

Intentional Organizing

Chapter 15

There are organizational patterns for each category, but for you the policy patterns are the most important

Remember Need, Plan, Practicality. You must address a problem and give a reasonable solution to the problem in your speech

Try to gain immediate (not passive) action from your audience through a call to action (286)

Identify each of the following statements as gaining passive agreement or gaining immediate action:

• To persuade my audience that childhood obesity is a serious problem
• To persuade my audience to adopt my aerobics training program
• To persuade my audience to vote against placing vending machines in our public schools
• To persuade my audience that open space in a city benefits that city and its residents by making it more attractive and livable

Take a few minutes; be thoughtful. Write down several potential call to action statements. They should be one sentence long, be specific; you must have a call to action in the conclusion of your speech that prompts immediate action from your audience.

Persuasive Speaking

Definition: Speech whose message attempts to change or reinforce an audience's thoughts, feelings, or actions

I.e. you advocate for your position

There are 3 categories of persuasive speaking:

• Questions of Fact (verifiably true or false)
• Questions of Value (merit or morality of topic)
• Questions of Policy (solution to problem)