Chapter Presentation 4/23/21

 April 23, 2021 - Public Speaking Period 9 

Crystal Liang and Grace Lin 

Chapter 16 Presentation 

Crystal's Notes: 

Topic: Finalizing Top 3 Debate Topics and Chapter 16 Presentation

Notes for the day

Chapter 16 Presentation 

• Persuasion Definition 

• Creating, reinforcing or changing someone’s beliefs and actions 

• Useful for all career paths 

• Ethics of persuasion 

• NOT the same as manipulating and misleading people

• Support your argument with factual evidence and statistics 

• Make sure that it respects people’s freedom of speech 

• Reasonable logic before emotional appealment 

• Psychology of Persuasion

• Be ambitious and excited so that the audience will be more convinced

• Read the audience: understand how they think and whether you can change their mind  

• Persuasion as a Mental Dialogue 

• Understand how the two sides of an argument might respond to each other

• Have this dialogue take place in your mind as a persuasive speech to better understand your audience

• Target Audience 

• The people in the audience that the speaker most wants to persuade to their side 

• Advertisements - appealing to a certain defined audience, not just generally

• Questionnaires to survey audience

• Question of Fact and Questions of Value 

• Questioning the truth or falsity of a statement 

• Question about the worth, rightness, morality and so forth of the idea or action

• Questions of Policy 

• Whether a specific course of action should or shouldn't be taken

• Specific Purpose and Speaker’s goal 

• You need to discuss a need, plan, and practicality 

• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence 

• Attention, Need or Problem, Satisfaction or Solution, Visualization, and Act

• It follows how humans think and process information 

• Leads the listener step by step to the desired action

Crystal's Reflection: 

How many times in your life have you ever been arguing with someone and wished that you knew exactly what to say? Or maybe there was something you wanted your parents to buy, or a party you wanted permission to go to. Well, being an expert persuader does not happen in a day, but there are definitely ways to refine the art of persuasion. 

I remember in the spring of my sophomore year, my computer science teacher recommended me for an internship at the Department of Design and Construction. I was really excited to have the opportunity to work at an engineering company for the first time. I applied, passed the first stage, the interview, and was hired. 

My first thought was to tell my mom, and I did. But...the reaction I received wasn't the one I was looking for. She was proud that I got accepted into my very first internship, but didn't want me to go because it was "SAT Summer." Almost all my friends and classmates spent their summer before junior year enrolled in an SAT prep program, and I was expected to do the same. 

I was crushed and reluctantly told my computer science teacher, who I was grateful and apologetic towards,  about my situation. But what he asked me in response would change my entire summer plans for the year. He asked, “...But why can’t you do both?” To which the realization dawned on me and I thought to myself, “Why can’t I do both?”

I suddenly brightened up and had a mini eureka moment. I went home that day and came up with a plan to compromise with my mom. The plan that I created for my mom showcased the many different parts of persuasion that were presented in class. 

I told her that I would work as an intern during the day and self-study for the SAT by myself at night. I logically presented how I would manage my time, including what my envisioned daily schedule would be. I also appealed to my mom’s emotions by telling her about how much I would love the chance to do this internship, and what it meant to me as a future engineer. It took a lot of convincing and time for her to agree in the end, but I was resolved to see through my plans. 

That summer, I stuck to my schedule with a tight discipline. I worked hard and had fun during my internship, and studied just as hard every night for the SAT. And while my score may not be as high as if I had formal prep, I’m still proud of the choice I made of balancing my internship while studying and the commitment I had to it. However, I would not even have the chance to try if I hadn’t persuaded my mom to let me. 

While this particular example of my life is a great example of how powerful persuasion can be, there are also thousands of smaller ways that persuasion comes into play in our daily lives. So the next time you find yourself in another argument or you’re given an assignment in your public speaking class to research debate topics, you can put all this persuasion knowledge into good use.

Grace's Notes: 

Speaking to Persuade (Chapter 16)  by Jacob Gurevich, Allan Rikshpun, Joseph Tesoriero 

• Persuasion: the process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people’s beliefs or actions 

• Ethics of Persuasion

• Respect others’ rights to freedom of speech and expression 

• Establish a logical foundation for your argument before appealing to emotions 

• Developing persuasion skills differs from intentionally manipulating/misleading people 

• Ensure that you always have correct information and statistics to back up your claims 

• Psychology of Persuasion

• Inform the audience and deliver claims ambitiously to craft a persuasive argument 

• Read the audience -> some people will never change their minds no matter how persuasive the speaker is 

• Degrees of Persuasion

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Lots of gray area when it comes to persuasion

• Debate is a mental game of give and take 

• Envisioning a persuasive speech as a mental dialogue can help improve the effectiveness of your argument 

• Target Audience: portion of the whole audience that the speaker most wants to persuade 

• Ads are directed at certain groups of people

• Target arguments so it’s appealing to audience 

• Incorporate questionnaires to survey audience 

• Question of Fact: a question about the truth or falsity of an assertion 

• Ex: Is abortion really moral? Is abortion really immoral? 

• Structure 

• Specific Purpose 

• Central Idea 

• Main Points 

• Question of Value: a question about the worth, rightness, morality and so forth of the idea or action 

• Ex: Is solitary confinement justifiable? 

• Analysis 

• When giving a speech on a question of value, give special thought to the standards for your value judgment

• Justify and defend your claim 

• Questions of Policy: a question about whether a specific course of action should or should not be taken. 

• Ex: To persuade my audience that tougher enforcement laws should be enforced on child abusers 

• Specific Purposes for Speeches to Gain Immediate Action 

• A persuasive speech in which the speaker’s goal is to convince the audience to take action in support of a given policy 

• Ex: To persuade my audience to vote in the next presidential election 

• Specific Purposes for Speeches to Gain Passive Agreement 

• A persuasive speech in which the speaker’s goal is to convince the audience that a given policy is desirable without encouraging the audience to take action in support of the policy 

• Ex: To persuade my audience that there should be stricter safety standards on amusement park rides 

• Regardless of whether aim is to draw out a passive agreement or to gain immediate action, you’ll face 3 basic issues when you discuss a question of policy: need, plan, and practicality 

• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence 

  
  
  

• Part 4 -> Visualization: use vivid imagery to show listeners how they’ll profit from your policy 

• Part 5 -> Action: when audience is convinced that your policy is beneficial, you’re ready to call for action 

• Say EXACTLY what you want the audience to do and how to do it 

• Conclude with a final stirring appeal that reinforces their commitment to act 

• Motivated sequence is preferred by speakers since it follows the process of human thinking 

• It leads the listener step by step to the desired action 

• Ads use motivated sequence to attract audience attention and persuade them to buy the product

Grace's Reflection: 

From the chapter 16 presentation, I learned about the different aspects of persuasion and how to incorporate them into our speeches. Although I've been taught the concept of persuasion since elementary school, this presentation went into greater depth about it and I was able to connect it to public speaking. For instance, the presenters discussed the ethics of persuasion - there’s a difference between convincing people and manipulating them into having the same viewpoint as the speaker. I was previously aware of this, but I hadn’t fully considered the ethical implications of persuasion. It’s also important to have accurate information and/or statistics to support your claims. Otherwise, your credibility will lower and the audience won’t believe/trust the message you’re conveying to them. Furthermore, I learned several terms including question of fact, question of value, and questions of policy. I could incorporate these in future speeches to provide additional support to my main argument. It’s interesting how there are different types of questions and each one has its distinct purpose and impact on the audience. The examples the presenters included definitely gave me a better understanding of the types of questions. Lastly, I learned about Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, which consists of attention, need or problem, satisfaction or solution, visualize, and act. These are the necessary steps to take in order to effectively persuade others. I will keep these in mind for the future. Overall, this presentation provided useful information and tips on how to utilize persuasion in public speaking.