Persuasion Speeches

Time Limit: 5 -7 minutes                    150 POINTS                                    Due Dates____________

1.    Persuasion Speech:  Your final speech will be another library researched speech, with the goal of influencing your audience.  You want to try to change your audience members’ beliefs or behaviors or to move them to take action.

2.   Sources/Works Cited: Once again you will be required to turn in a Works Cited on the day of your speech (if not earlier)  with a list of a minimum of THREE sources that you consulted for this speech.  I will have more copies of the format of the MLA Works Cited handout available.  If you lost points on the Information Speech for the Works Cited, FIX any errors  you made for this speech!!!
    
3.   Topic Choice: You will develop a persuasion topic and position from the lists in this handout packet, from the topics you considered for your information speech, or you may develop one of your own (subject to my approval, as usual).  Everyone must have a different topic, though you and a classmate may take the two distinct sides of a particular issue.  After you have selected a topic, you then need to have a clearly defined position, a solution, and a goal for your audience.

4.    Outline/Organization: An outline will be collected from everyone the class period before speeches start, just as we did for the Information Speech.  Your basic guide for organizing this speech is Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.   This packet also contains an outline of the general format of this speech.  This is a very specific organization pattern that you absolutely MUST follow.

5.   Notecards/Script: You may speak from notecards or from a script for this speech.  If you are speaking from a script, remember that it is easiest to speak from typed, double spaced sheets!

6.    Audience: Remember your specific audience of listeners and tailor your topics, word choices, and arguments to them.  Remember to consider their needs and attitudes if you really want to get your points across to them and be able to persuade them to take action.  
    
7.    Setting: You will be speaking from the microphone and big podium from the stage in the auditorium with your audience sitting in the lower section of seats.

                     Possible Persuasion Speech Topics--List A

Remember, you are to take a position on one of these topics (or one of your own) and suggest a course of action!

Topic Possibilities Position Position
Abortion Pro-life Pro-choice
Adoption Against black-market As an alternative for teens
AIDS For more education To develop better attitudes
Air/Water pollution To help stop it/clean it up
Airplane/airport safety To strengthen precautions/raise standards
Alzheimers For more understanding For more research
Animal Rights To strengthen them Against them
Anorexia/Bulimia Dangers of them
Battered spouses To help strengthen laws
Censorship To allow it To prohibit it
Child Abuse Not to abuse To watch for signs
Cults Against them
Death Penalty To allow it To prohibit it
Dieting To eat healthy To avoid fad diets
Divorce Better for the kids Worse for the kids
Donating blood Why you should do it
Drug Abuse Not to abuse drugs Causes societal problems
Drunk driving Don't do it Laws are too easy
Eating habits Not to eat meat Not to eat fatty foods
Ethanol Benefits of using it
Euthanasia(mercy killing) To allow it To prohibit it
Evolution/Creation For teaching one For teaching both
Gangs Dangerous for teens Causes societal problems
Gun control To allow sale of guns To limit sale of guns
High school dropouts To stay in school
Homelessness For programs to help
Insanity plea To allow it To prohibit it
Legalization of drugs To allow it To prohibit it
Organ donors Why you should become one
Physical fitness Benefits of it Best way to achieve it
Prayer in schools To allow it To prohibit it
Rain forests To help save them
Racism For eliminating prejudices
Saving the whales, etc. To help save them
Seat belts Why to wear them Why not to wear them
Sex education To allow it To prohibit it
Smokeless tobacco Dangers of it
Smoking Dangers of it
Space program For continuing it For discontinuing it
Speed limits For keeping them 55 For raising them
Stalking To help strengthen laws
Steroids Not to take them
Surrogate motherhood To prohibit it To allow it
Teenage marriage To prohibit it To allow it
Teenage pregnancy Why not to get pregnant
Teenage runaways Not to run away
Teenage suicide Not to do it To watch for signs
Treatment of the elderly To help improve conditions
Vietnam veterans To recognize their problems
Violence in sports Too much violence
Violence/sex on TV To help lessen it To allow it as is


Additional Persuasion Speech Topic Ideas--List B

Adult illiteracy
Alcohol advertising
America–the world’s police force?
Americans’ credit card debt
Animal (dog) fighting
Arranged marriages
Beauty pageants degrade women
Benefits of organic gardening
Biases on standardized tests
Bilingual education
Binge drinking
Cancer prevention
Cell phone dangers
Charter schools
Cloning
College Athletes: recruitment, taking gifts
Community service as a grad. requirement
Computer hacking
Cosmetic surgery dangers
Curfews
Dangers of second hand smoke
Dangers of computer viruses
Dangers of breast implants
Dangers of SUV’s
Dangers of vaccinations
Date rape
Dead beat parents
Decline of the family farm
Desert Storm Syndrome
Discrimination:gender,age,race,religion,etc
Drug smuggling
Electric Cars
Embryo research
Errors in hospitals
Factory farms of animals
Fan & parent violence in sports        
Federal funding of the arts
Flag burning        
Foreign language requirements
Foster parenting
Frivolous lawsuits
Gambling addiction
Genetic engineering
Global warming
Growth hormones in meat cows
Hate crimes
Hazing
Historic preservation
Holistic medicine		 Holocaust reparations
Home schooling
Huffing (sniffing aerosols, etc.)
Identity theft
Importance of art/music in schools
Importance of learning self-defense
Interracial adoption
Junk mail/spamming
Juvenile criminals–how to punish?
Limiting or easing restrictions on immigration
Midwives
Minimum wage rate
Multi cultural/diversity education
Notification if a coworker has AIDS
Obesity
Plagiarism/cheating
Plea bargaining
Police brutality or corruption
Prescription drug abuse
Preservatives in food
Prison overcrowding
Privacy of politicians’/celebrities’ lives
Problems of latchkey kids
Protecting against consumer fraud
Recycling
Responsibility/Ethics in the media
Reverse discrimination
Salaries of professional athletes
School vouchers
School uniforms
School violence
Sexual harassment        
Smokers’ rights
Social promotion
Soil erosion
Solar energy
Spay and neuter your pets
Sweatshops
Tanning bed dangers
Telemarketers
Televised trials
Tenure system in education
Terrorism in America
Toxic mold
Urban sprawl
Use of lie detectors
Volunteering
Workplace violence
Year round schooling



Persuasion Speech Outline Format

The following is a summary and explanation of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence which you need to follow very
carefully and specifically for this speech.  See also pages 402-403 in your book.

General Organization of Steps:

I.    Attention: In this step you:
      A.   Get your audience’s attention
      B.   State your topic and
             1. Position and
             2. Goal
    C.     Relate the topic to your audience so they will want to listen and know more.

II.    Need: Think of this as a mini information speech that you organize logically, according to the
        information you find and what you want to tell us of the problem as you see it.  In this step you:
        A.    Establish the facts or background surrounding the issue,                                  This section does
        B.    Explain the problem in our society that needs to be corrected,                         NOT have to be
        C.    Give examples to show the nature of the problem,                                           followed exactly!
        D.    Give us causes of the problem,                                                                       Organize it by
        E.    Explain its effects on our society in general or specifically on our lives,              whatever info you
        F.    Include statistics to illustrate the extent of the problem.                                     have to present!

III.    Satisfaction: In this step you should do as many of the following as possible:
         A.     Present your solution or solutions (can be of your own creation or something found in your research)
         B.    Explain how we can actually do something about this problem
         C.    Explain who else we would need to get involved for the solution(s) to really work
         D.    Give examples of how these suggestions have worked in other states, cites, communities, etc.
    
IV.    Visualization: This step has two distinct sections that must be addressed.  Overall, you want to
         visualize, “paint a word picture,” for the audience images of 1) what will happen if they follow your
         solution, and 2) what will happen if they don’t follow your solution.  In this step you:
         A.    Present all the benefits, advantages, and positive outcomes in solving this problem, or
                 implementing this solution.  Paint them a picture of how much happier, safer, etc., our world will be.
                 1.
                 2.
                 3.
         B.    Present all the continued problems, difficulties, expense, and unhappiness that will result if
                 the problem is not addressed or the solution is not acted on.  Paint them a picture of a world
                 suffering from all kinds of negative repercussions.
                1.
                2.
                3.

V.    Action: (Also your conclusion) In this step you:
        A.    Summarize the points made in the Need and Satisfaction steps
        B.    Remind us again why this problem is relevant to our lives
        C.    End with a final, creative, and strong concluding sentence or device!