Persuasion

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Persuasion

• How to sway the audience

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The Importance of Persuasion

• Persuasion is the process of creating,
  reinforcing, or changing peoples beliefs or
  actions.
• The ability to speak and write persuasively will
  benefit you in every part of your life!
• Understanding the principles of persuasion is
  also vital to being an informed citizen and
  consumer.

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Something to Note

• When you speak to persuade, you act as an
  advocate. Your job is to get others to believe
  with you and possibly act on that belief.
• Your goal may be to defend an idea, to refute an
  opponent, to sell a program, or to inspire people
  to action.

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Ethics in Persuasion

• Make sure your goals are ethically sound and that
  you can defend them if they are questioned or
  challenged.
• Study your topic so that you do not mislead your
  audience through muddled thinking.
• Be honest in what you say. There is no place in
  ethical thinking for false or deceptive
  statements.

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The Psychology of Persuasion

• Persuasion is a psychological process. It occurs
  in a situation where two or more points of view
  exist.
• There must be a disagreement, or there would be
  no need for persuasion.

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The Psychology of PersuasionThe Challenge of
Persuasive Speaking

• Of all types of public speaking, persuasion is
  the most complex and the most challenging.
• In every persuasive speech, you will face some
  listeners who are strongly in favor of your
  position, some who are neutral, and some who are
  adamantly opposed.
• How successful you are in any particular
  persuasive speech will depend above all on how
  well you tailor your message to the values,
  attitudes, and beliefs of your audience.

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The Psychology of PersuasionHow Listeners
Process Persuasive Messages

• Listeners often engage in a mental give and take
  with the speaker.
• While they listen, they actively assess the
  speakers credibility, delivery, supporting
  materials, language, reasoning, and emotional
  appeals.
• Think of your speech as a kind of mental dialogue
  with your audience. You must anticipate possible
  objections in your speech. You cannot convert
  skeptical listeners unless you deal directly with
  the reasons for their skepticism.

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Degrees of Persuasion
Strongly Opposed
Moderately Opposed
Slightly Opposed
Neutral
Slightly in Favor
Moderately in Favor
Strongly in Favor
Persuasion involves any movement by a listener
from left to right
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Requirements of Persuasion

• Persuasion requires providing the audience with
  enough information to understand the topic under
  discussion, while appealing to the emotions,
  attitudes, and values, and good sense of the
  listeners. Persuasion requires setting up a
  course of action that is well-suited to audience
  capabilities and ethics, and is a logical
  outgrowth of the arguments set up within the
  speech.

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Combination for Persuasion

• A good persuasive speech requires the speaker to
  put together elements of logos, pathos, and ethos
  that have been mastered throughout the class so
  that the audience agrees with the speaker and
  sees the logic behind the action step.

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PersuasionA speech whose message attempts to
change or reinforce an audiences thoughts,
feelings, or actions
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LogosLogic

• This refers to the process of drawing conclusions
  based on evidence and reasoning. Evidence is used
  to prove the truth of a contention or opinion.
• If a speaker contends or asserts that a topic is
  important, the audience will want to know why.
  Anticipating that question, the speaker will
  provide facts and testimony from research that
  supports his or her contention.

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Reasoning

• Reasoning is a process of stacking evidence to
  create support for conclusions drawn by the
  speaker.
• One simple form of reasoning that we use all of
  the time is cause-and-effect.
• Then, there is the problem-solution speech where
  the speaker sets up or describes a problem then
  suggests a solution based on conclusions drawn
  from evidence.

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Testing Logic

• Logic can be tested by breaking down the sequence
  of assumptions and evidence put forth by the
  speaker, then checking to see if the conclusion
  actually fits the evidence.

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Delivering a Persuasive Speech

• The energy level, adequacy of preparation, and
  perceived trustworthiness of the speaker are all
  persuasive measures.

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Conclusions

• Conclusions can be reached in one of two ways
  deductively or inductively.
• Deductive reasoning builds layer upon layer of
  proof, then comes to a conclusion that can be
  tested.
• Inductive reasoning flips the pyramid over and is
  used to draw a broad range of conclusions based
  on a single point of evidence.

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Possible topics

• Eating fast-food
• Public displays of affection
• Prayer in schools
• Helmet laws
• Speaking English in America
• School uniforms
• Education in prisons
• The insanity defense
• Puppy mills
• Curfews