The Persuasive Speech

Make them believe!!

What is persuasion?The process of

creating, reinforcing or changing of people’s beliefs or actions

The Art of Persuasion is

A psychological process

A result of informingStrategic process

Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art and study of

persuasive speech and techniques. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher,

wrote the book on rhetoric, and thousands of years later, we still follow it today.

Mental DialoguePersuasion occurs or does not

occur as a result of a mental dialogue that takes place consciously and sub-consciously between the speaker and the auditors

Target AudienceThe portion of the whole audience that the speaker has to persuade

Persuasive v. InformativeInformative Non-partisan Strives to be objective Gives equal time to all

sides of issue

Persuasive Inherently partisan Purposefully subjective May TRY to SOUND

objective Slanted towards one side

or perspective

Persuasive Speeches can focus on…

Questions of Fact Deals with whether

someone or something is factually true or false

Uses facts and figures to prove a point

EX: Did Bill Clinton have sex with Monica Lewinsky?

Questions of Value Deals with the worth,

rightness or morality of an action or idea

Speaker defines his/her own terms

Establishes standards for terms

EX: Was it wrong, or does it matter if Clinton had sex with Lewinsky.

Or questions of policyQuestions of policyQuestions whether a

specific course of action should or should not be taken

In his book Rhetoric, Aristotle defined three

major types of appeals, or proofs that speakers can

use to persuade their audiences.

Logos

Logos is the logical appeal or proof. Logos uses facts and figures to logically

prove a point and persuade. Logos is especially valuable for questions of

fact. In Greek, logos literally means “word.” Just because an argument is logical doesn’t

necessarily mean it is true.

Flawed Logic… Remember syllogism from math class? If A=B and B=C then A= C…. This might always work with numbers, but

not always with facts and information

Try This… A= Bill and Bob are men. B= Bill is tall and Bob is short. C= Tall men die younger than short men. Can you deduce that Bill will die younger

than Bob? No!!! But speaker’s will try tricks like this

Pathos Pathos is the emotional appeal. A Latin term for pathos is “ad hominem”

argument. An emotional appeals plays upon the

listener’s emotions and sense of morality. Pathos is an effective way to argue a

question of value. “Pathos” means to feel.

How to build pathos? Use graphic imagery and image evoking

words. Appealing to a person’s pity, anger, love or

prejudices. Visual Aids can be very effective in creating

pathos… especially photographs Quotations and personal anecdotes from

victims can also create pathos

Ethos Ethos refers to the ethical appeal or

proof. You build your ethical appeal by

appearing credible and knowledgeable.

There are 3 levels of credibility

3 levels of credibility… Initial Credibility Derived Credibility Terminal Credibilty

4 Ways to Boost Credibility Explain your competence Establish common ground w/audience Deliver your speech fluently, expressively

and with conviction Use excellent and compelling evidence

What is evidence? Supporting materials

Examples Statistics Testimony Information used to prove or disprove a

position

Anticipating Argument In every point consider what an argument

against the point would be Then, using a proof, either logos, pathos or

ethos… dismantle and disprove that argument

Tips for using evidence Be specific… no glittering generalities and

vague statements Use novel and unique evidence… you can

rarely bore an audience into submission Contextualize the evidence… keep relating

it back to you position!!