HOW TO GIVE A PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Lecture 5
Business Communication

Instructor: Syeda Nitashah

syedanitashah@uosahiwal.edu.pk
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 Learning Objectives
1. To understand what is persuasive.
2. To learn how to make persuasive speech .
3. To learn about barriers to effective listening.
4. To know the ethical communication.

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 What is a persuasive speech?

Persuasive speaking requires you to effectively:

• Convince your audience to believe as you do

• Influence your audience in order to cause
some sort of directed action to take place
 In your persuasive speech, you should:

• Awaken a belief on the part of your listeners

that what you are proposing is a good idea.
• Show the audience that you have a well-
thought-out plan of action available.
• Convince your audience that your plan of
action is realistic and is the right thing to do.
 A persuasive speech asks your audience to
“buy” a:
• Product
• Belief
• Attitude
• Idea
 Analyzing your Audience:
• Age, economic status, gender, political views,
religion, group size, and attitude influence the
reaction to your speech
• The audience’s mood could range from very
positive to very negative
 Audience Categories:

• A supportive audience is friendly and

probably likes and agrees with you.
• Although you may not have to sell yourself to
a supportive audience, you still need to
present your material thoroughly.
• An uncommitted audience is neutral and
stands a good chance of being persuaded.
• You simply need to inform them in a thorough
and interesting presentation in order to get
them to make up their minds.
• An indifferent audience is more difficult to persuade
because they are apathetic toward you and your
subject. They may even be a resentful, captive
audience.
• Your job is to show the indifferent audience how your
message applies to their lives. You may have to shock
them into paying attention.
• Be dynamic in your delivery and show the listeners
that what you are “selling” is important and has a
direct bearing on their personal well-being.
• An opposed audience is hostile to you, to what you
are promoting, or both.
• Your objective should be to get a fair hearing.
• Show that you are willing to compromise or make
concessions.
• Let the audience know that you know how they feel
and see merit in their side.
• Consider using a disclaimer that tells the listeners
that you aren’t perfect and don’t consider yourself
the “all-knowing expert”.
• Avoid confrontation and create a situation where
there are no winners or losers. Win-win
 Appealing to your audience:
• Aristotle, in his book Rhetoric, stated that the
persuasive powers of a speaker depend on his
reasoning, the emotions that he is able to stir
in his listeners, and his character.
• In other words, a speaker’s success is the
result of his use of logical appeal, ethical
appeal, emotional appeal, and personal
appeal.
 Logical Appeal:
• Present a well-organized speech that contains
solid reasoning and valid evidence.
• Logical appeal satisfies the analytical side of
your audience and says to them, “I want this
to make sense to you!”
• You must make the audience see how this
topic is important to them because it applies
to their lives.
 Ethical Appeal:
• Show your audience the rightness or
wrongness of situation. How is it good or bad?
• Ethical appeal emphasizes the “humanity” of
your argument. It shows the listener how he
should believe if he is humane.
 Emotional Appeal:
• People would like to think that they make decisions based on
reason. The truth is, however, that most people rely on their
feelings as much-or more than-their reason.
• Emotional appeal aims for the heart.
• It involves striking a chord in people’s insides and exciting
their feelings of love, anger, sorrow, compassion, fear, disgust,
patriotism, etc.
• Your attitude as you deliver your words contributes to tone,
which contributes to the emotional appeal. This includes both
your verbal delivery and your nonverbal delivery.
 Personal Appeal:
• Having personal appeal means that you relate to your
audience, with a personal anecdote, or at least in your
demeanor. Your listeners need to be able to trust you because
you have their best interests at heart.
• People are attracted to honesty. If you are honest, you tell the
truth and exhibit personal integrity, or a strong sense of right
and wrong.
• Competency means capability. If you are competent, you can
get the job done, have a solid work ethic, and value being
prepared.
• Speaking with composure, in a calm, controlled manner, says
to your audience that you are in charge of the situation.
 References
• Murphy & Hilderbrant (1991) Effective Business
Communication, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill 2.
Raymond V. Lesikar (1996) Business Communication,
Richard D. Irwin, Inc. 3. Bovee & Thill (1995)
Business Communication Today, 4th Edition,
• McGraw-Hill 4. Shirley Taylor (1994) Communication
for Business-A Practical Approach 2nd Edition,
Pitman Publishing

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THANK YOU

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ANY QUESTIONS !!
Contact me at syedanitashah@uosahiwal.edu.pk

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