A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking
6th Edition
Chapter 23
Principles of Persuasion Speaking
Focus on Motivation
Use information from audience analysis
Demonstrate the benefit to the audience
Establish your credibility
Set modest goals
Demonstrate how attitudes can prevent satisfaction
Greater success comes when the audience holds a similar position
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Classical Persuasive Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Argument: position with support for/against something
Logos (appealing to reason and logic)
Critical when asking listeners to
Reach conclusions regarding complicated issues
Take a specific action
Pathos (emotions)
Methods of appealing to pathos:
Using vivid imagery
Telling compelling stories
Using repetition and parallelism
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Establishing Credibility
Ethos is your moral character (credibility)
Emphasize your grasp of the topic
Demonstrate trustworthiness
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Contemporary Persuasive Appeals: Needs and Motivations
Appeal to what motivates audience members
Encourage receptivity to change.
Recognize that motives arise from needs.
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Target Listeners’ Needs
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Encourage Mental Engagement
Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
Central processing
Peripheral processing
NOTES: Encourage Mental Engagement
Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
Central processing in which listeners
Are motivated and thinking critically
Seriously consider what your message means to them;
Are most likely to act on your message.
Peripheral processing in which listeners pay little attention; they consider your message
Irrelevant
Too complex to follow
Just plain unimportant
They might support you for superficial reasons
Important:
Link arguments to listeners’ practical concerns.
Use the appropriate level of understanding.
Demonstrate common bonds.
Stress your credibility.
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A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking
6th Edition
Chapter 24
Constructing the Persuasive Speech
Construct Sound Arguments
Three elements to an argument:
Claim or proposition (states your conclusion)
Based on evidence
Evidence (substantiates the claim)
Warrant (provides reasons evidence is valid)
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Identify the Nature of Your Claims
Claim of fact
Whether something is true or will happen
Claim of value
Addresses issues of judgment
Claim of policy
Recommends a specific course of action
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Use Convincing Evidence
External evidence
Examples, narratives, testimony, facts, statistics
Audience’s preexisting knowledge/opinions
Reaffirm listeners’ own attitudes, beliefs, values
Speaker expertise
Offer in conjunction with other evidence
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Select Warrants
Motivational warrants
Authoritative warrants
Substantive warrants
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Use Effective Reasoning: Deductive Reasoning
Arguments using deductive reasoning
Begin with a general principle/case;
Offer a specific example;
Lead to the speaker’s conclusion.
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Use Effective Reasoning:
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Moves from specific case to general conclusion
Speaker’s conclusion appears to be true
Not necessarily true
Arguments can be strong or weak
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Use Effective Reasoning: Analogy
Reasoning by analogy
Common form of inductive reasoning
Speaker compares two similar cases
Implies that what is true in one is true
in the other
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Use of Effective Reasoning:
Causal Reasoning
Attempts to demonstrate a relationship between two events or factors, in which one of the events or factors causes the other.
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Remember the Call to Action
Include a call to action in the conclusion
Tell the audience exactly what you want them to do
Remind them of the benefits of taking action
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Address the Other Side of the Argument
One-sided message
Does not mention opposing claims
Two-sided message
Mentions opposing points of view
Sometimes refutes them
Generally more persuasive
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Avoid Fallacies in Reasoning
Logical fallacy
False/erroneous statements
Deceptive reasoning
Must be aware of them to
Avoid making them yourself;
Identify them in others’ speeches.
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Begging the Question
Begging the question
Argument that cannot be untrue
Lacks evidence to support it
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Types of Logical Fallacies: Bandwagoning
Bandwagoning
Basing an argument on general opinion
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Either or Fallacy
Either-or fallacy
Presents only two possible alternatives
May be many additional alternatives
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Ad Hominem Argument
Ad hominem argument
Targets a person/group instead of the issue
Incites audience’s dislike of that person/group
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Red Herring
Red herring
Relies on irrelevant premises
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Hasty Generalization
Hasty generalization
Bases general conclusion on isolated instance
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Non Sequitur
Non sequitur (“does not follow”)
Reasoning and conclusion are unconnected
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Slippery Slope
Slippery Slope
Faulty assumption that one case will lead to a series of events or actions
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Types of Logical Fallacies:
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Tradition
Suggests agreement because it is the way something has always been done
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Strengthen Your Case with Organization: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
Attention
Need
Satisfaction
Visualization
Action
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Strengthen Your Case with Organization: Comparative Advantage Pattern
Comparative advantage pattern
Used to show your proposal’s superiority
Best when audience agrees solution is needed
Make sure to identify familiar alternatives
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Strengthen Your Case with Organization: Refutation Pattern
Refutation Pattern
I. State the opposing position
II. Describe why opposing claim is faulty
III. Offer arguments/evidence for your position
IV. Contrast your position with opposing claim
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Strengthen Your Case
with Organization: Problem/Solution
Problem-solution pattern
Problem-cause-solution pattern
Problem-cause-solution-feasibility pattern
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