Exam 16: D: Persuasive Speaking

Safety needs are our most basic needs-they are the things we need for survival.

The comparative advantage pattern is the best choice for a speaker whose audience is hostile and disagrees with the proposition that there is a problem in the status quo.

Demonstration of goodwill toward the audience is a way of creating the speaker's pathos.

Ideally, you should pick a persuasive speech that is not controversial.

"Our government should license more offshore drilling to bring down the price of oil" is an example of a proposition of value.

Persuasive speakers should avoid criticizing what others have said or done because such criticisms are always considered ad hominem arguments.

It is ethical to use coercion to persuade an audience if the speaker's goal is in the audience's best interest.

"Our school year has always been set up so that students have three months off during the summer, so it makes no sense whatsoever to even consider a year-round schooling scheme." This argument is flawed because it represents an appeal to tradition.

Emotional appeals can put an audience in a frame of mind in which they are more receptive to logical and practical ways of dealing with the issue that has created the emotion.

Speakers should choose the refutational organizational pattern when their opposition has a stronger case than they do.

In a democratic nation like the United States, speakers can assume that whatever is the most popular opinion is the most logically sound alternative.

Providing our audiences with proof that one action is likely to cause another can prevent us from committing the slippery slope fallacy.

Persuasive speakers are most effective when they combine all three forms of rhetorical proof into their presentations.

Bob's supervisor at the fast-food restaurant gives him two options-either he can reveal the name of the employee who accidentally broke a piece of equipment or both Bob and all the other employees who were working that night will be reprimanded and face losing their jobs. Bob's supervisor has committed coercion.

A syllogism is a specific kind of inductive argument.

Neutral audiences are typically the most difficult to persuade because they have already heard both sides of an issue and neither side's arguments have had a significant impact on their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.

"Over the last few years, we have increased our gas production, developed more fuel-efficient cars, and done a better job of conserving gas, but gas prices have continued to rise. Obviously the law of supply and demand is not the only factor that influences the price of oil products." These statements reflect deductive reasoning.

Good persuasive speech topics allow the speaker to develop a message intended to cause some degree of change in the audience.

"Involving more students in music education programs will result in greater achievement in other areas-specifically, in math" is an example of a proposition of policy.

Your persuasive speech should target the needs your audience has already fulfilled because those needs are the most motivating to them.