Have you been asked to give a persuasive speech but are struggling to find a topic? You might initially think about large, seemingly intractable issues like abortion, immigration, and gun violence—and feel reluctant to weigh in. While there are ways to engage such issues, you might find momentum in tackling more local problems in your community.

Ask yourself, What bothers me about my hometown or city or about my college experience? Who is struggling or suffering, and how can I advocate to improve their situation?

When Priyanka asked herself these questions, she thought about her time on the college basketball team. She loved playing and was proud of herself for not dropping out when so many of her friends stopped playing sports. But she wondered why so few women still competed compared to men. Her concern grew when she saw the results of a 2022 poll by Women in Sport in her social media feed. The poll of 4,000 teenage kids found that “43% of teenage girls who once actively engaged with and enjoyed sport were being side-lined in their teenage years and made to feel not good enough, compared with just 24% of boys of the same age.”^[1] Priyanka knew then she had a topic for her persuasion speech.

Persuasion is the strategic use of verbal and nonverbal symbols to influence the beliefs, attitudes, or courses of action of an audience. It is the form of communication most closely associated with rhetoric—and the form of communication we most often hear. In this chapter we first explain the importance of persuasion for civic engagement. We then turn to the persuasive process and provide instructions for the first three steps.

The Importance of Persuasion for Civic Engagement

Persuasion is a necessary and important aspect of civic engagement for at least three reasons: It helps audiences make decisions, more fully explore ideas, and enact democracy.

First, in many cases, diverse audiences will not arrive at a consensual decision after reviewing the facts, trade-offs, and value dilemmas of a complex and difficult issue. Advocacy is necessary to move audiences toward a position or conclusion. Persuasion can play a critical role in how communities decide a city might best address sanitation challenges, how a jury resolves a legal dispute, or how citizens choose who to vote into office.

Second, advocacy often helps us see the greatest advantages—and disadvantages—of an idea. Listening closely to someone passionately argue for a position can help us appreciate an idea more fully, or it can crystallize our reasons for rejecting it.

Third, as we established in chapter 1, rhetoric (and persuasion as a subset) is necessary for democracy. Rather than “shoot it out,” we “talk it out.” We advocate for what we believe is the public good, and we try to convince fellow community members that our ideas are meritable. Persuasion is, ultimately, how we enact democracy, such as Priyanka’s attempt to convince her audience to improve gender equity in sports.

Persuasion, however, can be negatively perceived as a form of manipulation—a perception that has plagued persuasion, and rhetoric more generally, since at least the classical period. Given the goal of persuasion—attempting to influence others—it is easy to understand why it has been subject to special scrutiny.

Box 24.1 Ethical Concerns About Persuasion in the Classical Period

 

In his Socratic dialogue titled Gorgias, Plato demeaned rhetoric. He characterized it as a mere knack akin to cooking and as a form of flattery without substance. In other words, he warned that rhetoric was a simple ability that could be used unethically to manipulate people.^[2]

In contrast, Aristotle defined rhetoric more fundamentally as the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion.^[3] In other words, he taught that rhetoric was about developing the ability to discover or see the elements of persuasion in specific situations. This placed rhetoric in an ethically neutral place. That is, it can be used in an ethical or unethical manner.

Greek teachers along with Romans in the classical period expressed concern over the practice of rhetoric and, consequently, developed ethical expectations for rhetors. These expectations included the following:

• Plato’s depiction of a true rhetoric in the Socratic dialogue Phaedrus, whereby philosophers lead people toward truth
• Isocrates’s vision of rhetoric as a civic art that improves the community
• Cicero’s and Quintilian’s vision of rhetoric as the joining of wisdom and eloquence by the good person speaking well

We contend, however, that ethical persuasion is essential for civic engagement for the reasons we have provided. To help you deliver an ethical persuasive speech, we turn next to steps you should take to develop your presentation.

The Persuasive Process

Taking an idea and developing it into a compelling persuasive appeal can be envisioned as a six-part progression, enumerated in box 24.2. We will provide you with guidance in this chapter on the first three steps. The next chapter will offer you instructions on the last three steps.

Audience Analysis and Adaptation

The persuasive process begins with studying your direct audience and tailoring your speech to them and the environment where the speech will occur. In chapter 10, we defined the direct audience as the people who are exposed to and attend to your speech. Review chapters 10 and 11 for help with analyzing and adapting to them. As you take each step in developing your persuasive speech, make choices that consider this audience.

Your direct audience is central to your persuasive presentation. In fact, if you were to deliver the same ideas to two different direct audiences, then you would prepare two different speeches. The more the two groups diverge, the more distinct your speeches would need to be because what is likely persuasive for one audience in a particular environment may not be effective for another group in a different setting.

Persuasive Goal

A speaker must keep their goals clearly in mind when crafting a speech. You might think about achieving multiple goals: to advocate for change, to seek the public good, and to convince your audience to adopt a specific belief, attitude, or action.

Advocate for Change

The goal of persuasion is change. That might seem obvious, but it’s a major contrast from the goal we discussed in chapter 20, which covered informative speaking with a particular emphasis on deliberation. When speaking informatively or deliberatively, you strive to educate your audience fairly and robustly. This chapter focuses on persuasion. Consequently, your goal now is to convince your audience to adopt your desired belief, value, or action. That means you must push your audience to change.

Do not choose a goal your audience is already fulfilling because then persuasion isn’t necessary. For instance, it’s likely that Priyanka’s audience already agrees that girls should be encouraged to play sports. It’s less likely they all agree that colleges should focus on hiring more female coaches as role models in men’s and women’s athletics.

Seek the Public Good

Even when focused on the goal of persuasion, you’ll want to keep in mind your overarching goal of improving your community and the public good. A speaker motivated solely by personal gain may say anything to persuade their listeners, and their presentation will seek to directly benefit themselves. Think of a stereotypical used car salesperson who manipulates customers into buying defective cars because the salesperson earns a commission.

In contrast, a speaker motivated by the public good will aim for outcomes that benefit the whole group—not only themselves and their direct audience but also their implied and implicated audiences. In chapter 10, we defined an implied audience as a group that is represented in your message and an implicated audience as those affected by your speech if it is persuasive. You should keep both groups in mind by continually asking for whom or what you are speaking. It is easy to begin with the best of intentions and then get caught up in winning or only advantaging yourself as you develop and deliver your speech. When that happens, you are likely to reinforce the qualities of unproductive discourse discussed in chapter 2.

Specify the Belief, Attitude, or Course of Action You Want the Audience to Adopt

In addition to advancing the public good and striving to persuade, you must identify your more specific persuasive goal. This goal should shape—and be reflected in—your thesis statement. (Look back to chapter 12 for a discussion about thesis statements.) We offer three types of persuasive goals to kickstart your thinking: speeches that attempt to persuade the direct audience to adopt a particular belief, attitude, or course of action.

One type of specific persuasive goal is to target an audience’s belief: their conclusion about, or confidence in, what is or is not true or real. Scholars of public speaking and debate call this a “fact” proposition. The following are examples of thesis statements that target beliefs:

• Global warming is caused by human activity.
• Excessive exposure to social media worsens mental health.

Notice how the wording of both examples focuses attention on convincing the audience that a particular belief or conclusion is true or real. Alternatively, you can convince an audience to reject a belief they hold that is not true or real. For instance, you may claim that sugar does not make kids hyperactive.

A second type of specific persuasive goal is to change an audience’s attitude: their feeling or moral judgment about what is good or bad, right or wrong. Scholars refer to this as a “value” proposition. In chapter 21, we defined a value as a principle or quality that human beings are committed to and upon which they base their thinking and decisions regarding important issues. A speaker might propose, for example, the following:

• Tattoos and piercings are healthy forms of self-expression.
• Oklahoma’s penalties for carrying or consuming small amounts of marijuana are too harsh.

You can hear the emphasis on a value or attitude with words like “healthy” and “too harsh.”

A third type of specific persuasive goal strives to impact the audience’s course of action: their choice, behavior, or support for specific policies or procedures. Scholars also call this type of claim a “policy” proposition. The following are examples:

• Public high schools should be required to offer students a financial literacy course.
• We should use the word “unhoused” instead of “homeless” to describe people without a physical address.

While you don’t have to use “should” to indicate a course of action, that word is an easy way to communicate your emphasis on affecting behavior or policy.

Whatever specific goal you choose, work on its wording. Your goal (and thesis statement) must clearly communicate what you are targeting and how you want your audience to change. As you determine your goal, also decide what specific actions the audience should take to empower them to enact that change.

Empower Your Audience: Provide a Means to Act

Whenever possible you should empower your direct audience by giving them a means to enact your goal. Your audience should not just accept your thesis; they should act on it. This means offering listeners clear options they can take to reinforce or act on their beliefs, attitudes, or courses of action.

The type of action you advocate depends on your specific persuasive goal. If your objective is to change your audience’s beliefs or attitudes, then you might ask the audience to participate in an activity that will help accomplish that goal. Very often that activity will be educational in nature. Such activities further expose audience members to a supportive point of view without yet requiring them to actively back a change in policy or change their daily behaviors.

If your goal is to influence the audience’s course of action, then ask them to help you enact your policy or plan. Encourage them to adopt the desired behavior, help put the procedure into action, or assist with laying the groundwork to enact the policy.

Whatever your goal, keep in mind that most actions are of two types: already existing opportunities and opportunities that you create.

First, there are already existing opportunities that you need to discover and then encourage or enable your audience to participate in. For instance, if you are concerned with girls dropping out of sports, not having sufficient role models, or suffering from stigma if they continue to play sports, you can do the following:

• You might ask the audience to volunteer to mentor local youth.
• With a little searching, you will likely discover several such mentoring programs already existing at your school and the surrounding area (Boys and Girls Club, tutoring programs, community centers, etc.). You simply need to contact the organization to assess their needs and discuss the details about how to get involved.

Second, there are opportunities that you create. Sometimes you need to use your imagination and creativity to offer your audience a chance to get involved. For example, you might want the audience to increase the budget for your college’s women’s basketball team.

• You could ask your audience to help organize and execute a donation drive on campus.
• Or you might invite the audience to join you in a meeting with the athletic director to solicit more funding.

Whenever possible, find or create an opportunity close at hand for the audience—whether that is on campus or in your city or town. Your audience will be more likely to take advantage of the opportunity, and doing so will help them notice ways to directly improve their local community.

Of course, finding or creating local opportunities can seem challenging at first. To help, we recommend you become familiar with the nearby community:

• Talk to local residents about opportunities.
• Search for your issue on the local visitors’ bureau web page or government websites. Such searches are likely to identify local organizations and groups devoted to the issue.
• Watch for announcements of upcoming events in the local news and on campus.
• When you find a local connection, interview someone associated with it. People regularly involved with the issue are likely to offer great insight and provide ideas about ways citizens can get involved.

Once you have chosen a specific action to advocate, give the audience the detailed information they need to participate. The key is to reduce the burden on your audience and prove they can truly make a difference.

If you begin the persuasive process by analyzing your audience and then thoughtfully choosing your goal and empowering your audience to act, you will be on your way toward producing a persuasive speech that will compel your audience and aid your community.