A persuasive speech is delivered for the purpose of persuading the listeners to believe the speaker’s words to or do something. This speech needs to make the audience agree that the presented point of view is right and the speaker has deep knowledge about the theme he’s talking about.
Let’s see how to impress folks and make them believe you. That’s an ancient art but anybody can master it.
Ideas for your performance
There are a lot of resources online where you can get brilliant ideas for your convincing speech. However, your preparation for it is far more crucial than even the richest choice of topics to talk about.
As a rule, these topics are thought-provoking and a great number of folks already have a firm point of view on it. However, with deep knowledge of the subject and strong arguments, don’t worry that somebody might not share your point of view.
These are typical ideas for a persuasive speech:
- One can justify telling lies.
- Driving at the age of 80 can’t be justified. It’s a violation of the law, isn’t it?
- The case for organ donation.
- Facebook bears responsibility for making folks socially anxious.
- All schoolchildren should wear a uniform.
Preparing an oration
First, the speaker requires thinking about what she/he’s actually eager to achieve with his performance. It will help her/him to get organized since she/he won’t manage to cover more than four key points before the listeners get bored.
Besides this, one needs to know who intends to listen to the speech. The spokesman needs to consider their:
- Beliefs;
- Interests;
- Hopes;
- Gender;
- Baseline attitude;
- Concerns;
- Religious and cultural background;
- Age.
These factors should determine your approach to the speech. For instance, if your topic has to do with childhood obesity, it makes sense to start with a story about your own kids. Your listeners are most probably parents so this approach should work.
Harangue structure
From the very beginning, you should gain their attention. For this purpose, you should use a strong opening that can make an emotional response. For example, when talking about childhood obesity, you may start by telling that all Americans may die of junk food soon.
Try including your listeners in the picture depicted by you. Once they feel themselves part of that scene, you’ll manage to exploit a strong emotional connection with the audience.
Rolling out your argument
The speaker should pick 2-4 themes to illustrate during her/his performance so that she/he could have enough time to have the point of view explained and persuade the listeners.
The speech requires a logical flow with smooth transitions between points. The argument of the orator requires the support of serious research and not from a subjective point of view.
Handling counter-arguments
Counter-arguments are inevitable, so the applicant should address them. If you manage to debunk the listener’s objections, the persuasion will become reality.
When illustrating an opposing opinion, avoid explaining it in a biased way. Instead, the author requires explaining it as if somebody sharing this opinion would present it. Thus, you will not initiate those who don’t agree with you.
Concluding your oration
The final part of the oration deserves special attention as the last opportunity to have the speaker’s listeners persuaded in the trueness of the spokesperson’s stance. Try to conclude it with a sentence that could remain in their memory.
A call to action – that’s what a good convincing speech needs to end up with. For instance, if the speech has to do with organ donation, a logical approach here is to encourage the listeners to become donors at the end of the speech.
Perhaps, they will ask you a number of questions and it’s quite natural especially if your speech has been successful. Get ready to respond with great respect. When answering their questions, the speaker needs to stay friendly, polite, and patient.
