persuasive speech definition

15 Persuasive Speeches

Speeches that Make a Change

In this chapter . . .

For many public speeches, the specific purpose is to convince the audience of a particular opinion or claim or to convince them to take some action in response to the speech. When your intention is to affect change in your audience (not just the acquisition of knowledge) then you are delivering a persuasive speech. In this chapter you will learn about the elements of persuasion, why persuasion is difficult, and how to overcome people’s resistance to change by using effective and ethical methods.

Although a persuasive speech involves information—even as much as an informative speech—the key difference is that a persuasive speech is designed for “creating, reinforcing, or changing people’s beliefs or actions” (Lucas, 2015. p. 306). A persuasive speech makes something happen. In other words, it performs a job.

Traditional Views of Persuasion

In the fourth century BCE, the classic philosopher Aristotle took up the study of the public practices of the ruling class in Athenian society. For two years he observed the  rhetoric  (the art of persuasion) of the men who spoke in the assembly and the courts. In the end, he developed a theory about persuasiveness that has come down to us in history as a treatise called Rhetoric. Among his many ideas was the identification of three elements essential to persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. In short, they mean credibility, reasonability, and emotion.

Ethos has come to mean speaker character and credentials. It is the element that establishes the audience’s trust in you as a speaker. A speaker’s credibility is based on who the speaker is and what they know: experience, education, expertise, and background. If you’re delivering a persuasive speech about adopting a pet from a shelter and you have raised several shelter dogs, then you have credibility through experience and should share that fact about yourself with the audience to enhance their trust in your persuasive argument. Another way to establish your credibility is through research sources. You may not be an expert in climate change, but if you were giving a persuasive speech about it, you can cite reliable authoritative sources.

The word ethos looks very much like the word “ethics,” and there are many close parallels to the trust an audience has in a speaker and their honesty and ethical stance. In terms of ethics, it goes without saying that your speech will be truthful.

In addition to expertise and truthfulness is your personal involvement in the topic. Ideally you have chosen the topic because it means something to you personally. Audiences will have more trust in you if they feel you have something as stake or something personal in the subject. For example, perhaps your speech is designed to motivate audience members to take action against bullying in schools, and it’s important to you because you work with the Boys and Girls Club organization and have seen how anti-bullying programs can have positive results. Sharing your own involvement and commitment is key to establishing your credibility on this topic.

Logos is the second key element in Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric. Related to our word “logic,” the Greek term logos in persuasion means presenting ideas that appeal to logic or reason. Logos in a speech pertain to arguments that the audience would find acceptable. Imagine a speech, for example, which has the goal of persuading an audience to adopt healthier eating habits. Would the speech be effective if the arguments focused on how expensive organic foods are? Of course not.

Logic and reason are persuasive not only as matters of content.  Logos  pertains to organization, as well. An effective persuasive speech presents arguments in an organized fashion.

In words like “empathy,” “sympathy,” and “compassion” we see the root word behind the Greek word pathos. Pathos, for Aristotle, meant exciting emotions such as anger, joy, hate, love, and desire to persuade the audience of the rightness of a proposition. In a positive sense, appealing to the emotions of the audience is a highly effective persuasive tool. In the earlier example of a speech designed to encourage an audience to take action against bullying in schools, including a touching story about a student experiencing bullying would make the audience more likely to support your call for action.

However, we recognize that pathos can be used in a negative way. Emotional appeals that use anger, guilt, hatred, inflammatory language like name-calling, or that try to frighten the audience with horrible images, are counter-productive and even unethical. They might incite emotion in the audience, but they are poor uses of pathos.

One negative emotion used frequently by persuasive speakers is fear. Candidates for political office, for example, often try to provoke fear to move us to vote for them. Intense, over-the-top fear appeals, based on factual falsehoods or cherry-picking, and/or including shocking photos, are not ethical and are often dismissed by discerning audience members. Appealing to the emotion of fear can be ethical if it’s managed carefully. This means being strictly factual and avoiding extremes.

Persuasion and the Audience

It makes sense that if a speaker wants to affect the audience’s beliefs or actions, then the speaker must be perfectly clear about their expectations. If you were listening to a persuasive speech call for your audience to support animals, wouldn’t you want to know exactly what “support” the speaker was talking about? Giving money to charities? Volunteering at an animal shelter? Writing state legislators and urging them to change laws? Your job as a persuasive speaker is to be clear about what you want to create, reinforce, or change in your audience.

For your speech to have persuasive power, you must also consider your audience and choose a goal that is feasible for them. Persuasion isn’t an on/off switch. It’s more like a thermometer. Skillful persuasive speakers respect and identify a persuasive goal that is calibrated to the audience. Think of persuasion as a continuum or line going both directions. At one end is strong disagreement. At the other end is strong agreement. Your audience members, either as a group or individually, are sitting somewhere on that line in relation to your central idea statement, or what we are going to call a proposition in this chapter.

For example, your speech proposition might be something like “The main cause of climate change is human activity.” You are claiming that climate change is due to the harmful things that humans have done to the environment. To be an effective persuasive speaker, one of your first jobs after choosing this topic would be to determine where your audience “sits” on the continuum.

+ 3 means strongly agree to the point of making lifestyle choices to lessen climate change (such as riding a bike instead of driving a car, recycling, eating certain kinds of foods, and advocating for government policy changes). + 2 means agree but not to the point of acting upon it or only acting on it in small ways. + 1 as mildly agrees with your proposition; that is, they think it’s probably true, but the issue doesn’t affect them personally. 0 means neutral, no opinion, or feeling too uninformed to decide. – 1 means mildly opposed to the proposition but willing to listen to those with whom they disagree. – 2 means disagreement to the point of dismissing the idea pretty quickly. – 3 means strong opposition to the point that the concept of climate change itself isn’t even listened to or acknowledged as a valid subject.

Since everyone in the audience is somewhere on this line or continuum, you can accept the fact that any movement toward +3 or to the right is a win. Trying to change an audience from -3 (strong disagreement) to +3 (strong agreement) in a single speech would be quite impossible. When you understand this, you can make strategic choices about the content of your speech.

In this example, if you knew that most of the audience was at -2 or -3, your speech could focus on opening their minds to the possibility of climate change and provide the science behind human causes. On the other hand, if you knew your audience was at +1 or +2, you could focus on urging them to take bold steps, like giving up their gasoline-powered vehicles.

A proposition is assumed to be in some way controversial, or a “stretch” for the audience. Some people in the audience will disagree with your proposition or at least have no opinion; they are not “on your side.”

There will be those in the audience who disagree with your proposition but who are willing to listen. Some members of the audience may already agree with you, although they don’t know why. Both groups could be called the  target audience . At the same time, another cluster of your audience may be extremely opposed to your position to the degree that they probably will not give you a fair hearing. They probably can’t be persuaded. Focus on your target audience, they are the one you can persuade.

Why is Persuasion Hard?

Persuasion is hard mainly because we have a bias against change. We go out of our way to protect our beliefs, attitudes, and values. We selectively expose ourselves to messages that we already agree with, rather than those that confront or challenge us. We find it uncomfortable to be confronted with conflicting information or viewpoints.

Additionally, during a persuasive speech the audience members are holding a mental dialogue with the speaker or at least the speaker’s content. The processes that the human mind goes through while it listens to a persuasive message is like a silent conversation. In their minds, audience members are producing doubts or reservations about your proposal. If we could listen in on one of these conversations, it might go something like this:

Speaker: Switching to a plant-based diet is the best action you can take to support a reduction in the CO-2 emissions harming the climate. Audience Member Mind: Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, but eating like that won’t give me enough protein.

The audience member has a doubt or reservation about the speaker’s proposal. We can call these doubts “yeah, buts” because the audience members are thinking, “Yeah, but what about—?”  It’s a skill of good persuasion speechwriting to anticipate reservations.

Solutions to the Difficulty of Persuasion

With these reasons for the resistance audience members have to persuasion, what is a speaker to do? Here are some strategies.

First, choose a feasible goal for the persuasive action you want the audience to take. Going back to our continuum, trying to move an audience from -3 to +2 or +3 is too big a move. Having reasonable persuasive goals is the first way to meet resistance. Even moving someone from -3 to -2 is progress, and over time these small shifts can eventually result in a significant amount of persuasion.

Secondly, as speakers we must address reservations. While speechwriters aren’t mind-readers, we can easily imagine reservations about our proposition and build a response to those reservations into the speech. Using the example above, a speaker might say:

Switching to a plant-based diet is the best action you can take to support a reduction in the CO-2 emissions harming the climate. I urge all of you to consider this important dietary change. Perhaps you are thinking that a plant-based diet won’t provide enough protein. That is a common concern. Nutritionists at the website Forks Over Knives explain how the staples of a PB diet—whole grains, legumes, and nuts—provide ample protein.

Here, the speaker acknowledges a valid reservation and then offers a rebuttal. This is called a two-tailed argument. The speaker articulates a possible argument against their proposition and then refutes it.

The third strategy is to keep in mind that since you are asking the audience to change something, they must view the benefits of the change as worth the stress of the change. In effect, audiences want to know: “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM). As a speaker, you should give thought to that question and in your speech address the benefit, advantage, or improvement that the audience will gain by taking the action you propose.

Structure of a Persuasive Speech

A persuasive speech shares with an informational speech the same four elements for a strongly structured speech: introduction, body, conclusion, and connectors. Like informative speeches, preparation requires thoughtful attention to the given circumstances of the speech occasion, as well as audience analysis in terms of demographic and psychographic features. That said, there are some elements unique to a persuasive speech.

General and Specific Purpose General Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose: To motivate my audience of campus administrators to provide LGBTQ+ safe spaces on campus.

This looks familiar up to this point. The general purpose is one of the three broad speech goals (to instruct, to persuade, to inspire or entertain). The specific purpose statement follows a clear T.W.A.C. pattern:

T o +  W ord: To convince A udience: campus administrators C ontent: LGBTQ+ safe spaces

What is unique to persuasive speeches is what comes next, the proposition.

Propositions

Informational speeches require a thesis. This is the central idea of the speech; its “takeaway.” Persuasive speeches equally require a strong focus on the main idea, but we call this something else: a  proposition . A proposition is a statement that expresses a judgement or opinion about which you want audience in agreement. Remember that propositions must be something that can be argued. To say, “The earth is round” isn’t a proposition. “The earth is flat” is a proposition.

• Converting to solar energy saves homeowners money.
• A vegan diet is the most ethical way to eat.
• Universities should provide on-line learning options for all classes.
• The Constitution’s Second Amendment does not include possession of automatic weapons for private use.

Like a thesis statement for an informative speech, a proposition statement is best when it not only clearly states the judgment or opinion for which you seek audience agreement, but also provides a succinct preview of the reasons for that judgement.

Universities should provide LGBTQ+ safe spaces on campus to promote visibility, build community, and protect well-being for LGBTQ+ students and their allies.

Types of Propositions

If you take a closer look at the propositions above, you’ll notice that they suggest several types of persuasion. In fact, there are several broad categories of propositions, determined by their primary goal. These are: a) propositions of fact, b) propositions of value, c) propositions of policy, and d) propositions of definition.

Proposition of Fact

Speeches with this type of proposition attempt to establish the truth of a statement. The core of the proposition isn’t whether something is morally right or wrong, only that a statement is supported by evidence or not. These propositions are not facts such as “the chemical symbol for water is H20.” Rather, propositions of fact are statements over which people disagree and there is evidence on both sides. Some examples of propositions of fact are:

• Experiments using animals are essential to the development of many life-saving medical procedures.
• Climate change has been caused by human activity.

Notice that in none of these are any values—good or bad—mentioned. The point of these propositions is to prove with evidence the truth of a statement.

Proposition of Value

Propositions of fact have the primary purpose of arguing that something exists in a particular way. Propositions of value, on the other hand, have as their primary purpose to argue that one thing is better than another. When the proposition has a word such as “good,” “bad,” “best,” “worst,” “just,” “unjust,” “ethical,” “unethical,” “moral,” “immoral,” “beneficial,” “harmful,” “advantageous,” or “disadvantageous,” then it’s a proposition of value. Some examples include:

• Hybrid cars are the best form of automobile transportation available today.
• Mascots that involve Native American names, characters, and symbols are unjust.

Propositions of value require a first step: defining the “value” word. If you are trying to convince your audience that something is “unjust,” you will have to make clear what you mean by that term. For different people, “best” might mean “safest,” “least expensive,” “most environmentally responsible,” “stylish,” “powerful,” or “prestigious.” Obviously, in the case of the first proposition above, it means “environmentally responsible.” It’s the first job of the speaker, after introducing the speech and stating the proposition, to explain what “best form of automobile transportation” means. Then the proposition would be defended with separate arguments.

Proposition of Policy

These propositions are easy to identify because they almost always have the word “should” in them. These propositions call for a change in policy or practice (including those in a government, community, or school), or they can call for the audience to adopt a certain behavior.

• The federal government should act to ensure clean water standards for all citizens.
• Universities should eliminate attendance requirements.
• States should lower taxes on food.

The proposition determines the approach to the speech, especially the organization. The exact phrasing of the proposition should be carefully done to be reasonable, positive, and appropriate for the context and audience.

Propositions of Definition

Propositions of definitions argue that a word, phrase, or concept has a particular meaning. Lawyers, legislators, and scholars often write briefs, present persuasive speeches, or compose articles to define terms that are vital to defendants, citizens, or disciplines. Some examples might be:

• The Second Amendment to the Constitution does not include possession of automatic weapons for private use.
• Alcoholism should be considered a disease because…
• Thomas Jefferson’s definition of inalienable rights did not include a right to privacy.

In each of these examples, the proposition is that the definition of these things needs to be changed or viewed differently, but the audience isn’t asked to change an attitude or action.

These are not strict categories. A proposition of value most likely contains elements of facts and definitions, for example. However, identifying the primary category for a persuasive speech focuses the speaker on the ultimate purpose of the speech.

Pro-Arguments

Once you know your proposition, the next step is to make your case for your judgement or opinion through clear and distinct points. These are the main points of the body of your persuasive speech. We call these the “pro” or “for” arguments. You should present at least three distinct arguments in favor of your proposition. Expanding on the example above,

General Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose:  To motivate my audience of campus administrators to provide LGBTQ+ safe spaces on campus. Proposition: Universities should provide LGBTQ+ safe spaces on campus in order to promote visibility, build community, and protect well-being for LGBTQ+ students and their allies.

Three pro-arguments for the proposition are:

Pro-Argument #1: Creating a safe space makes LGBTQ+ community more visible and central to campus life, instead of marginalized. Pro-Argument #2: Safe spaces create a place where LGBTQ+ and their allies learn to build networks, friendship, and support circles. Pro-Argument #3: With a safe and centralized space bringing together this community, instances of bias or harassment can be brought to counselors, making for a safer community.

Two-Tailed Arguments

There is one more crucial element following pro-arguments. These are unique to persuasive speeches. As discussed above, it’s essential to anticipate and address audience reservations about your propositions. These are the two-tailed arguments that articulate the reservation and then address it or refute it. In the example we’re using, such a statement might look like this:

“Perhaps you are thinking that an LGBTQ+ safe space isn’t necessary on campus because there are already places on campus that provide this function. I understand that concern. However, a space that is officially provided by the University provides access to resources with trained personnel. The national organization CampusPride provides training to university facilitators for exactly this reason.”

There are some techniques for rebuttal or refutation that work better than others. You would not want to say, “If you are one of the people who believe this about my proposition, you are wrong.” It’s better to say that their reservations are “misconceptions,” “myths,” or “mistaken ideas” that are commonly held about the proposition.

Building Upon Your Persuasive Speech’s Arguments

Once you have constructed the key arguments, it’s time to be sure the main points are well supported with evidence.

First, your evidence should be from sources that the audience will find credible. If you can find the same essential information from two sources but know that the audience will find the information more credible from one source than another, use and cite the information from the more credible one. For example, if you find the same statistical data on Wikipedia and the US Department of Labor’s website, cite the US Department of Labor. Audiences also accept information from sources they consider unbiased or indifferent. Gallup polls, for example, have been considered reliable sources of survey data because unlike some organizations, Gallup does not have a cause (political or otherwise) it’s supporting.

Secondly, your evidence should be new to the audience. New evidence is more attention-getting, and you will appear more credible if you tell the audience something new (as long as you cite it well) than if you use the “same old, same old” evidence they have heard before.

Third, in order to be effective and ethical, your supporting evidence should be relevant and not used out of context, manipulated, or edited to change its meaning.

After choosing the evidence and apportioning it to the correct parts of the speech, you will want to consider the use of metaphors, quotations, rhetorical devices, and narratives that will enhance the language and “listenability” of your speech. Narratives are especially good for introduction and conclusions, to get attention and to leave the audience with something dramatic. You might refer to the narrative in the introduction again in the conclusion to give the speech a sense of finality.

Lastly, you will want to decide if you should use any type of presentation aid for the speech. The decision to use visuals such as PowerPoint slides or a video clip in a persuasive speech should take into consideration the effect of the visuals on the audience and the time allotted for the speech. The charts, graphs, or photographs you use should be focused and credibly done.

Organization of a Persuasive Speech

You can see that the overall structure of a persuasive speech follows a common model: introduction, body (arguments and support), two-tailed arguments, and conclusion. Study the example at the end of this chapter to see this structure in action.

In speechwriting, you can think of a speech structure like the building of a house and organization like the arrangement of the rooms within it. As with other speeches, persuasive speeches can be organized topically, chronologically, or spatially. However, persuasive speeches often follow a problem-solution or problem-cause-solution pattern.

Organization for a proposition of fact

If your proposition is one of fact or definition, it will be best to use a topical organization for the body of your speech. That means that you will have two to four discrete, separate topics in support of the proposition.

Proposition: Converting to solar energy saves homeowners money.

• (Pro-Argument 1) Solar energy can be economical to install.
• (Pro-Argument 2) The government awards grants for solar.
• (Pro-Argument 3) Solar energy reduces power bills.
• (Pro-Argument 4) Solar energy requires less money for maintenance.

Organization for a proposition of value

A persuasive speech that incorporates a proposition of value will have a slightly different structure. A proposition of value must first define the “value” word for clarity and provide a basis for the other arguments of the speech. Then the pro-arguments for the proposition based on the definition.

Proposition: Hybrid cars are the best form of automotive transportation available today.

• (Definition of value) Automotive transportation that is best meets three standards: dependable, economical, and environmentally responsible.
• (Pro-Argument 1) Studies show that hybrid cars are durable and dependable.
• (Pro-Argument 2) Hybrid cars are fuel-efficient.
• (Pro-Argument 3) Hybrid cars are environmentally responsible.

Organization for a propositions of policy

The most common type of outline organizations for speeches with propositions of policy is problem-solution or problem-cause-solution. Typically, we don’t feel any motivation to change unless we are convinced that some harm, problem, need, or deficiency exists, and even more, that it affects us personally. Therefore, the organization of a speech about policy needs to first explain the problem and its cause, followed by the solution in the form of 3-5 pro-arguments.

Proposition: Universities should provide on-line learning options for all classes.

• (Problem) Regular attendance in a physical classroom is no longer possible for all students.
• (Cause) Changes brought about by the COVID pandemic have made guaranteed classroom attendance difficult.
• (Pro-Argument 1) Providing on-line learning options protects the health of students.
• (Pro-Argument 2) On-line learning serves students who cannot come to campus.
• (Pro-Argument 3) Access to on-line learning allows students to maintain employment while still going to school.

To complete this outline, along with introduction and conclusion, your pro-arguments should be supported with fact, quotations, and statistics.

Your persuasive speech in class, as well as in real life, is an opportunity to share a passion or cause that you believe will matter to society and help the audience live a better life. Even if you are initially uncomfortable with the idea of persuasion, we use it all the time in diverse ways. Choose your topic based on your commitment and experience, look for quality evidence, craft your proposition so that it will be clear and audience appropriate, and put the finishing touches on it with an eye toward enhancing your logos , ethos , and pathos .

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Persuasive Speech Outline, with Examples

March 17, 2021 - Gini Beqiri

A persuasive speech is a speech that is given with the intention of convincing the audience to believe or do something. This could be virtually anything – voting, organ donation, recycling, and so on.

A successful persuasive speech effectively convinces the audience to your point of view, providing you come across as trustworthy and knowledgeable about the topic you’re discussing.

So, how do you start convincing a group of strangers to share your opinion? And how do you connect with them enough to earn their trust?

Topics for your persuasive speech

We’ve made a list of persuasive speech topics you could use next time you’re asked to give one. The topics are thought-provoking and things which many people have an opinion on.

When using any of our persuasive speech ideas, make sure you have a solid knowledge about the topic you’re speaking about – and make sure you discuss counter arguments too.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• All school children should wear a uniform
• Facebook is making people more socially anxious
• It should be illegal to drive over the age of 80
• Lying isn’t always wrong
• The case for organ donation

Read our full list of  75 persuasive speech topics and ideas .

Preparation: Consider your audience

As with any speech, preparation is crucial. Before you put pen to paper, think about what you want to achieve with your speech. This will help organise your thoughts as you realistically can only cover 2-4 main points before your  audience get bored .

It’s also useful to think about who your audience are at this point. If they are unlikely to know much about your topic then you’ll need to factor in context of your topic when planning the structure and length of your speech. You should also consider their:

• Cultural or religious backgrounds
• Shared concerns, attitudes and problems
• Shared interests, beliefs and hopes
• Baseline attitude – are they hostile, neutral, or open to change?

The factors above will all determine the approach you take to writing your speech. For example, if your topic is about childhood obesity, you could begin with a story about your own children or a shared concern every parent has. This would suit an audience who are more likely to be parents than young professionals who have only just left college.

Remember the 3 main approaches to persuade others

There are three main approaches used to persuade others:

The ethos approach appeals to the audience’s ethics and morals, such as what is the ‘right thing’ to do for humanity, saving the environment, etc.

Pathos persuasion is when you appeal to the audience’s emotions, such as when you  tell a story  that makes them the main character in a difficult situation.

The logos approach to giving a persuasive speech is when you appeal to the audience’s logic – ie. your speech is essentially more driven by facts and logic. The benefit of this technique is that your point of view becomes virtually indisputable because you make the audience feel that only your view is the logical one.

• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion

Ideas for your persuasive speech outline

1. structure of your persuasive speech.

The opening and closing of speech are the most important. Consider these carefully when thinking about your persuasive speech outline. A  strong opening  ensures you have the audience’s attention from the start and gives them a positive first impression of you.

You’ll want to  start with a strong opening  such as an attention grabbing statement, statistic of fact. These are usually dramatic or shocking, such as:

Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat – Jamie Oliver

Another good way of starting a persuasive speech is to include your audience in the picture you’re trying to paint. By making them part of the story, you’re embedding an emotional connection between them and your speech.

You could do this in a more toned-down way by talking about something you know that your audience has in common with you. It’s also helpful at this point to include your credentials in a persuasive speech to gain your audience’s trust.

Obama would spend hours with his team working on the opening and closing statements of his speech.

2. Stating your argument

You should  pick between 2 and 4 themes  to discuss during your speech so that you have enough time to explain your viewpoint and convince your audience to the same way of thinking.

It’s important that each of your points transitions seamlessly into the next one so that your speech has a logical flow. Work on your  connecting sentences  between each of your themes so that your speech is easy to listen to.

Your argument should be backed up by objective research and not purely your subjective opinion. Use examples, analogies, and stories so that the audience can relate more easily to your topic, and therefore are more likely to be persuaded to your point of view.

3. Addressing counter-arguments

Any balanced theory or thought  addresses and disputes counter-arguments  made against it. By addressing these, you’ll strengthen your persuasive speech by refuting your audience’s objections and you’ll show that you are knowledgeable to other thoughts on the topic.

When describing an opposing point of view, don’t explain it in a bias way – explain it in the same way someone who holds that view would describe it. That way, you won’t irritate members of your audience who disagree with you and you’ll show that you’ve reached your point of view through reasoned judgement. Simply identify any counter-argument and pose explanations against them.

• Complete Guide to Debating

4. Closing your speech

Your closing line of your speech is your last chance to convince your audience about what you’re saying. It’s also most likely to be the sentence they remember most about your entire speech so make sure it’s a good one!

The most effective persuasive speeches end  with a  call to action . For example, if you’ve been speaking about organ donation, your call to action might be asking the audience to register as donors.

Practice answering AI questions on your speech and get  feedback on your performance .

If audience members ask you questions, make sure you listen carefully and respectfully to the full question. Don’t interject in the middle of a question or become defensive.

You should show that you have carefully considered their viewpoint and refute it in an objective way (if you have opposing opinions). Ensure you remain patient, friendly and polite at all times.

Example 1: Persuasive speech outline

This example is from the Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Specific purpose

To persuade my audience to start walking in order to improve their health.

Central idea

Regular walking can improve both your mental and physical health.

Introduction

Let’s be honest, we lead an easy life: automatic dishwashers, riding lawnmowers, T.V. remote controls, automatic garage door openers, power screwdrivers, bread machines, electric pencil sharpeners, etc., etc. etc. We live in a time-saving, energy-saving, convenient society. It’s a wonderful life. Or is it?

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Example 2: Persuasive speech

Tips for delivering your persuasive speech

• Practice, practice, and practice some more . Record yourself speaking and listen for any nervous habits you have such as a nervous laugh, excessive use of filler words, or speaking too quickly.
• Show confident body language . Stand with your legs hip width apart with your shoulders centrally aligned. Ground your feet to the floor and place your hands beside your body so that hand gestures come freely. Your audience won’t be convinced about your argument if you don’t sound confident in it. Find out more about  confident body language here .
• Don’t memorise your speech word-for-word  or read off a script. If you memorise your persuasive speech, you’ll sound less authentic and panic if you lose your place. Similarly, if you read off a script you won’t sound genuine and you won’t be able to connect with the audience by  making eye contact . In turn, you’ll come across as less trustworthy and knowledgeable. You could simply remember your key points instead, or learn your opening and closing sentences.
• Remember to use facial expressions when storytelling  – they make you more relatable. By sharing a personal story you’ll more likely be speaking your truth which will help you build a connection with the audience too. Facial expressions help bring your story to life and transport the audience into your situation.
• Keep your speech as concise as possible . When practicing the delivery, see if you can edit it to have the same meaning but in a more succinct way. This will keep the audience engaged.

The best persuasive speech ideas are those that spark a level of controversy. However, a public speech is not the time to express an opinion that is considered outside the norm. If in doubt, play it safe and stick to topics that divide opinions about 50-50.

Bear in mind who your audience are and plan your persuasive speech outline accordingly, with researched evidence to support your argument. It’s important to consider counter-arguments to show that you are knowledgeable about the topic as a whole and not bias towards your own line of thought.

Module 10: Persuasive Speaking

What is a persuasive speech, learning objectives.

Explain the objectives of a persuasive speech.

Persuasive speaking happens all the time:

• A community member rallies neighbors to demand that the city replace a broken play structure at the park.
• A child explains to her parents why she should get an extra half hour of screen time today.
• A parent discusses with a teacher why he thinks his child should have an Individualized Education Program.
• A landscaper talks to her supervisor about the advantages of investing in a new lawn machine.
• Politicians explain why voters should vote for them and support their political agenda.
• A defense attorney tries to convince a jury that her client is innocent of all charges.
• An informercial says that you should buy this miracle detergent, which cleans your clothes by harnessing the power of dihydrogen monoxide.
• A college student in a public speaking class argues that their university should stop considering the SAT and ACT for admissions decisions.

Persuasion means to cause someone to do or believe something based on reasoning and argument. Persuade comes from the Latin roots per – (thoroughly, strongly) and  suadere  (to advise), from the Proto-Indo-European root  *swād- (sweet, pleasant, agreeable; like the Sanskrit svadus,   sweet  or the word suave ). [1] Persuasion, in other words, is an attempt to make a viewpoint or a behavior agreeable to someone.  When your objective as a speaker is to convince your audience to adopt a particular belief or engage in a specific action, you are speaking to persuade.

When we persuade, we are acting as advocates and we are encouraging our audience to adopt a point of view or take a particular course of behavior. Learning how to be a better persuasive speaker also has the added benefit of making us better and smarter consumers of persuasive messages.

Persuasion is all around us, of course. Just think of advertising, for example. How many persuasive messages do you receive every day? What makes some of those messages more effective than others? Think about that question as you read this section and begin developing your own persuasive speech.

• "persuade, v." "suade, v.,"  OED Online , Oxford University Press, September 2020, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/141561 . ↵
• What is a Persuasive Speech?. Authored by : Mike Randolph with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

How to Write and Structure a Persuasive Speech

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The purpose of a persuasive speech is to convince your audience to agree with an idea or opinion that you present. First, you'll need to choose a side on a controversial topic, then you will write a speech to explain your position, and convince the audience to agree with you.

You can produce an effective persuasive speech if you structure your argument as a solution to a problem. Your first job as a speaker is to convince your audience that a particular problem is important to them, and then you must convince them that you have the solution to make things better.

Note: You don't have to address a real problem. Any need can work as the problem. For example, you could consider the lack of a pet, the need to wash one's hands, or the need to pick a particular sport to play as the "problem."

As an example, let's imagine that you have chosen "Getting Up Early" as your persuasion topic. Your goal will be to persuade classmates to get themselves out of bed an hour earlier every morning. In this instance, the problem could be summed up as "morning chaos."

A standard speech format has an introduction with a great hook statement, three main points, and a summary. Your persuasive speech will be a tailored version of this format.

Before you write the text of your speech, you should sketch an outline that includes your hook statement and three main points.

Writing the Text

The introduction of your speech must be compelling because your audience will make up their minds within a few minutes whether or not they are interested in your topic.

Before you write the full body you should come up with a greeting. Your greeting can be as simple as "Good morning everyone. My name is Frank."

After your greeting, you will offer a hook to capture attention. A hook sentence for the "morning chaos" speech could be a question:

• How many times have you been late for school?
• Does your day begin with shouts and arguments?
• Have you ever missed the bus?

Or your hook could be a statistic or surprising statement:

• More than 50 percent of high school students skip breakfast because they just don't have time to eat.
• Tardy kids drop out of school more often than punctual kids.

Once you have the attention of your audience, follow through to define the topic/problem and introduce your solution. Here's an example of what you might have so far:

Good afternoon, class. Some of you know me, but some of you may not. My name is Frank Godfrey, and I have a question for you. Does your day begin with shouts and arguments? Do you go to school in a bad mood because you've been yelled at, or because you argued with your parent? The chaos you experience in the morning can bring you down and affect your performance at school.

Add the solution:

You can improve your mood and your school performance by adding more time to your morning schedule. You can accomplish this by setting your alarm clock to go off one hour earlier.

Your next task will be to write the body, which will contain the three main points you've come up with to argue your position. Each point will be followed by supporting evidence or anecdotes, and each body paragraph will need to end with a transition statement that leads to the next segment. Here is a sample of three main statements:

• Bad moods caused by morning chaos will affect your workday performance.
• If you skip breakfast to buy time, you're making a harmful health decision.
• (Ending on a cheerful note) You'll enjoy a boost to your self-esteem when you reduce the morning chaos.

After you write three body paragraphs with strong transition statements that make your speech flow, you are ready to work on your summary.

Your summary will re-emphasize your argument and restate your points in slightly different language. This can be a little tricky. You don't want to sound repetitive but will need to repeat what you have said. Find a way to reword the same main points.

Finally, you must make sure to write a clear final sentence or passage to keep yourself from stammering at the end or fading off in an awkward moment. A few examples of graceful exits:

• We all like to sleep. It's hard to get up some mornings, but rest assured that the reward is well worth the effort.
• If you follow these guidelines and make the effort to get up a little bit earlier every day, you'll reap rewards in your home life and on your report card.

Tips for Writing Your Speech

• Don't be confrontational in your argument. You don't need to put down the other side; just convince your audience that your position is correct by using positive assertions.
• Use simple statistics. Don't overwhelm your audience with confusing numbers.
• Don't complicate your speech by going outside the standard "three points" format. While it might seem simplistic, it is a tried and true method for presenting to an audience who is listening as opposed to reading.
• How to Write a Persuasive Essay
• 5 Tips on How to Write a Speech Essay
• Tips on How to Write an Argumentative Essay
• Writing an Opinion Essay
• How To Write an Essay
• 5 Steps to Writing a Position Paper
• How to Structure an Essay
• Ethos, Logos, Pathos for Persuasion
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Audience Analysis in Speech and Composition
• Definition and Examples of Analysis in Composition
• 100 Persuasive Speech Topics for Students
• What an Essay Is and How to Write One
• How to Write a Good Thesis Statement
• How to Write a Graduation Speech as Valedictorian
• How to Write a Letter of Complaint

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, , , , .

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Persuasive Speeches: Definition, Elements and Strategies

A persuasive speech is a speech intended to convince or persuade people to believe a particular point of view. This is the common definition. This definition is not complete.

Most speeches intend to make people believe a particular point of view. But they are not necessarily persuasive speeches.

Persuasive speeches do more than advertise a product. These speeches are more than educating people that one product is cheaper or better than others.

Leaders who can deliver effective persuasive speeches can make a big difference in the lives of people. Find out how you can craft and deliver inspiring solutions to people’s problems.

What is a persuasive speech?

A persuasive speech is a special speech delivered to move people to a specific action. It is crafted to create a series of yeses. A persuasive speech addresses the audience’s painful problems using powerful stories and makes emotional connections to compel people to take action.

People who want to lead or sell something will benefit from learning how to craft and deliver persuasive speeches.

Effective persuasive speeches make people buy even before you sell. A speaker who delivers persuasive speeches finds ways to help audiences solve painful problems and let them see new opportunities.

Many speakers choose to be entertaining and funny because they believe that persuasion is difficult. They do not know that persuasive speeches can be entertaining, educational, funny, and engaging.

There are easy and proven ways you can use when you prepare and deliver persuasive speeches to anyone anywhere.

In this guide, I will share with you insights on persuasive speaking. You will learn how to prepare, rehearse, and deliver speeches that move people to do what’s best for them.

Bring the Persuasive Speaker Bootcamp to Your Organization! 🎙️ Does your team have groundbreaking ideas but struggle to convey them? Elevate your leaders with the Persuasive Speaker Bootcamp, tailored to hone their speaking prowess. By bringing our program on-site, you empower your leaders to communicate with confidence, clarity, and conviction. Enhance presentations, boost team engagement, and watch as ideas turn into actionable results. Interested in transforming your team into compelling communicators? Discover the magic of persuasive speaking. Learn more about bringing the bootcamp to your organization .

Purposes of Persuasive Speeches

The ultimate purpose of a persuasive speech is to encourage the audience to “buy a solution and take action”.

A speech can have many purposes. Perhaps, it can educate, instruct, and indoctrinate. It can equip, encourage, and entertain.

A persuasive speech can be delivered for all of these purposes, but if the audience won’t take action, then the speech is not persuasive.

Let’s say that you are a speaker. You have an idea you believe will help your audience get what they dream about or erase what they hate most.

But your listeners do not know this idea (or solution). Or if they are aware of your idea, they are hesitant to use it. What would you do?

You will craft a persuasive speech and deliver it to

• convince your audience there is a big problem,
• the problem is not good for them,
• the problem is getting worse,
• there is a better alternative,
• it has many benefits,
• there are easy and proven ways to make a change,
• the audience is capable of change, and
• they only need to take the first step.

Am I making sense to you? You are not just informing your audience. You are not just entertaining them. You are not just convincing them.

You are PERSUADING them. That means you want to touch your audience’s emotions so that they will buy the solution and act on it.

To persuade is to sell. You offer a new reality, and you want people to start living in that reality. You are inspiring them to change their stories.

Persuasive speeches are not like a debate where you attempt to convince your audience that your truth has more weight than your opponent’s truth. A debate is a win-lose scenario or, sometimes, a lose-lose one.

As a persuasive speaker, you will show your audience that there is an easier, better, and faster way to win.

As a speaker, you will succeed if you focus on results and value

The purpose of a persuasive speech is to show your audience that they can get the life they want, that you know the solution, that the benefits outweigh the risk, and that they can have it now.

Kinds of Persuasive Speeches

People from various professions deliver persuasive speeches. The most common examples of persuasive speeches are sermons, motivational speeches, inspirational speeches, sales pitches, and campaign speeches.

A persuasive speech aims to inspire, influence, motivate, and compel audiences to act on problems or issues so they can ease their pain or create a new reality.

Persuasive speeches are crafted so that the audience gets a clear understanding of their problems, considers alternative solutions, picks the best solution, and makes the all-important first step.

Motivational Speeches

Motivational speeches intend to encourage audiences to start acting on their dreams. Motivational speakers use personal stories of struggles and failures to connect with audiences. They want to show that no matter how big obstacles are, we can turn them into stepping stones. They want you to do something about goals, aspirations, and dreams. If you want to become a motivational speaker, I have excellent articles for you.

Motivational Speakers: Leaders Who Move People to Action

Do managers really need to hire motivational speakers?

Inspirational speeches.

Inspirational speeches are persuasive speeches too. The speaker in inspirational speeches intends to show the value of going to your personal goals and ambitions.

You show your listeners, for example, that creating and adding value to the life of your community is excellent.

One who talks about the value of donating money for the sake of hungry children is inspired to be of service to others.

A sermon is a religious discourse delivered by a church leader. The topic can be theological or moral. A sermon is a persuasive speech where the speaker intends to show what is right and wrong — and the lifelong value of staying in the good.

Like motivational speeches, the preacher may use stories and anecdotes to drive the point. Many preachers, however, stick to quoting the scriptures. Many mega-churches have preachers celebrated for their ability to deliver persuasive sermons.

Campaign Speeches

A campaign speech contains the core message of a candidate. The speech highlights present problems and how it affects the people, the best solutions available, and why the candidate is the best person to deliver the solution.

In the Philippines, those who campaign for national positions seldom deliver campaign speeches. One president, for example, won by avoiding debates and instead using influencers who made promises they cannot deliver.

Even the admirable Chel Diokno did not use campaign speeches. On the other hand, Robin Padilla advanced the cause of Federalism during his campaign.

Politicians campaigning for office often deliver persuasive speeches. They intend to show prospective voters the future possibilities for them. They talk about what is right and wrong, what is important and what is not, and what new policies they intend to push and implement.

No wonder, most politicians sound like motivational speakers, inspirational speakers, and preachers.

Of course, many politicians choose to entertain than persuade. That’s because many voters have already decided to vote for them no matter what they say.

The charismatic Rodrigo Duterte did that in 2016. He did not persuade people; he only made jokes that his followers thought were promises.

But if you intend to become a good politician, study how to deliver inspiring campaign speeches.

Sales Pitches

Selling is a persuasive speech that typically follows Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. It may appear to many that salespeople are born that way.

In truth, many of the good ones are following a formula for persuading people to buy. The formula, unfortunately, is so good that scammers used it too to persuade people to give their money (for nothing).

You’ve likely been delivering persuasive speeches too.

You deliver persuasive speeches whenever you want someone to act on something you want them to do for you, for themselves, or for others. You just don’t have a name for it.

Persuade and Persuasion in Tagalog

Do you know what the word equivalent of “persuade” in Filipino is?

There are three words: manghimok, manghikayat, magyakag. All of these mean that you make someone take action.

We use manghimok or manghikayat when we ask someone to join a cause, a movement, or an action. Both do not mean like a lawyer convincing a court; instead, it means that you are persuading people to act or continue to suffer the status quo.

Yakag is a visual word. It means you are inviting a person to go somewhere they desire to go.

Persuasion means panghihikayat . That means that you want others to accept your ideas.

Elements of a Persuasive Speech

Here are quick ideas on how you can make persuasive speech work. If you are a motivational speaker, you will have great uses for these ideas.

You can add this to the  24 proven ways to become a successful motivational speaker .

Present the problem before the solutions.

A persuasive speech sets out the problem first, then the solution. Do this to indicate that you have listened. You are not starting a conversation but joining conversations already existing in the heads of your audience.

You begin with what’s most familiar to them: their problems.

Your solution is unknown to them. People resist listening if they don’t know what you are talking about. But if you talk about the familiar, the problems they face, you will get their attention.

Show that they have urgent needs, and there are solutions to these needs. And you are going to share with them the best solution if they care to listen.

2. Structure

Choose a solid structure.

Audiences want speeches that have a clear, simple, logical structure. A solid speech structure helps the audience see the parts of our presentation. The most effective persuasive speeches follow a problem-solution-benefit-action pattern. This structure brings your audience on a journey. They can see their transformation.

There are also other patterns we can use. Cause and effect. Definition. Classification. Inductive. Deductive. Comparative advantage. Elimination. You can study each approach and find out how each can help you deliver persuasive speeches.

3. Solutions

Identify the best solutions.

Many professional speakers have ready-made “solutions” that they sell to clients.

Think of these speeches as products that will benefit humanity.

To deliver a persuasive speech, find out which is the most painful problem of the audience your content can solve. If you cannot find a painful problem, don’t bother to speak.

Or do something else more practical.

Listen to your audience tell you their stories. Identify the problems they are facing. Gather facts. Find the best solution. Present it to them. Let them decide. Goad them to make small steps.

Okay. That last paragraph contains the steps for delivering persuasive speeches. Write them down. It works for me. It will probably work for you.

Let us know, like, and trust you. Make us believe that you understand where we are and you care about the future we want to create.

When you deliver a speech, your audience permits you to make them trust you. Sometimes, what you want your audience to do requires enormous risks. You cannot make them even the most minor step if they don’t trust you. You build trust by showing them your beliefs and values .

Persuasive speeches work when your audience trusts you. You can build trust by helping your audience solve their problems right there in the room.

Imagine that your audience has a checklist of problems, big and small.

Begin by helping them solve their small problems to gain their trust. Solve one, and they’ll be willing to give you more time.

Continue doing that until they start asking, “how can I get started?”.

Move from why to how.

A persuasive speaker takes the audience on a journey from why to how. You ought to tell people why they have to listen to you. Tell them why spending 20 minutes with you is worth it.

Unless they expect you to be the greatest entertainer, your audience won’t stay unless they know why.

In persuasive speeches, you do this when you tell them their stories, frame the problem for them, and help their thirst for change.

Then you move them to how. You will show solutions, the benefits of solutions, and make them do small steps (while in the room). The real success of a speech that persuades is when your audience no longer asks the whys but wants to know how to get started with the hows.

6. Decision.

Make the audience decide.

This advice is counter-intuitive, I know. We speak to move people to action. We design our speeches so that they’ll move people from A to B, from Why to How. Some of us might think that we know what’s best for our audience.

But our audience needs to own their action.

Respect their decision-making process.

Persuasive speaking is not coercive. You make your audience decide.

The best that you can do, while speaking, is to guide in the decision-making process.

Persuasive Strategies

Do you really want to move people to action? Do you want your speeches to resonate with your audience? You can be a high-impact persuasive speaker, but you have to do things differently.

Most speakers do not prepare for presentations. The closest they get to “preparation” is designing awesome presentation slides.

In truth, I rarely see excellent presentation slides. But that’s how it was before the pandemic.

During the pandemic, I attended many webinars where speakers are winging their presentations.

You won’t do that.

You believe that your audience deserves the best from you.

I recommend you consider these public speaking tips .

If you will not prepare, your speech is not that important. Don’t present an unimportant speech.

Here are six steps to help you prepare persuasive speeches.

Serve your audience.

Master presenters say that you have to know your audience so you can help them solve their problems. Define the persona or avatar of your audience so you will understand them.

You can use the empathy map to appreciate the world they live in and feel their fears and desires.

The best speaker can connect with their audience because they know where they are coming from.

I say, fall in love with your audience . Because if you love them, you will care enough to listen, appreciate, and help them get what they want. Most people fail in public speaking because they believe it is about them.

Make an irresistible offer.

You can come up with your USP or unique selling proposition. But it is easy to be unique. The challenge is how to become irresistible.

This is why it is crucial for us to find out what our audience needs. Our purpose is to understand what the audience desires (or avoids), how willing they are o do something (that they have not done before), what solutions they expect.

If you have no idea how you are changing the lives of your audience, you have no business speaking before them. Keep that in mind.

The first two steps are simple, but most speakers skip these steps. They spend more time spewing information.

Give the best story.

You tell them of a likable character in crucible. That character needs to make the first step on a journey that will change his life.

He is hesitant.

He does not know if he has what it takes to succeed.

But he cannot stay where he is.

You can tell a  story  about anyone. And you will allow your audience, through your account, to live under the skin of that person. Your story offers a visceral experience to your audience.

That’s because the hero of your story is not you but your audience.

You are the mentor. You will eventually disappear.

Plan your delivery.

After you have found your story, you will spend time thinking about delivering your speech. Don’t work yet on your PowerPoint Presentations. You may not need it at all.

Consider writing and rewriting your speech. Writing your speech will help you make your story visible. You will work on word choice, sequence, and tone.

Read your speech to find where the life of your story lies. Please note that reading your speech is not a rehearsal.

Involve your audience.

A persuasive speech is an animated conversation.

It is about your audience. You deliver a persuasive speech because you have something they need. Get your audience involved so you can move them to action.

Most of the speeches we know do not involve the audience. That is why most of these speeches are not persuasive. They don’t move the audience.

If you want to move your audience, you’ve got to plan to move physically. They can teach. They can play. They can solve problems together. Find as many ways to make your speech a kinesthetic experience.

Help your audience take action while in the room.

Most speeches fail because the audience does not get the opportunity to get started. They heard a story of struggle and success, but there was nothing to do.

They gave the motivational speaker a standing ovation. He was such an excellent speaker. But they don’t know what to do, how to get started when.

The best time to get started is while they are in the room. You can make your audience make small steps while you are delivering your speech. You don’t have to wait for the conclusion to make a “call to action.”

Awesome persuasive speeches move the audience to action so they can change their world. Help your audience to decide. Show how to get started. And make them start.

I offer workshops on persuasive speaking, presentation, and effective communication to companies in the Philippines.

You can get tailor-fit programs for your leaders. Explore the training programs below.

The Persuasive Speaker Bootcamp: Deliver Speeches That Move People

The Persuasive Speaker Bootcamp: Deliver Speeches That Move People Read More »

Amplify & Influence: Mastering Persuasive Presentations

Amplify & Influence: Mastering Persuasive Presentations Read More »

The CEO Speaker Bootcamp: Craft Impactful Executive Speeches

The Informative Speaker Bootcamp: Crafting Captivating Educational Talks

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17.2 Types of Persuasive Speeches

Learning objectives.

• Differentiate among the four types of persuasive claims.
• Understand how the four types of persuasive claims lead to different types of persuasive speeches.
• Explain the two types of policy claims.

Burns Library, Boston College – Maya Angelou – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Obviously, there are many different persuasive speech topics you could select for a public speaking class. Anything from localized claims like changing a specific college or university policy to larger societal claims like adding more enforcement against the trafficking of women and children in the United States could make for an interesting persuasive speech. You’ll notice in the previous sentence we referred to the two topics as claims. In this use of the word “claim,” we are declaring the goodness or positivity of an attitude, value, belief, or behavior that others may dispute. As a result of the dispute between our perceptions of the goodness of an attitude, value, belief, or behavior and the perceptions of others, we attempt to support the claim we make using some sort of evidence and logic as we attempt to persuade others. There are four common claims that can be made: definitional, factual, policy, and value.

Definitional Claims

The first common types of claims that a persuasive speaker can make are definitional or classification claims. Definitional claims are claims over the denotation or classification of what something is. In essence, we are trying to argue for what something is or what something is not. Most definitional claims falling to a basic argument formula:

X is (or is not) a Y because it has (or does not have) features A , B , or C .

For example, maybe you’re trying to persuade your class that while therapeutic massage is often performed on nude clients, it is not a form of prostitution. You could start by explaining what therapeutic massage is and then what prostitution is. You could even look at the legal definition of prostitution and demonstrate to your peers that therapeutic massage does not fall into the legal definition of prostitution because it does not involve the behaviors characterized by that definition.

Factual Claims

Factual claims set out to argue the truth or falsity of an assertion. Some factual claims are simple to answer: Barack Obama is the first African American President; the tallest man in the world, Robert Wadlow, was eight feet and eleven inches tall; Facebook wasn’t profitable until 2009. All these factual claims are well documented by evidence and can be easily supported with a little research.

However, many factual claims cannot be answered absolutely. Some factual claims are simply hard to determine the falsity or trueness of because the final answer on the subject has not been discovered (e.g., when is censorship good, what rights should animals have, when does life begin). Probably the most historically interesting and consistent factual claim is the existence of a higher power, God, or other religious deity. The simple fact of the matter is that there is not enough evidence to clearly answer this factual claim in any specific direction, which is where the notion of faith must be involved in this factual claim.

Other factual claims that may not be easily answered using evidence are predictions of what may or may not happen. For example, you could give a speech on the future of climate change or the future of terrorism in the United States. While there may be evidence that something will happen in the future, unless you’re a psychic, you don’t actually know what will happen in the future.

When thinking of factual claims, it often helps to pretend that you’re putting a specific claim on trial and as the speaker your job is to defend your claim as a lawyer would defend a client. Ultimately, your job is to be more persuasive than your audience members who act as both opposition attorneys and judges.

Policy Claims

The third common claim that is seen in persuasive speeches is the policy claim —a statement about the nature of a problem and the solution that should be implemented. Policy claims are probably the most common form of persuasive speaking because we live in a society surrounded by problems and people who have ideas about how to fix these problems. Let’s look at a few examples of possible policy claims:

• The United States should stop capital punishment.
• The United States should become independent from the use of foreign oil.
• Human cloning for organ donations should be legal.
• Nonviolent drug offenders should be sent to rehabilitation centers and not prisons.
• The tobacco industry should be required to pay 100 percent of the medical bills for individuals dying of smoking-related cancers.
• The United States needs to invest more in preventing poverty at home and less in feeding the starving around the world.

Each of these claims has a clear perspective that is being advocated. Policy claims will always have a clear and direct opinion for what should occur and what needs to change. When examining policy claims, we generally talk about two different persuasive goals: passive agreement and immediate action.

Gain Passive Agreement

When we attempt to gain the passive agreement of our audiences, our goal is to get our audiences to agree with what we are saying and our specific policy without asking the audience to do anything to enact the policy. For example, maybe your speech is on why the Federal Communications Commission should regulate violence on television like it does foul language (i.e., no violence until after 9 p.m.). Your goal as a speaker is to get your audience to agree that it is in our best interest as a society to prevent violence from being shown on television before 9 p.m., but you are not seeking to have your audience run out and call their senators or congressmen or even sign a petition. Often the first step in larger political change is simply getting a massive number people to agree with your policy perspective.

Let’s look at a few more passive agreement claims:

• Racial profiling of individuals suspected of belonging to known terrorist groups is a way to make America safer.
• Requiring American citizens to “show their papers” is a violation of democracy and resembles tactics of Nazi Germany and communist Russia.
• Colleges and universities should voluntarily implement a standardized testing program to ensure student learning outcomes are similar across different institutions.

In each of these claims, the goal is to sway one’s audience to a specific attitude, value, or belief, but not necessarily to get the audience to enact any specific behaviors.

Gain Immediate Action

The alternative to passive agreement is immediate action, or persuading your audience to start engaging in a specific behavior. Many passive agreement topics can become immediate action-oriented topics as soon as you tell your audience what behavior they should engage in (e.g., sign a petition, call a senator, vote). While it is much easier to elicit passive agreement than to get people to do something, you should always try to get your audience to act and do so quickly. A common mistake that speakers make is telling people to enact a behavior that will occur in the future. The longer it takes for people to engage in the action you desire, the less likely it is that your audience will engage in that behavior.

Here are some examples of good claims with immediate calls to action:

• College students should eat more fruit, so I am encouraging everyone to eat the apple I have provided you and start getting more fruit in your diet.
• Teaching a child to read is one way to ensure that the next generation will be stronger than those that have come before us, so please sign up right now to volunteer one hour a week to help teach a child to read.
• The United States should reduce its nuclear arsenal by 20 percent over the next five years. Please sign the letter provided encouraging the president to take this necessary step for global peace. Once you’ve signed the letter, hand it to me, and I’ll fax it to the White House today.

Each of these three examples starts with a basic claim and then tags on an immediate call to action. Remember, the faster you can get people to engage in a behavior the more likely they actually will.

Value Claims

The final type of claim is a value claim , or a claim where the speaker is advocating a judgment claim about something (e.g., it’s good or bad, it’s right or wrong, it’s beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral).

Let’s look at three value claims. We’ve italicized the evaluative term in each claim:

• Dating people on the Internet is an immoral form of dating.
• SUVs are gas guzzling monstrosities .
• It’s unfair for pregnant women to have special parking spaces at malls, shopping centers, and stores.

Each of these three claims could definitely be made by a speaker and other speakers could say the exact opposite. When making a value claim, it’s hard to ascertain why someone has chosen a specific value stance without understanding her or his criteria for making the evaluative statement. For example, if someone finds all forms of technology immoral, then it’s really no surprise that he or she would find Internet dating immoral as well. As such, you need to clearly explain your criteria for making the evaluative statement. For example, when we examine the SUV claim, if your criteria for the term “gas guzzling monstrosity” are ecological impact, safety, and gas consumption, then your evaluative statement can be more easily understood and evaluated by your audience. If, however, you state that your criterion is that SUVs are bigger than military vehicles and shouldn’t be on the road, then your statement takes on a slightly different meaning. Ultimately, when making a value claim, you need to make sure that you clearly label your evaluative term and provide clear criteria for how you came to that evaluation.

Key Takeaways

• There are four types of persuasive claims. Definition claims argue the denotation or classification of what something is. Factual claims argue the truth or falsity about an assertion being made. Policy claims argue the nature of a problem and the solution that should be taken. Lastly, value claims argue a judgment about something (e.g., it’s good or bad, it’s right or wrong, it’s beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral).
• Each of the four claims leads to different types of persuasive speeches. As such, public speakers need to be aware what type of claim they are advocating in order to understand the best methods of persuasion.
• In policy claims, persuaders attempt to convince their audiences to either passively accept or actively act. When persuaders attempt to gain passive agreement from an audience, they hope that an audience will agree with what is said about a specific policy without asking the audience to do anything to enact the policy. Gaining immediate action, on the other hand, occurs when a persuader gets the audience to actively engage in a specific behavior.
• Look at the list of the top one hundred speeches in the United States during the twentieth century compiled by Stephen E. Lucas and Martin J. Medhurst ( http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html ). Select a speech and examine the speech to determine which type of claim is being made by the speech.
• Look at the list of the top one hundred speeches in the United States during the twentieth century compiled by Stephen E. Lucas and Martin J. Medhurst and find a policy speech ( http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html ). Which type of policy outcome was the speech aimed at achieving—passive agreement or immediate action? What evidence do you have from the speech to support your answer?

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17.2 A Definition of Persuasion

Think of persuasion as a continuum or line going both directions (see Figure 13.1). Your audience members, either as a group or individually, are sitting somewhere on that line in reference to your central idea statement, or what we are going to call a proposition in this chapter. In your speech you are proposing the truth or validity of an idea, one which the audience may not find true or acceptable. Sometimes the word “claim” is used for proposition or central idea statement in a persuasive speech, because you are claiming an idea is true or an action is valuable.

For example, your proposition might be, “The main cause of climate change is human activity.” In this case you are not denying that natural forces, such as volcanoes, can affect the climate, but you are claiming that climate change is mainly due to pollution and other harmful things humans have done to the environment. To be an effective persuasive speaker, one of your first jobs after coming up with this topic would be to determine where your audience “sits” on the continuum described below.

+3 means strongly agree to the point of making lifestyle choices to lessen climate change (such as riding a bike instead of driving a car, recycling, eating certain kinds of foods, and advocating for government policy changes). +2 means agree but not to the point of acting upon it or only acting on it in small ways. +1 as mildly in favor of your proposition; that is, they think it’s probably true but the issue doesn’t affect them personally. 0 means neutral, no opinion, or feeling too uninformed to make a decision. -1 means mildly opposed to the proposition but willing to listen to those with whom they disagree. -2 means disagreement to the point of dismissing the idea pretty quickly. -3 means strong opposition to the point that the concept of climate change itself is not even listened to or acknowledged as a valid subject .

Since everyone in the audience is somewhere on this line or continuum, persuasion in this case means moving them to the right, somewhere closer to +3. Thinking about persuasion this way has three values:

• You can visualize and quantify where your audience “sits.”
• You can accept the fact that any movement toward +3 or to the right is a win.
• You can see that trying to change an audience from -3 to +3 in one speech is just about impossible. Therefore, you will be able to take a reasonable approach. In this case, if you knew most of the audience was at -2 or -3, your speech would be about the science behind climate change in order to open their minds to its possible existence. However, that audience is not ready to hear about its being caused mainly by humans or what action should be taken to reverse it.

Your instructor may have the class engage in some activity about your proposed topics in order for you to write your proposition in a way that it is more applicable to your audience. For example, you might have a group discussion on the topics or administer surveys to your fellow students. Some topics are so controversial and divisive that trying to persuade about them in class is inappropriate. Your instructor may forbid some topics or steer you in the direction of others.

You might also ask if it is possible to persuade to the negative, for example, to argue against something or try to move the audience to be opposed to something. In this case you would be trying to move your audience to the left on the continuum rather than to the right. Yes, it is possible to do so, but it might confuse the audience. Also, you might want to think in terms of phrasing your proposition so that it is favorable as well as reasonable. For example, “Elderly people should not be licensed to drive” could be replaced with “Drivers over the age of 75 in our state of should be required to pass a vision and health test every two years to renew their drivers’ licenses.” The first one is not clear (what is “elderly?”), reasonable (no license at all?), or positive (based on restriction) in approach. The second is specific, reasonable, doable, and positive.

It should also be added that the proposition is assumed to be controversial. By that is meant that some people in the audience disagree with your proposition or at least have no opinion; they are not “on your side.” It would be foolish to give a speech when everyone in the audience totally agrees with you at the beginning of the speech. For example, trying to convince your classroom audience that attending college is a good idea is a waste of everyone’s time since, for one reason or another, everyone in your audience has already made that decision. That is not persuasive.

Those who disagree with your proposition but are willing to listen could be called the target audience . These are the members of your audience on whom you are truly focusing your persuasion. At the same time, another cluster of your audience that is not part of your target audience are those who are extremely opposed to your position to the point that they probably will not give you a fair hearing. Finally, some members of your audience may already agree with you, although they don’t know why.

To go back to our original definition, “the process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people’s beliefs or actions,” and each of these purposes implies a different approach. You can think of creating as moving an audience from 0 to +1, +2, or +3. You only really “create” something when it does not already exist, meaning the audience’s attitude will be a 0 since they have no opinion. In creating, you have to first engage the audience that there is a vital issue at stake. Then you must provide arguments in favor of your claim to give the audience a basis for belief.

Reinforcing is moving the audience from +1 toward +3 in the hope that they take action (since the real test of belief is whether people act on it). In reinforcing, the audience already agrees with you but need steps and pushes (nudges) to make it action. Changing is moving from -1 or –2 to +1 or higher. In changing, you must first be credible, provide evidence for your side but also show why the audience’s current beliefs are mistaken or wrong in some way.

However, this simple definition from Lucas, while it gets to the core of “change” that is inherent in persuasion, could be improved with some attention to the ethical component and the “how” of persuasion. For that purpose, let’s look at Perloff’s (2003) definition of persuasion:

A symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behavior regarding an issue through the transmission of a message, in an atmosphere of free choice. (p. 8)

There are several important factors about this definition. First, notice that persuasion is symbolic, that is, uses language or other symbols (even graphics can be symbols), rather than force or other means. Second, notice that it is an attempt, not always fully successful. Third, there is an “atmosphere of free choice,” in that the persons being persuaded can choose not to believe or act. And fourth, notice that the persuader is “trying to convince others to change.” Modern psychological research has confirmed that the persuader does not change the audience directly. The processes that the human mind goes through while it listens to a persuasive message is like a silent, mental dialogue the audience is having with the speaker’s ideas. The audience members as individuals eventually convince themselves to change based on the “symbols” used by the speaker.

Some of this may sound like splitting hairs, but these are important points. The fact that an audience has free choice means that they are active participants in their own persuasion and that they can choose whether the speaker is successful. This factor calls on the student speaker to be ethical and truthful. Sometimes students will say, “It is just a class assignment, I can lie in this speech,” but that is not a fair or respectful way to treat your classmates.

Further, the basis of your persuasion is language; even though “a picture is worth a thousand words” and can help add emotional appeal to your speech, you want to focus on communicating through words. Also, Perloff’s definition distinguishes between “attitude” and “behavior,” meaning that an audience may be persuaded to think, to feel, or to act. Finally, persuasion is a process. Successful persuasion actually takes a while. One speech can be effective, but usually other messages influence the listener in the long run.

symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behavior regarding an issue through the transmission of a message, in an atmosphere of free choice

the members of an audience the speaker most wants to persuade and who are likely to be receptive to persuasive messages

an imagined conversation the speaker has with a given audience in which the speaker tries to anticipate what questions, concerns, or issues the audience may have to the subject under discussion

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Introduction To Persuasive Speech

Have you ever convinced your parents to let you stay up beyond your bedtime? Have you ever convinced your friend…

Have you ever convinced your parents to let you stay up beyond your bedtime? Have you ever convinced your friend to stay longer at a party? Have you ever convinced a group of professionals at a meeting of your ideas? If your answer is yes to any or all of these questions, then you’ve successfully engaged in persuasive speaking.

These persuasive speech examples indicate that we influence and convince people of our thoughts, ideas and suggestions more frequently than we realize. Persuasive speech is an important quality that the corporate world values. Curious to know more? Read on!

What Is A Persuasive Speech?

Tips for persuasive speaking at work, speak effectively with harappa.

Before we explore the meaning of persuasive speech, let’s first understand what is persuasive speaking. As the name suggests, persuasive speaking is the art of convincing someone of your viewpoint. Persuasive speech is a type of speech that helps convince the audience of a certain view. We tend to believe that we have a positive influence over others, but in reality, exerting influence isn’t always easy. Persuasive speaking skills help us become more convincing and create a true impact when we speak.

There are three elements of a persuasive speech, namely:

It refers to your character, attitude, behavior, ethics and credibility when you speak. Establishing trust with your audience and building credibility improves the likelihood of your audience accepting your viewpoints and taking necessary action.

Logos is the Greek word for logic. Your persuasive speech should have a structure, flow and logic. Choosing words wisely and backing your arguments with well-founded reasons can help in creating coherent statements that convince your audience. There should be a beginning, a middle and an end, where you conclude your viewpoints smartly.

It’s the emotional aspect of your persuasive speech. It’s only when you influence people on an emotional level that you can motivate them to see your point of view. An emotional impact is necessary for the listeners to change their thoughts and follow a particular action.

It was Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, who introduced these elements of persuasive speaking several centuries ago. They continue to hold relevance and are essential to navigate personal as well as professional relationships.

The power of persuasive speech isn’t possessed by many. However, it’s not impossible to master the art over time. Here are some key techniques that’ll help you brush up your persuasive speaking skills and win your audience over:

Have A Goal In Mind

As we’ve already established, the main motive of persuasive speaking is to convince someone of something. This is why having a goal in mind helps. It provides you with an ultimate objective and guides you in preparing your speech. For example, if you want someone to change certain workplace policies, you need to identify ways to achieve that goal. A call to action at the end of your speech can speed things up.

Know Your Audience

It’s important to identify your target audience before your speech or presentation. It’s no secret that in any group of people there will always be someone who disagrees with your suggestions. Considering multiple factors and audience expectations can help you prepare better. For example, if someone presents a counter-argument and negates your entire idea, you can respond appropriately if you are prepared.

Add Examples And Emotions

Ethos or emotional connection is a crucial aspect of persuasive speech. If you want to establish a positive connection, use anecdotes or real-life examples that help you build credibility. Appealing to the emotions of your audience also establishes trust, that is, people believe in you and think you’re reliable.

Whether it’s sharing your ideas in a brainstorming session or pitching your business idea to an investor, you need strong persuasive speaking capabilities to establish rapport and create a positive impact on your listeners. Preparation and continuous practice are instrumental in building confidence, polishing communication skills and strengthening interpersonal relationships.

It’s no secret that communication is a catalyst for establishing trust and long-term relationships. Employers value employees with strong communication and interpersonal skills as they’re helpful in navigating day-to-day exchanges with internal and external stakeholders. To do so, strong persuasion skills alone won’t suffice. You need to speak concisely and exhibit confidence.

Harappa’s  Speaking Effectively course will teach you how to deliver ideas with precision, use empathy and logic to connect with others and stand out as an effective speaker. Aristotle’s Appeals framework will teach you about ethos, logos and pathos. The Non-Verbal Cues framework will help you pay attention to your body language. Learn to speak with confidence, with Harappa!

Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as Types Of Speeches , What Is Impromptu Speech , Improve Speech Writing and How To Give Good Speech to deliver ideas with precision.

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12.2: Types of Persuasive Speeches

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Learning Objectives

• Differentiate among the four types of persuasive claims.
• Understand how the four types of persuasive claims lead to different types of persuasive speeches.
• Explain the two types of policy claims.

Burns Library, Boston College – Maya Angelou – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Obviously, there are many different persuasive speech topics you could select for a public speaking class. Anything from localized claims like changing a specific college or university policy to larger societal claims like adding more enforcement against the trafficking of women and children in the United States could make for an interesting persuasive speech. You’ll notice in the previous sentence we referred to the two topics as claims. In this use of the word “claim,” we are declaring the goodness or desirability of an attitude, value, belief, or behavior that others may dispute. As a result of the dispute between our perceptions of the desirability of an attitude, value, belief, or behavior and the perceptions of others, we attempt to persuade others by supporting our claim with some sort of evidence and logic. There are four common claims that can be made: definitional, factual, policy, and value.

Definitional Claims

The first type of claim that a persuasive speaker can make is a definitional (or classification) claim. Definitional claims are claims over the denotation or classification of what something is. In essence, we are trying to argue for what something is or what something is not. Most definitional claims fall to a basic argument formula:

Y has features A , B , and C . X is (or is not) a Y because it has (or does not have) features A , B , or C .

For example, maybe you’re trying to persuade your classmates that while therapeutic massage is often performed on nude clients, it is not a form of prostitution. You could start by explaining what therapeutic massage is and then look at the legal definition of prostitution and demonstrate to your peers that therapeutic massage does not fall into the legal definition of prostitution because it does not involve the behaviors characterized by that definition.

Factual Claims

Factual claims set out to argue the truth or falsity of an assertion. Some factual claims are simple to answer: Barack Obama is the first African American President of the United States; the tallest man in the world, Robert Wadlow, was eight feet and eleven inches tall; Facebook wasn’t profitable until 2009. All these factual claims are well documented by evidence and can be easily supported with some research.

However, many factual claims cannot be answered absolutely. It is difficult to determine the truth or falsity of some factual claims because the final answer on the subject has not been discovered (e.g., when does life begin). Probably the most historically interesting and consistent factual claim is the existence of a higher power, God, or other religious deities. The simple fact of the matter is that there is not enough evidence to clearly answer this factual claim in any specific direction.

Other factual claims that may not be easily answered using evidence are predictions of what may or may not happen. For example, you could give a speech on the future of climate change or the future of terrorism in the United States. While there may be evidence that something may happen in the future, you can't actually say with 100% certainty that it will happen in the future.

When thinking of factual claims, it often helps to pretend that you’re putting a specific claim on trial, and as the speaker it is your job to defend your claim as a lawyer would defend a client. Ultimately, your job is to be more persuasive than your audience members who act as both opposition attorneys and judges.

Policy Claims

The third type of persuasive claim is the policy claim—a statement about the nature of a problem and the solution that should be implemented. Policy claims are probably the most common form of persuasive speaking because we are surrounded by problems and people who have ideas about how to fix these problems. Let’s look at a few examples of possible policy claims:

• The United States should stop capital punishment.
• The United States should become independent from the use of foreign oil by allowing more offshore drilling off its coasts.
• The United States should make human cloning for organ donation illegal.
• The U.S. Congress should change sentencing laws so nonviolent drug offenders are sent to rehabilitation centers instead of prison.
• The U.S. Congress should require the tobacco industry to pay 100% of the medical bills for individuals dying of smoking-related cancers.
• The United States should divert the funding from United States Agency for International Development (U.S. AID) to prevent poverty in the United States rather than feeding the starving people around the world.

Each of these claims has a clear perspective that is being advocated. Policy claims will always have a clear and direct opinion on what should occur and what needs to change. When examining policy claims, we generally talk about two different persuasive goals: passive agreement and immediate action.

1) Gain Passive Agreement

When we attempt to gain the passive agreement of our audience, our goal is to get them to agree with our specific policy without asking them to do anything to enact the policy. For example, maybe your speech is on why the Federal Communications Commission should regulate violence on television like it does foul language (i.e., no violence until after 9 p.m.). Your goal as a speaker is to get your audience to agree that it is in our best interest as a society to prevent violence from being shown on television before 9 p.m., but you are not seeking to have your audience run out and call their senators or congressmen or even sign a petition. Often the first step in larger political change is simply getting a large portion of the population to agree with your policy perspective.

Let’s look at a few more passive agreement claims:

• Racial profiling of individuals suspected of belonging to known terrorist groups is a way to make the United States safer.
• Requiring U.S. citizens to “show their papers” is a violation of democracy and resembles the tactics of Nazi Germany and communist Russia.
• Colleges and universities should implement a standardized testing program to ensure student learning outcomes are similar across different institutions.

In each of these claims, the goal is to sway one’s audience to a specific attitude, value, or belief, but not necessarily to get the audience to enact any specific behaviors.

2) Gain Immediate Action

The alternative to passive agreement is immediate action or persuading your audience to start engaging in a specific behavior. Many passive agreement topics can become immediate action topics as soon as you tell your audience what behavior they should engage in (e.g., sign a petition, call a senator, vote). While it is much easier to elicit passive agreement than to get people to do something, you should always try to get your audience to act and do so quickly. A common mistake that speakers make is telling people to do something that will occur in the future. The longer it takes for people to engage in the action you desire, the less likely it is that your audience will engage in that behavior.

Here are some examples of good claims with immediate calls to action:

• College students should eat more fruit, so I am encouraging everyone to eat the apple I have provided you and start getting more fruit in your diet.
• Teaching a child to read is one way to ensure that the next generation will be stronger than those that have come before us, so please sign up right now to volunteer one hour a week to help teach a child to read.
• The United States should reduce its nuclear arsenal by 20 percent over the next five years. Please sign the letter provided encouraging the president to take this necessary step for global peace. Once you’ve signed the letter, hand it to me, and I’ll fax it to the White House today.

Each of these three examples starts with a basic claim and then tags on an immediate call to action. Remember, the faster you can get people to engage in a behavior, the more likely they actually will.

Value Claims

The final type of claim is a value claim, which is a claim where the speaker is making a judgment claim about something (e.g., it’s good or bad, it’s right or wrong, it’s beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral).

Let’s look at three value claims. We’ve italicized the evaluative term in each claim:

• Dating people on the Internet is an immoral form of dating.
• The Lincoln statue in Washington D.C. is ugly .
• It’s unfair for pregnant women to have special parking spaces at malls, shopping centers, and stores.

Each of these three claims could definitely be made by a speaker and other speakers could say the exact opposite. When making a value claim, it’s hard to ascertain why someone has chosen a specific value stance without understanding her or his criteria for making the evaluative statement. For example, if someone finds all forms of technology immoral, then it’s really no surprise that he or she would find Internet dating immoral as well. As such, you need to clearly explain your criteria for making the evaluative statement. For example, when we examine the claim about Lincoln's statue, if your criteria for the term “ugly” is its style of carving or its proportion compared to its location then your evaluative statement can be more easily understood and evaluated by your audience. If, however, you state that your criterion is that Lincoln was a bad person because of what he did to the first nation people of America, then your statement takes on a slightly different meaning. Ultimately, when making a value claim, you need to make sure that you clearly label your evaluative term and provide clear criteria for how you came to that evaluation.

Key Takeaways

• There are four types of persuasive claims. Definition claims argue the denotation or classification of what something is. Factual claims argue the truth or falsity of an assertion being made. Policy claims argue the nature of a problem and the solution that should be taken. Lastly, value claims argue a judgment about something (e.g., it’s good or bad, it’s right or wrong, it’s beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral).
• Each of the four claims leads to different types of persuasive speeches. As such, public speakers need to be aware of the type of claim they are advocating for, in order to understand the best methods of persuasion.
• In policy claims, persuaders attempt to convince their audiences to either passively accept or actively act. When persuaders attempt to gain passive agreement from an audience, they hope that an audience will agree with what is said about a specific policy without asking the audience to do anything to enact that policy. Gaining immediate action, on the other hand, occurs when a persuader gets the audience to actively engage in a specific behavior.
• Look at the list of the top one hundred speeches in the United States during the twentieth century compiled by Stephen E. Lucas and Martin J. Medhurst ( http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html ). Select a speech and examine the speech to determine which type of claim is being made by the speech.
• Look at the list of the top one hundred speeches in the United States during the twentieth century compiled by Stephen E. Lucas and Martin J. Medhurst and find a policy speech ( http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html ). Which type of policy outcome was the speech aimed at achieving—passive agreement or immediate action? What evidence do you have from the speech to support your answer?