13.1 Understanding Persuasive Speaking

13.1 Understanding Persuasive Speaking

When your instructor first announced that you would give a persuasive speech, what was your reaction? Did you feel excited and think, “I have a great idea,” or did you feel uneasy about trying to influence an audience?

For many people, the word persuasion has negative associations. It may bring to mind manipulation, pressure, or attempts to force people to change their minds. In this chapter, however, persuasion is approached in a more positive and practical way. Persuasion involves encouraging others, influencing how they view an issue, and presenting logical arguments that help them consider a particular perspective.

It is natural to feel skeptical when someone tries to persuade you, especially when it seems that the person is telling you what to think. You may also wonder whether your own ideas are important enough to share with an audience. These concerns often come from a misunderstanding of what ethical persuasion is intended to accomplish.

Persuasion as Everyday Communication

Persuasion is not about forcing people to do something against their will. Instead, it involves presenting ideas in a way that helps others consider new perspectives, reevaluate existing beliefs, or decide whether to make a change.

Persuasion is something people use every day. Examples include:

• Convincing a friend to go out instead of staying home.
• Asking an instructor for an extension on an assignment.
• Writing a résumé or cover letter for a job.
• Participating in a job interview.
• Encouraging coworkers to adopt a new procedure.
• Recommending a restaurant, movie, product, or service.

Each of these situations involves making a case for an idea, request, recommendation, or goal. Persuasion is therefore a normal and essential part of human communication.

Informative and Persuasive Speaking

Informative and persuasive speeches both involve presenting information. The primary difference is the speaker’s purpose.

An informative speech seeks to increase the audience’s knowledge or understanding. A persuasive speech seeks to influence the audience’s beliefs, attitudes, values, or actions.

The relationship can be summarized as follows:

Information combined with an effort to create change becomes persuasion.

In a persuasive speech, information is used to encourage some form of change. A speaker may ask audience members to:

• Accept or reconsider a belief.
• Develop a different attitude toward an issue.
• Recognize the importance of a value.
• Adopt or discontinue a behavior.
• Support a policy, proposal, organization, or cause.
• Take a specific action.

Persuasive speaking does not always produce immediate or complete agreement. An audience member may simply become more willing to consider the speaker’s position. Even a small shift in awareness, attitude, or openness can represent persuasive change.

Ethical Persuasion

Ethical persuasion respects the audience’s ability to think, evaluate evidence, and make independent decisions. It does not rely on deception, coercion, distorted evidence, or intentionally misleading emotional appeals.

An ethical persuasive speaker should:

• Present information accurately.
• Use credible and relevant evidence.
• Identify sources clearly.
• Avoid misrepresenting opposing positions.
• Distinguish facts from opinions and interpretations.
• Consider the possible consequences of the proposed change.
• Respect audience members who reach a different conclusion.

The goal is not to control the audience. The goal is to make a responsible case that listeners can examine and evaluate for themselves.

The Challenges of Persuasive Speaking

Persuasive speaking can be challenging because audience members bring their own knowledge, experiences, values, identities, and opinions to a presentation. They may already have strong views about the topic or may distrust the speaker, the evidence, or the proposed action.

A speaker cannot assume that everyone begins from the same position. Some listeners may agree, some may be undecided, and others may strongly oppose the message. Effective persuasive speakers analyze these differences and adapt their arguments accordingly.

In the following sections, you will examine how persuasion works, how audiences respond to persuasive messages, and how speakers can develop arguments that are logical, ethical, credible, and meaningful.