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Chapter 17

Persuasive
Speaking
Persuasive Speaking: Introduction
A speech can be well organized, with solid
supporting materials, and still fail to
persuade.
You must master the art of speaking
persuasively if you hope to generate the
outcomes you want: to motivate an
audience to take a specific action or adopt
certain ideas, values, or beliefs.
The Nature of a Persuasive Speech
Persuasive speeches attempt to
influence audience members in order to:
Strengthen audience commitment
Weaken audience commitment
Advocate audience action
The Nature of a Persuasive Speech
(cont.)
The Nature of a Persuasive Speech
(cont.)
Persuasive speeches advocate fact,
value, or policy claims.
Fact claims assert that something is true or
false.
Value claims attach a judgment (such as
good, bad, moral, or immoral) to a subject.
Policy claims advocate action by
organizations, institutions, or members of your
audience.
The Nature of a Persuasive Speech
(cont.)
The Nature of Persuasion
Two Paths to Persuasion
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Central route involves a high level of elaboration
(mental process that involves actively processing a
speakers argument).
Peripheral route involves low elaboration;
listeners are more easily influenced by tangential
or peripheral cues.
The Nature of Persuasion (cont.)
The Nature of Persuasion (cont.)
The Importance of Central Route
Processing
Positive effects of central route processing
continue even after your speech.
Trying to convince an audience with peripheral
factors can raise major ethical concerns.
Relying on fallacious instead of rational appeals
Failing to help audience members make a rational
decision
The Nature of Persuasion (cont.)
Which route will audience members
follow?
Most likely to take the central route when your
topic is relevant or important to them and they
are able to follow your argument
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience
Strategic discourse: Process of selecting
arguments to support your thesis that will
best persuade your audience in an ethical
manner
You must select the ethical arguments that
are most likely to persuade your particular
listeners.
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Adapting to Audience Disposition
Determine where your audience stands on
your issue.
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Latitude of acceptance: Range of positions
on a given issue that are acceptable to
listeners
Latitude of rejection: Set of positions that
are unacceptable to listeners
Boomerang effect: Pushing your listeners to
oppose your idea even more vigorously than
they already do
Can occur if your position falls within the
audiences latitude of rejection
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Appealing to Your Audiences Needs
Needs are objects that people desire and
feelings that must be satisfied.
Have a strong effect on how we behave and how
we respond to one anothers ideas
Your message is more likely to succeed when
it is relevant to the audience.
Answers their question, Whats in it for me?
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Maslows hierarchy of needs
Explains how more basic needs must be met
before people will focus on less essential ones
Important to consider the hierarchy when analyzing
your audience
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Connecting to Your Listeners Values
Values are core conceptions of what is
desirable for our own life and for society.
Guide peoples judgments and actions
Adapting an argument to audience values is
important because values play a central role
in guiding our lives.
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Demonstrating How Your Audience
Benefits
Listeners are most likely to support your
proposal when:
You show how they will benefit
They feel the costs involved are minimal
Help listeners visualize themselves
experiencing the benefit theyll gain.
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Acknowledging Listeners Reservations
Two-sided argument
Briefly note an argument against your thesis and
then use evidence and reasoning to refute it.
Can help change your audience members
attitudes in favor of your thesis and can strengthen
your credibility
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Tailoring Your Persuasive Message
to the Audience (cont.)
Focusing on Peripheral Beliefs
Core beliefs: Viewpoints people have held
closely, often for many years
Particularly immune to persuasion
Peripheral beliefs: Beliefs people have not
held so closely or for so long
More open to change by a persuasive message
Ethical Persuasion
Help your audience make an informed
decision.
To persuade ethically:
Present solid, truthful claims that support your
thesis
Avoid arguments based on faulty reasoning
Include all key facts you know of that would help
your audience carefully weigh what youre
proposing
Ethical Persuasion (cont.)
Research your facts.
If you find the jury is still out on a claim you
wish to make:
Acknowledge that the point is being debated
Use two-sided argument to show why the support
for your side outweighs the support for the other
side
If few credible sources support your claim and
most disagree, do not include that point in
your speech.
Ethical Persuasion (cont.)
Ethical Persuasion (cont.)
Note any biases.
Practice full disclosure
to your audience.
Acknowledge any vested
interest you may have in
your topic.
Ethical Persuasion (cont.)
Attribute your research properly.
Include citations every time you present ideas
that you found from other sources.
Make sure quotations and paraphrases are
accurate and that they represent the original
authors point of view.
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech
Organizing fact claims
Causal pattern
Ideal when a fact claim argues that one thing
causes another
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Comparison pattern
Used when you want to claim that two situations
are similar or different
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Categorical pattern
Used when each main point in your speech reflects
a different reason you believe your fact claim is
true
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Organizing value claims
Criteria-application pattern
Has two main pointsone establishes standards
for the value judgment, and the other applies those
standards to the subject of your thesis
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Categorical pattern
Used when it isnt necessary to explain how each
main point supports the value judgment you are
making because your audience already
understands each points relevance
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Organizing policy claims
Monroes motivated sequence aims to
establish five main points:
Attention (creating a willingness to listen)
Need (identifying a relevant need)
Satisfaction (showing how your proposal will fulfill
the need you identified)
Visualization (helping listeners form a mental
picture of the benefits of your proposal)
Action (clarifying what you want listeners to do)
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)
Problem-cause-solution pattern
First main point demonstrates a problem that
needs to be addressed.
Second point shows how current policies are not
sufficient to eliminate the cause of the problem.
Third point presents a solution that can minimize
the problem.
Organizing Your Persuasive
Speech (cont.)

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