Assignment about Persuasive Speech

 

Objectives
After completing the persuasive speech, students should be able to:
•  Identify their target audience and the areas where the target audience might be persuaded
•  Develop strategies designed to increase an oppositional audience’s support for your position 
•  Make language choices that appeal to an oppositional audience
•  Extemporize a speech in a lively manner
 
Description
The persuasive speech asks you to persuade members of your audience who disagree with you on a topic of genuine public controversy.  These controversies can range from the local, to the regional, to the national and international.  What is important is that you speak to an issue that affects the public as a collective and is debated publicly.  We will discuss public forum topics more in class.  
 
The purpose of this speech is to persuade, not simply to argue.  You might be able to develop a perfectly logical argument that is wholly unpersuasive to an audience.  Persuading audience members that disagree with you requires that you think about why they disagree with you, identify areas where these audience members can be moved, and speak to those areas in a way that highlights your shared interests.  It is doubtful that you will be able to covert some or all the oppositional members in your audience in a 6-8 minute span, but you can begin to weaken their commitment to their original position and better understand and sympathize with your position.  Remember that your credibility plays an important role in persuading audiences; as such, you must deal with oppositional arguments in a fair and convincing way.  Good persuaders do not ignore the opposition, nor do they simply attack the opposition, they engage opposition’s arguments in an even-handed way. 
 
Basic Requirements
In addition to persuading your audience, the persuasive speech must satisfy the following requirements: 
•  Public Forum Topic: You must speak to a topic that affects us as a public and is debated publicly.  See your textbook 442-443 for a description of public forums.  In selecting a public forum topic, you must select an issue that has reasonable pro and con arguments.  You should not speak to a topic that everyone agrees on; rather, you need to select issues that demand genuine persuasion. 
  
•  Persuasiveness:  You are attempting to weaken your audience members’ support for the opposing case.  You need to develop arguments that are designed to sway audience members who may initially disagree with your position.  #p#分頁標題#e#
 
•  Time: The speech should run 6-8 minutes.  Your assignment grade will be lowered by 5 points for every 45 seconds you speak under or over the target time range. 
 
•  Notes: You must deliver the speech extemporaneously.  That means, the speech should not be memorized or scripted.  You may put a keyword outline of your speech on standard 3x5 notecards.  However, you should not read or rely heavily on these notes. 
 
•  Sources: You must orally cite a minimum of three sources.  Two of your sources must be available in print (in other words, you can only cite one web source).  Your evidence should clearly support your arguments and you should explain the inference.  You should include a variety of evidence (statistics, examples, testimony, etc.).  
 
•  Visual Aid: You cannot use a visual aid for this speech.