Your Persuasive

Speech
You have to write one, so make it
a good one.
Introductions
and Conclusions
 Purposes of Introductions
In the first 10% of your speech, you must:

 Get the Audience’s Attention

 Introduce the Subject
 Give the Audience a Reason to Listen
 Establish Your Credibility
 Preview Your Main Points
 Methods for Developing Introductions
1. Use Illustrations or Anecdotes
2. Provide Startling Facts or Statistics
3. Use Quotations
4. Use Humor
5. Ask Questions
6. Refer to Historical Events
7. Use Personal References
 Purposes of Conclusions
1. Summarize the Speech
2. Reemphasize the Central Idea in a Memorable Way
3. Motivate the Audience to Respond
 Persuasive: encourage audience to think a certain way or
take action
4. Provide Closure
 Methods for Developing Conclusions

 Can use the same techniques used for the introduction

(illustrations, quotations, etc.)

 Very Important: Refer to the Introduction!

 Issue an Inspirational Appeal or Challenge

 Appropriate for persuasive speeches
Developing Your
Speech
Writing the Speech
 Select Organizational Pattern
 Select Main Points
 Subdivide Main Points into Subpoints
 Developing Your Speech
 Topic Selection
 General Purpose: To Persuade
 Specific Purpose

 Behavioral objective—the specific behavior you expect from your

audience
i
 “At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to…”
 Explain, list, describe, write (not understand, believe, know, feel, etc.)
 Central Idea (a.k.a. Thesis)
 One-sentence summary of speech
 Focuses on the content of the speech
 Should communicate a single idea
 Look for logical divisions (main points)
 Look for multiple reasons why central idea is true or false
 Look for a series of steps that supports the central idea
(chronological progression)
 Example
Topic: Boycotting Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand
General Purpose: To persuade
Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will be
able to list the reasons why they should boycott Bluth’s Original
Frozen Banana Stand
Central Idea: Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand poses a
hazard for the residents of Orange County and should be
boycotted
 Develop Signposts
 Transitions
 Verbal—In addition to; Not only/as well; In other words;
Therefore; In summary
 Nonverbal—A change in facial expression, a pause, an altered
vocal pitch or rate; can be used with or without a verbal transition
Signposts, cont.
 Previews
 Initial Previews—Preview statements of what the
main points will be
 Internal Previews—These introduce and outline
ideas or points that will be developed as the speech
progresses
 Can be used as a transition
Signposts, cont
 Summaries
 Final Summary—Serves as a transition between
body and conclusion, and summarizes the main
points of speech
 Internal Summary—Occur within speech; can act as
a transition. Are often used with internal previews.
Supporting Material
 Smoothly Incorporate Sources
 State the point
 Cite the source
 Present the supporting material
 Explain how is substantiates the point
Organizational
Patterns
Chronological
 Good for step-by-step process or historical
events
 Begin with a specific point in time, move
ahead or back from there
 The principle of recency—the event
discussed last is the one that the audience
will remember best
Spatial
 Organizes according to space or physical
relationship
 Arranges ideas according to their location and
direction
 Can progress up or down, east or west, forward or
backward
 Ideas must be developed in logical order
Categorical
 Arrange by distinct topics
 Addresses
 types
 forms
 qualities
 aspects
 Can organize in a variety of ways
 Recency—highlights one point more than the others
 Primacy—puts the most important or convincing point first
 Complexity—moves from simple to complex
Climactic
 Simple to difficult, least to most, neutral to
intense
 Effective for gaining audience agreement or
action
 Can also reverse the pattern, from most to
least
Cause & Effect
 Moves from cause to effect, or effect to
cause
 Good to explain how an event unfolded
 Chronology does not equal cause
 Guard against over-simplification
 Must be able to demonstrate that one event
actually caused something else to occur
Problem-Solution
 Typicallyused in persuasive speaking
 Speaker usually proposes a best solution

 Reflective Thinking Sequence

 Causes & extent of problem?
 Effects of problem?
 Criteria by which solutions should be judged?
 Possible solutions (strengths & weaknesses)
 Best solution?
 Put into effect how?
 Definition & limits of problems
Motivated Sequence
1. Attention—get listeners’ attention
2. Need—establish problem or issue and convince audience of the
need for change; demonstrate that this need affects audience
directly
3. Satisfaction—identify how your plan will satisfy the need and
explain solution
4. Visualization—use positive visualization to explain how great life
will be after your solution is implemented, or use negative
visualization to show how terrible life will be if it is not
5. Action—tell audience the specific action(s) they must take to
implement solution
Visual Aids
Visual Aid: PowerPoint
 Be careful when using sensitive images (9/11,
natural disasters, etc.)
 Do not use images that are too small or distorted
 Be sure to label charts and graphs
 Only use relevant images and/or visual
representations of data
 Avoid the use of sound effects and animations