Persuasion

The Speech that Made Barack Obama

President
Persuasion is

1. Bring your audience to believe

as you do

2. Influence your audience to take

action
Where or when do you
use persuasion in your
life?
 Where does persuasion take place?

 You wish to convince your parents that you should be able to attend
a local concert.

 You want to convince your teacher that more time is needed to

complete a class project.

 You wish to show your friends that drinking and driving do not add
up to an intelligent way to have a good time.
Science of Persuasion
What is Persuasion?

• Presenting the "Argument“

• The goal of argument is to win acceptance of one's ideas.

• Modern argumentation theory has roots in Greek and Roman thinking

(Aristotle).

• We judge evidence, investigate carefully, state ideas accurately, and listen

critically
A persuasive speech is a presentation that aims to change others by
prompting them to think, feel, or act differently.

• Change people’s attitudes

• Change the strength towards or against people,

policies, or ideas

• Change how people act

Characteristics of Persuasive Speech

• Persuasive speaking is “interactive.” An engagement

between a speaker and a listener

• Persuasion is NOT the same as coercion, or force. Not

force them to do; be artistic

• Persuasive impact is usually gradual, or incremental.

Characteristics of Persuasive Speech

• 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.

• Be able to convince your audience that your plan of action is realistic and the
right thing to do.

• Be able to “push the right buttons,” or know your audience.

Characteristics of Persuasive Speech

Three basic strategies used in persuasion:

1. Appeal to reason

2. Appeal to audience emotion

3. Appeal to audience needs

Characteristics of Persuasive Speech

Speakers should also consider the following:

• What goal are you trying to achieve?

• What values, attitudes, and beliefs will you encounter in the audience?
• What attitudes and beliefs are you trying to alter?
• What action (e.g., read the newspaper every day) or non-action (do not smoke) should the
audience take? What type of reasoning will you use?
• What other appeals might you use?
• How will you convince the audience you know what you are talking about?
• How will you begin and end the speech with strong arguments?
 Persuasion to change

 People might change their behavior if the proposition asks for a small change rather than a
large change in their lives (e.g., trying one vegetarian meal rather than becoming total
vegetarians).

 People may consider changing their behavior if the change will benefit them more than it will
cost them. Consider the costs in terms of money, time commitment, energy, and skill.

 People will change their behavior if the change meets their needs.

 People will agree if change is approached gradually. Start with arguments the audience will
find most acceptable and move to more difficult arguments.
Analyze your audience

Once you determine what kind of audience you have on your issue you need to figure out how to persuade
them.

• Supportive audience: you start with their support

EX: president, no school

• Uncommitted audience: neutral

EX: jury, extending life expectancy

• Indifferent audience: have to get them to pay attention

EX: a student who wants to drop out and you have to convince them its important, Sarah getting a
new cell phone

• Opposed audience: against you before you start

EX: giving a speech about cell phones to the principal, more homework
Julian Treasure – How to speak so that people
want to listen
Julian Treasure – 5 Ways to listen better
 Who is Aristotle?

• Aristotle - (384-322 BCE) Greek philosopher and scientist

• Most notable product of the educational program devised by Plato.

• Philosophized about existence & challenged Plato’s thinking

• Wrote on an amazing range of subjects, from logic, philosophy, and

ethics to physics, biology, psychology, politics, and rhetoric.

 Logic was designed for science “for the purpose of attaining the
truth”
 What is rhetoric?

• Rhetoric is the art of persuasion.

• The goal of persuasion is to change

others’ point of view or to move others
to take action.
Rhetorical Chart

Author’s
Purpose

Logos Ethos Pathos

The core of the rhetorical chart is purpose — What does the

author/speaker/cartoonist/filmmaker/advertiser want the
reader/listener/viewer to: Feel? Think? Do?
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
 ETHOS, PATHOS, and LOGOS

• Ethos: the source's credibility, the speaker's/author's authority

• Pathos: the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language

and numerous sensory details.

• Logos: the logic used to support a claim (induction and deduction); can also be the
facts and statistics used to help support the argument.
Ethos: ETHICS (Creditability)

“The perceived personal character of the speaker”

Listeners think or perceive that:

• you have integrity, credibility
• you can be trusted
• you have goodwill toward them
• you know what you’re talking about
• you are committed to the topic (show enthusiasm and be
dynamic)
Ethos: ETHICS (Creditability)

• Greek for ‘character’

• To make the audience decide right or wrong about what is being presented to it
• Political issues, national beliefs, religious issues, etc…
• Demonstrates author's reliability, competence, and respect for the audience's ideas and values through
reliable and appropriate use of support and general accuracy
• Convince your audience that you are fair, honest, and well informed. 
• They will then trust your values and intentions.
• Citing your sources will help this area.
Ethos: ETHICS (Creditability)

• Honesty: Your audience is looking for you to have a strong sense of right
and wrong. If you have a good reputation with this, people are more
likely to listen to you.

• Competency: Capable of getting the job done.

• Energy: Through nonverbals like eye contact and gestures, and a strong
voice and inflections, a speaker will come across as charismatic.
Types of Credibility

1. Initial credibility = expertise and trustworthiness listeners recognize BEFORE

a presentation (based on positions, achievements, experiences)

2. Derived credibility = expertise and trustworthiness listeners recognize as a

result of how speakers communicate during a presentation

3. Terminal credibility = credible speakers have at the end of a presentation

(cumulative expertise, goodwill, and trustworthiness listeners recognize in a
speaker)
 How to build your creditability?

• Does the audience respect you?

• Does the audience believe you are of good character?
• Does the audience believe you are generally trustworthy?
• Does the audience believe you are an authority on this speech topic?
• Keep in mind that it isn’t enough for you to know that you are a credible source.
(This isn’t about your confidence, experience, or expertise.) Your audience must
know this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived by your audience.
• What other credibility does the author build into the argument? Does the author
supplement his/her authority with someone else’s as well?
 How to build your creditability?

1. State your qualification

2. Show that you care about listeners
3. Appeal to listeners’ emotions
4. Reason carefully
5. Use effective and ethical supporting materials
6. Use verbal and nonverbal communication to show that you care about the topic
 How to build your creditability?

7. Respond to questions with open-mindedness and fairness

8. Dress up to show you’re serious
9. Be prepared and organized
10. Do your research and use it in your speech
11. Eye contact
12. Relate to your audience (in your speech)
 Examples of Ethos

"If, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of

temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or
revived someone's fears, that was not my truest self. If there were occasions
when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please
forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart. My head--so limited
in its finitude; my heart, which is boundless in its love for the human family.
I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the
odds.“

(Jesse Jackson, Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, 1984)

Pathos: EMOTION

• Greek for ‘suffering’ or ‘experience’

• To make the audience feel something about what is presented to it
• Children, animals, illness, memories, etc…
• “Tugs at your heart strings”
o Evokes an emotional response
o Appeals to the heart, Emotions, Sympathy, Passions, Sentimentality
• Uses imagery, figurative language,
• Carefully constructed sentences
Pathos: EMOTION

• “Emotional reasons to believe in something”

• Listeners need to not only understand your ideas but also feel
something about them.
• How?:
o Personalize the issue problem, topic
o Appeal to listeners’ needs and values
o Bring material alive
Pathos: EMOTION

A carefully reasoned argument will be strengthened by an emotional appeal,

especially love, anger, disgust, fear, compassion, and patriotism.

“Feeling” the speech

EX: If you loved me you would do this.

EX: Persuading lower gas prices might want some anger in the current prices or the
frustration in nothing being done about it.

EX: Ads that try to get you to sponsor a child.

How to appeal to emotion?

• Do your words evoke feelings of … love? … sympathy? … fear?

• Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? … envy?
• Does your characterization of the competition evoke feelings of hate? contempt?
• • Emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker:
• Stories
• Anecdotes
• Analogies
• Similes
• Metaphors
• All used to link an aspect of our primary message with a triggered emotional response from the
audience.
How to appeal to emotion?

Questions for considering a speaker’s pathos:

• Does the topic matter to the audience?
• Does the speaker include anecdotes?
• Does the speaker appeal to your emotions, memories, fears, etc.?
• Is the emotional appeal effective or overwhelming?
• Is the speech overloaded with facts and figures?
Example of Pathos

Hillary Clinton used a moment of brilliantly staged emotion to

win the New Hampshire Democratic primary . . .. As she
answered questions in a diner on the morning before the
election, Mrs. Clinton's voice began to waver and crack when
she said: 'It's not easy. . . . This is very personal for me.'
Logos: LOGIC

• Greek for ‘word’

• To make the audience think about what is presented to it
• Statistics, facts, authorities, etc…
• Very straightforward, and not “fluff”. It has a very scientific, factual approach.
• EFFECT: Evokes a cognitive, rationale response
• Involves facts or
oResearch
oQuoted authorities
oCause and Effect information
oAnalogies or comparisons
oCommon sense information
oShared values
oPrecedents
How can you appeal to Logic?

• Does your message make sense?

• Is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?
• Will your call-to-action lead to the desired outcome that you
promise?
Logos: LOGIC

“Rational or logical proofs”

Support your reasons with proof:

 Facts - can be proven.
 Expert opinions or quotations
 Definitions - statement of meaning of word or phrase
 Examples - powerful illustrations
 Anecdote - incident, often based on writer's personal experiences
 Present opposition - and give reasons and evidence to prove the opposition
wrong
Logos: LOGIC

• Logical proofs = arguments, reasoning, and evidence to

support claims

• Evidence = examples, testimony, statistics, analogies, visual

aids, and etc.
 Logos: LOGIC

Examples:

• Useful in clarifying, reinforcing, or personalizing ideas.

• Involve case studies or anecdotal examples: 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.
Logos: LOGIC

Statistics

 Offer scientific support

 Combining 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
Logos: LOGIC

Testimony

 Can also provide dramatic support material

 Testimony can give emotional life to the issues you're focusing on
 You should quote or paraphrase accurately and fairly, identify and
qualify the source's credentials
Example of Logos

Rational choice theory in political science has made much of the fact
that it is seemingly irrational to vote in a large-scale election. This is
because the probability that your single vote will determine the outcome
is generally very close to zero, while the act of voting entails some small
but real costs. Even in a close election like Florida in 2000, an
individual’s vote would really “count” only if the margin of victory was
exactly one vote.
 Logos: LOGIC – Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning
Reason which begins with specifics and moves toward a generalization is inductive. 

Example:  Several clubs have reported difficulty completing their business during
lunch period.  This proves that lunch periods should be longer.

Example: You have never had problems with your Honda and it’s 15 years old. Your
neighbor has a Honda and has not had a problem for the first 50,000 miles. Thus,
you reason that Hondas are reliable and good cars.
Inductive examples

 You have never had problems with your Honda and it’s 15 years old. Your
neighbor has a Honda and has not had a problem for the first 50,000 miles.
Thus, you reason that Hondas are reliable and good cars.

 If he did his homework (specific), then the whole class has done their
homework (general).

 My cat is easy to take care of (specific), therefore all cats must be easy to take
care of (general).
 Logos: LOGIC – Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning
Reason which starts with a general observation and moves to specifics is deductive.
A=B, B=C, THEN C=A 

Example:

1. All students (A) go to school (B).

2. You (C) are a student (A).
3. Therefore, you (C) go to school (B).
 Deductive examples

 When people hurry, inefficiency and poor communication are the results.  Under current
conditions clubs must hurry at lunch time meetings.  Therefore, lunch period should be
lengthened to allow for better club meetings.

 You need to pass OC. to graduate. You need to do your informative and persuasive speech to
pass OC. Therefore, you must do your persuasive and informative speech to graduate.

 If the class is going on a fieldtrip (general), then Tom must be going too (specific).

 The law says you must wear a helmet when riding a bike (general). Therefore, Jimmy must be
wearing a helmet when he rides a bike (specific).
 Should persuasive writing have more than one
appeal?

Yes! The more appeals used, the

more likely the reader will
connect with it.
 Ethos, Pathos, or Logos?

"I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the
Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also
renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons
and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st
century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and
disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best
hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who
yearn for a better future."
Democratic Presidential Candidate Acceptance Speech by
Barack Obama. August 28th, 2008.
 Ethos, Pathos, or Logos?

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you
have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest --
quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police
brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned
suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go
back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing
that somehow this situation can and will be changed."

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.

August 28th, 1963
Ethos, Pathos, or Logos?

"However, although private final demand, output, and employment have indeed been growing for
more than a year, the pace of that growth recently appears somewhat less vigorous than we expected.
Notably, since stabilizing in mid-2009, real household spending in the United States has grown in the
range of 1 to 2 percent at annual rates, a relatively modest pace. Households' caution is
understandable. Importantly, the painfully slow recovery in the labor market has restrained growth in
labor income, raised uncertainty about job security and prospects, and damped confidence. Also,
although consumer credit shows some signs of thawing, responses to our Senior Loan Officer Opinion
Survey on Bank Lending Practices suggest that lending standards to households generally remain
tight."

The Economic Outlook and Monetary

Policy by Ben Bernanke. August 27th,
2010
Logic isn’t always right. Sometimes persuasion is used that is faulty with the hope that the listener will not catch the
illogic.

Faulty Logic
As a consumer you must watch
for faulty logic.
 Faulty Logic

1. Causal : making a connection because one event follows another.

2. Bandwagon: suggesting that because everyone believes something or does something, it must be
valid, accurate, or effective.
EX: Everybody knows that taxes are too high.

3. Either-or: oversimplifying an issue as offering only 2 choices.

EX: solution is either getting portables or raising money

4. Hasty Generalization: reaching a conclusion without adequate supporting evidence.

EX: One person fails the math test & that means the test was too hard.
 Faulty Logic

5. Personal Attack: name-calling

EX: “She’s just a republican.”

6. Red Herring: irrelevant facts or information used to distract from the issue.
EX: in a speech to address ID problems, the speaker talks about the danger of guns

7. Appeal to Misplaced Authority: using someone without the appropriate credentials or

expertise to endorse an idea or product.
EX: Mrs. Miller endorsing football

8. Non Sequitur: an idea or logic that doesn’t follow the previous idea or conclusion.
EX: arguing that students should give blood because it is final exam week
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Whether your purpose is to affect attitude or behavior,

you must provide motivation, an incentive for your
audience to believe or act in a certain way.
 What motivates you to:

• Why do you come to school?

• Why do you say no to drugs?
• Why do you exercise everyday?
• Why do you refuse to take notes in class?
• Why do you listen to what your parents tell you to do?
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Sometimes the motivation is fear.

Sometimes it’s the possibility of a reward.
In many instances, you do something because the behavior
satisfies a need or desire.
Whatever the case may be, you wouldn’t have changed without it.
Thus, when trying to persuade people you need to appeal to what
motivates them.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

1.Physiological Need
2.Safety Need
3.Love/Belonging Need
4.Esteem Need
5.Self-Actualization Need
 1. Physiological Need

• Those things that keep a person alive.

• Examples: food, water, shelter, sleep
 2. Safety Need

• Involve one’s well-being or sense of security.

• Safety might need to be felt in physical, family,
health, money, etc.
• Examples: It’s hard to fall asleep until you know the
front door is locked.
 3. Belongingness Need

• Involve wanting to have friends or to be loved by

others
• Example: Everyone needs human contact.
Everyone needs to feel accepted by others.
 4. Self-esteem Need

• Refers to the feelings people have about themselves.

• People need to like themselves.
• Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect
and to respect others.
 5. Self-Actualization Need

• The final level of need, means realizing your full

potential.
• It is the instinctual need of humans to make the
most of their unique abilities.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

1. Physiological Need
2. Safety Need
3. Love/Belonging Need
4. Esteem Need
5. Self-Actualization Need
Monroe’s Motivational Sequence

For the Persuasive Speech

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
A five-step process

1.Attention
2.Need
3.Satisfaction
4.Visualization
5.Action
Step 1 -- Attention

• Get the attention of the audience

• Relate to the audience
• Show the importance of your topic
• Use a startling opening
• Arouse curiosity
• Stories, visual aids
Example – Attention Step

• Imagine feeling tired, lethargic, and depressed

every day
• Now imagine waking each day feeling strong
and happy
• You can feel this way by eating properly and
reducing fast food and junk food from your
life
Step 2 -- Need

• Establish a need for change--state it clearly

• Illustrate with supporting materials
• Relate it to values / vital concerns of audience
• Prime audience to listen to your solution
Example – Need Step

• You need to eat correctly to save your life

• You are at risk of
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Shortened life
Step 3 -- Satisfaction

• Offer a solution to the issue

• Offer a plan for success
• Provide details
Example – Satisfaction Step

• You can join WeightWatchers™

• You can exercise daily
• It will reduce your desire for junk food
Step 4 -- Visualization

• Intensify desire by visualizing benefits

• Use vivid language and imagery
• Show what audience will get from it
• Demonstrate how they will profit
Example – Visualization Step

• Visualize a new you…able to keep up with the

children
• Visualize you being able to play your favorite
sport
• Visualize being stronger by dropping the fast
food and junk food
Step 5 – Action

• Encourage a specific call to action

• Explain what they need to do and how to do it
• Stirring appeal that reinforces commitment to
act
Example – Action Step

• Encourage your audience to join a diet

organization
• Challenge your audience to go one-week
without eating any junk or fast food