This document provides an overview and agenda for Lesson 11 on persuasive speaking. It discusses Aristotle's appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos. It defines persuasion and discusses strategies for establishing credibility and adapting messages to audiences. Fallacies, organizational patterns, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model for processing persuasive messages are also outlined. Activities are included to help identify persuasive techniques and debate topics from different perspectives.

1. LESSON 11: PERSUASIVE
SPEAKING
+Panopto Video with Ms. Rouse
COM 124-001

2. Agenda:
 Refresher of past content
 Lesson 11: Persuasive Speaking
 Activities

3. Refresher of the rhetorical situation:
Audience: captive vs voluntary
Occasion: Ceremonial, Deliberative, Forensic
Speaker: Ethos, Logos, Pathos (quality of the speaker)
Speech: Preparation Outline & Presentation Outline (organizational patterns)

4. Aristotle’s
Appeals:
Ethos = speaker’s credibility as perceived
by the audience
Pathos = appealing to your audience’s
emotions
Logos = speech is well structured and
argued logically
“Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion” Mike Baker, Aalto University School of Business

5. The importance of ethos:
Personalize
information & give
personal examples
1
Use emotions and
empathize
2
Show you care about
the audience by
acknowledging their
feedback
3
Explain your
competency and
weave throughout
4
Use evidence to
support all claims
from respected
sources
5
Use nonverbal
delivery to enhance
credibility
6
In persuasion, you should strive for your terminal credibility to be higher than your initial credibility.
How do you do this?:

6. Activity:
Think about a situation where you were convinced to do something that you did not
want to do or you were convinced to not do something. What strategies did that
person use to convince you? (Ethos? Etc.)
Remember how we discussed in class your tactics change depending on your
audience. Example: you wouldn’t ask your mom for money the same way you would
ask your dad, or grandparent, aunt/uncle, etc.

7. Lesson 11: Persuasive Speaking
The goal of informative is to teach; Persuasive is to lead.
 Common misconception: Persuasion is lying or deceit.
 Actuality: Persuasion is a logical and well supported argument.
 Persuasion is “the process of influencing other people’s attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors”
(Sellnow,2005, p. G5).

8. Lesson 11: cont.
 Adapt your message to your audience’s needs
 Be sure to clearly explain what that need is
 Sometimes the need is unclear or something your audience hasn’t considered

9. Lesson 11: cont.
 Never hide your intentions or the truth (more in lesson 12)
 Try to avoid any fallacies
 Consider:
“Does my argument have any errors in reasoning?”
 Without valid reasoning, the argument has errors (or fallacies)

10. Lesson 11: Fallacies
Be sure to understand the different fallacies in lesson 11.
Try to determine which fallacy is being used for each:
◦ To voters: How can you accept my opponent’s position about college admission standards when
she has been divorced?
◦ War kills.
◦ Helping the people of Haiti today will force the United States to help other countries in the
Caribbean and around the world.
◦ The only reason teens are violent today is because they play violent video games.
◦ My massage therapist said that the best car to buy now is a Toyota.

11. Lesson 11: Call to Action
 Every persuasive speech needs a call to action within it
 Although we’re asking the audience to do something or think differently about
something, we are striving for: Incremental change.
 Perloff’s (2008) defines persuasion “as a symbolic process in which communicators
try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviors regarding an
issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice” (p. 17).

12. When adapting your
persuasive message to your
audience, think of it this way:
BELIEFS become
based on VALUES.

13. Lesson 11: Call to Action
 Every persuasive speech needs a call to action within it
 Although we’re asking the audience to do something or think differently about
something, we are striving for: Incremental change.
 Perloff’s (2008) defines persuasion “as a symbolic process in which communicators
try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviors regarding an
issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice” (p. 17).

14. Incremental Change
 Definition: attempting to move your audience only a small degree in your direction
 Concept is similar to the Social Judgement Theory (in lesson 11)
 A thorough audience analysis will allow you to see where each audience member
lands on the continuum
Highly opposed Opposed Mildly Opposed
Neither in favor
nor opposed
Mildly in favor In favor Highly in favor
(Verber, Verber, & Sellnow, 2014)
Opinion Continuum

15. Lesson 11: cont.
 Be clear and strategic with your thesis statement
 Your thesis should clearly state your position on the topic
 Ex: “I want to convince my audience that pirating copyrighted media without paying for it is
wrong”
 It is your ethical responsibility

16. ELM: one strategy for Persuasion
 The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) examines how individuals cognitively
process a persuasive message
 Two ways to process:
1. Peripheral route
2. Central route

17. ELM Processing:
 Peripheral processing of a persuasive message means that the audience member makes a snap
judgment about your topic.
 Example: Your audience does not carefully evaluate your argument, However, maybe someone
in the audience perceives you as a credible speaker. Credibility and empathy are significantly
important when a message is being processed peripherally. The audience elaborates in a
superficial or reflexive manner about your topic.
 Central processing happens when the audience elaborates on your message critically.
 Example: Your audience carefully evaluates your argument and your supporting documentation.
They also determine if your message is organized well. Audiences involved in critically analyzing
your message (or centrally processing it) will undoubtedly decipher your argument and examine
your message for logos, pathos, and ethos.

18. Lesson 11: Organizational Patterns
There are many types of organizational patterns for persuasive speeches; this course/
textbook only describes 3:
1. Problem – Cause – Solution
2. Cause – Effect – Solution
3. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Pattern

19. Persuasive Organizational Patterns:
◦ The Problem – Cause – Solution pattern is most appropriate for persuasive speeches
that address a societal problem and offer policies to fix it.
◦ The first step is to establish what the problems are that are associated with the topic.
◦ Cause – Effect – Solution pattern is more appropriate for persuasive topics that ask
us to change our values more than our policies.
◦ Appropriate when the problem is apparent of the effect is more important to highlight
◦ Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is appropriate for persuasive speeches asking for
specific action
◦ Think about the last advertisement you saw on television or heard on the radio as you read
about the five steps in the Motivated Sequence: Attention, Need, Satisfaction, Visualization,
and Action

20. As you begin to work on your
Persuasive Speech remember…
oYour speech should be extemporaneous!
oYou should be creating your outline starting with the body of your speech, then
go back and create your intro and conclusion
oConsider: your background, your space, test your vocal volume beforehand, and
consider how to incorporate beneficial delivery styles
oHow can you creatively practice on your own?

21. Activity:
 Watch the video clip from Twisted (found on HULU if you want to watch it from
there: Season 1, episode 16, starting at about 25:25)
 Identify the use of Aristotle’s appeals in the video clip & write it in your
individual discussion board space.
 Identify how you would debate one or all of these topics:
 Money is the root of all evil
 Animal testing
 Plastic usage
 I challenge you to think about how you might convince someone of the opposing
view: example, money is not the root of all evil or being FOR animal testing. Write
it in your individual discussion board space.

22. Activities to do on your own:
oWatch one of the persuasive speeches at the end of lesson 11 and grade it using
the persuasive rubric. Notice the differences between the informative rubric vs the
persuasive one. What’s been added and/or taken away? Can you determine the
organizational pattern in the video?
oTake your topic and determine the problem, the effect, the cause, and the solution.
Do you want to talk about the problem more or the effect? OR is your emphasis
mostly about the solution? This should help you determine which organizational
pattern to use.
oWrite down your knowledge about your topic; write down what your audience may
already know about your topic. Does anything match? This process can help you to
brainstorm main points or things to omit.