Persuasive Speech Tips

• Gain attention and interest. Try a quote? Try humor(see below)? Shock or startle? ("Before this speech is finish, 5 recent students will have lost jobs in the new depression.") Try a direct question? ("What sort of internet addict are you?") Stress a key word or symbol? (Get dialog going on the symbolic meaning of the logo?)
• Try humor, depending on the overall purpose of the presentation. Old editions of Readers Digest are great sources since the material is clean and people will probably have forgotten the jokes.
• Establish your credibility early
• Demonstrate audience analysis and understanding. Make relevant, direct contact with audience - why does it matter?
• Preview main points? (an arguments can be made that solutions shouldn't emerge until at least half way through your speech in order to avoid having your position pre-judged)
• Create cognitive dissonance. Your audience must feel involved in the problem before they'll be moved to accept a solution
• Make effective transitions between ideas
• Demonstrate enthusiasm and/or passion
• Provoke thought through questions
• Construct a logical case with evidence in support of what you're trying to sell
• Avoid verbal fillers/disfluency
• Close with a memorable summary, perhaps request a specific act or action from the audience . Be declarative, maybe firm and demanding in your close.

What do we mean by persuasive speaking?
Persuasive speaking urges us to do something. Informative speaking, on the other hand, reveals and clarifies options. Informative speakers teach. Persuasive speakers lead, evoke emotions and ask for audience commitment. Sometimes persuasive speeches are aimed at earning passive agreement, as in persuading an audience of the importance of some policy, value, or service. At other times, persuasive speeches aim for personal action, as in getting people to join an organization, buy a product or service, or support a cause.

Methods of Persuasion
People have been trying to influence one another for a long time. Maybe one of the most articulate early speakers was the Greek Philosopher Aristotle. His ideas are as relevant today as they were when he was teaching at the Lyceum around 300 B.C. He thought there were basically three ways to influence people:

• Credibility -- "ethos".  Sometimes we believe something simply because we trust the person telling us. You want to look like you know what you're talking about.
• Emotional appeal -- "pathos". Sometimes we do things because of a "gut feeling" or an appeal to our emotions, whether those of compassion or fear. Advertisers make great headway tweaking our concerns about what others might think about us.
• Rational appeal -- "logos". Providing good reasons is important. Providing evidence and reasoning are a strong part of the persuasive process.

Appealing to logic may be the hardest of the three sources of influence for the speaker to use. What's important here is the development of relevant "support material". Three types of support material commonly used include examples, statistics, and testimony.

Examples are useful in clarifying, reinforcing, or personalizing ideas. These could involve case studies or anecdotal examples &emdash; slices of life to prove the point. Ethically, you should help your audience gauge the credibility of your sources, the representativeness of examples and samples, etc. Using examples without other types of support material can come across as weak evidence.

Statistics can help. Combing them with examples can be powerful. Using too many statistics can be deadly. You should qualify the sample, translate the statistics that you use so the audience can understand fairly. Relevant visual display of statistics can be a powerful aid in making an argument.

Personal testimony can also provide dramatic support material. Testimony can give emotional life to the issues you're focusing on. You should of course quote or paraphrase accurately and fairly, identify and qualify the source's credentials.

A common pattern used in formulating persuasive speeches is called "Monroe's Motivated Sequence". Though particularly appropriate when you're seeking a commitment to personal action, the suggested sequence can provide good structural ideas for any sort of persuasive presentation. The five parts identified in the sequence below include: Attention, Need, Satisfaction, Visualization, Action; but only three main points. For fun, I'll illustrate the points around an appeal for MHR students to join and support PIHRA.

ATTENTION
In the Introduction…

A. A scenario of a recent graduate who cannot get hired to a position in Human Resources requiring "experience" and evidence of community involvement and leadership. Maybe in the form of a letter or quote from the student?

NEED:
I. Students seeking careers in HR often have a problem.

A. Every year many jobs are available, but require appropriate internship experiences as a bare minimum.
B. Only a small number of graduating seniors in MHR have career-oriented professional experience.

SATISFACTION:
II. If more students had solid internship experiences, professional success of graduates would be multiplied.

A. Involvement in PIHRA is a sound resume item in the eyes of employers.
B. PIHRA students meet monthly with regional professionals in order to develop networks and identify opportunities.

VISUALIZATION:
III. With an internship you'll be able to launch one of the most exciting careers that a young person in business can have.

A. Let's look again at the opening scenario and see if you can really afford to continue with the non-professional employment you have.
B. Statistics show that MHR graduates who prepare well launch professional careers, and that after about five years of on-the-job growth are prepared for major career steps.

ACTION:
In the conclusion…

Call to the audience to join PIHRA and share in helping to develop internship learning opportunities for MHR students.