| Persuasive speaking seeks some change
in attitude, belief, or action through the use of information that appeals to the minds
and emotions of others. |
| The study of persuasion has always
been the study of that delicate relationship between speaker intent and message effects.
Aristotle's Rhetoric was about that relationship, and so was Packard's The
Hidden Persuaders. |
| Persuasive speaking depends on
adapting to the listeners, who process information in two ways and in two sides of their
brains. Thus, to achieve the desired message effects, a speaker has to provide information
that appeals both to the rational and emotional sensibilities of the audience. Evidence
and arguments designed to establish propositions of fact, value, and policy appeal to the
rational. Supporting materials that appeal t the human needs can also be very powerful.
Message strategy that involves the use of fear appeals, the use of implicit or explicit
conclusions, and the management of opposing arguments helps determine the success of your
presentation. |
| The speaker and the message,
therefore, must be believable. Propositions of fact, value, and policy occur commonly in
discourse. The audience must discern whether these messages are credible. Propositions of
fact require a speaker to introduce enough information to convince the audience that the
claim is true. A proposition of policy asks the audience to make a judgment, so the
speaker must provide evidence to support a demand for action while taking the audience's
preconceptions into account. |
| Vance Packard developed a need theory
in which he described eight compelling needs. These hidden persuaders are the needs for
emotional security, reassurance of worth, ego gratification, creative outlets, love
objects, sense of power, roots, and immortality. It is important to construct appeals to
human needs so they are ethical and logical. This involves avoiding fallacies of logic
because they cause you to lose your credibility and effectiveness as a speaker. |
| Alan H. Monroe developed a five step
pattern for organizing persuasive speeches: the attention step, the need step, the
satisfaction step, the visualization step, and the action step. These patterns of thinking
provide the means by which you can best organize a persuasive speech. |
| Knowledge of the subject,
trustworthiness, personal appearance, and the extent to which an audience agrees with the
speaker are all part of the speaker's credibility. |
| The language of persuasion includes
words that appeal to both the logical and emotional needs of listeners. This clearly
implies that a speaker assumes certain ethical responsibilities toward the listeners. The
power to persuade is a solemn trust. |
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