Essay Instructions: PERSUASIVE SPEECH: A CALL TO ACTION
This assignment will be related to civic engagement (social issues, political issues, etc.)
Objective: to create a presentation that moves your audience to action??"whether it be a shift in perspective or specific physical actions required, the speech should seek to solve a problem of either local or global proportion. Don’t just tell us about a problem, persuade us to do something. 6 minutes in length. Sources are critical - so a bibliography MUST be included. Know who aregues with you and against you to show that you know both sides of the debate. Look at closing arguments. Present evidence to the audience. Take a problem solution approach. Go revolutionary on your argument. It is crucial that the audience understands what you are trying to persuade them to do. Additionally, use the guidelines above for choosing the subject of the speech - but it must be something that the audience can relate to and understand - so take into consideration that the class I will be presenting this to lives in the city of Chicago.
Use Monroe's Motivational Sequence (towards bottom) as a guideline to how the speech should be written. The speech should consist of two outlines - a preparation outline and a speaking outline. These are two separate outlines.
Here are the guidelines for a preparation outline:
GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OUTLINE
Over the years, a relatively uniform system for preparation outlines has developed. It is explained below and is exemplified in the sample outline on pages 213??"215. You should check with your teacher to see exactly what format you are to follow.
State the Specific Purpose of Your Speech The specific purpose statement should be a separate unit that comes before the outline itself. Including the specific purpose makes it easier to assess how well you have constructed the speech to accomplish your purpose. Identify the Central Idea Some teachers prefer that the central idea be given immediately after the purpose statement. Others prefer that it be given and identified in the text of the outline. Check to see which your teacher wants. Label the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion If you label the parts of your speech, you will be sure that you indeed have an introduction and conclusion and have accomplished the essential objectives of each. Usually the names of the speech parts are placed in the middle of the page or in the far left margin. They are technical labels only and are not included in the system of symbolization used to identify main points and supporting materials. Use a Consistent Pattern of Symbolization and Indentation In the most common system of outlining, main points are identified by Roman numerals and are indented equally so as to be aligned down the page. Subpoints (components of the main points) are identified by capital letters and are also indented equally so as to be aligned with each other. Beyond this, there may be sub-subpoints and even sub-sub-subpoints.
The clear visual framework of this outline immediately shows the relationships among the ideas of the speech. The most important ideas (main points) are farthest to the left. Less important ideas (subpoints, sub-subpoints, and so on) are progressively farther to the right. This pattern reveals the structure of your entire speech. Once you have organized the body of your speech (see Chapter 8), you should have identified the main points. You need only flesh out your outline with subpoints and sub-subpoints, as necessary, to support the main points. But suppose, as sometimes happens, you find yourself with a list of statements and are not sure which are main points, which are subpoints, and so forth.
Label Transitions, Internal Summaries, and Internal Previews One way to make sure you have strong transitions, internal summaries, and internal previews is to include them in the preparation outline. Usually they are not incorporated into the system of symbolization and indentation, but are labeled separately and inserted in the outline where they will appear in the speech.
Attach a Bibliography You should include with the outline a bibliography that shows all the books, magazines, newspapers, and Internet sources you consulted, as well as any interviews or field research you conducted. The two major bibliographic formats are those developed by the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Both are widely used by communication scholars; ask your instructor which he or she prefers. No matter which format you adopt, make sure your statement of sources is clear, accurate, and consistent. For help, turn to page 135 in Chapter 6, where you will find sample citations for the kinds of sources used most frequently in classroom speeches. If you don’t find what you need there, check the complete Bibliography Formats in the online Speech Tools for this chapter at www.connectlucas.com .
Give Your Speech a Title, If One Is Desired In the classroom you probably do not need a title for your speech unless your teacher requires one. In some other situations, however, a speech title is necessary??"as when the speech is publicized in advance or is going to be published. Whatever the reason, if you do decide to use a title, it should (1) be brief, (2) attract the attention of your audience, and (3) encapsulate the main thrust of your speech. A good title need not have what Madison Avenue would call “sex appeal”??" lots of glitter and pizzazz. By the same token, there is certainly nothing wrong with a catchy title??"as long as it is germane to the speech. Here are two groups of titles. Those on the left are straightforward and descriptive. Those on the right are figurative alternatives to the ones on the left.
Guidelines for speaking outline:
Your speaking outline should use the same visual framework??"the same symbols and the same pattern of indentation??"as your preparation outline. This will make it much easier to prepare the speaking outline. More important, it will allow you to see instantly where you are in the speech at any given moment while you are speaking. You will find this a great advantage. As you speak, you will look down at your outline periodically to make sure you are covering the right ideas in the right order.
Make Sure the Outline Is Legible Your speaking outline is all but worthless unless it is instantly readable at a distance. When you make your outline, use large lettering, leave extra space between lines, provide ample margins, and write or type on only one side of the paper. Some speakers put their notes on index cards. Most find the 3 5 size too cramped and prefer the 4 6 or 5 8 size instead. Other people write their speaking outlines on regular paper. Either practice is fine, as long as your notes are immediately legible to you while you are speaking. Keep the Outline as Brief as Possible If your notes are too detailed, you will have difficulty maintaining eye contact with your audience. A detailed outline will tempt you to look at it far too often.
Give Yourself Cues for Delivering the Speech A good speaking outline reminds you not only of what you want to say but also of how you want to say it. As you practice the speech, you will decide that certain ideas and phrases need special emphasis??"that they should be spoken more loudly, softly, slowly, or rapidly than other parts of the speech. You will also determine how you want to pace the speech??"how you will control its timing, rhythm, and momentum. But no matter how you work these things out ahead of time, no matter how often you practice, it is easy to forget them once you get in front of an audience.
The solution is to include in your speaking outline delivery cues ??"directions for delivering the speech. One way to do this is by underlining or otherwise highlighting key ideas that you want to be sure to emphasize. Then, when you reach them in the outline, you will be reminded to stress them. Another way is to jot down on the outline explicit cues such as “pause,” “repeat,” “slow down,” “louder,” and so forth. Both techniques are good aids for beginning speakers, but they are also used by most experienced speakers.
Monroe's Motivational Sequence
Definition
A motivational speech is a highly emotional speech that serves to urge and stimulate a group to pursue significant personal and corporate goals, choose right corporate strategy, correct mistakes, etc. Additionally, a motivational speech arms the audience with tools and awareness they should possess to succeed in their personal lives and in the modern globally competitive marketplace.
Characteristics
As far as motivational speeches serve to inspire different kinds of people including professionals, a motivational speech can combine components as diverse as valid business principles, real life situations and memorable stories. A motivational speech is a variety of a persuasive speech and it is pragmatically oriented: a recipient of a motivational speech should experience a certain impact, i.e. change his/her behavior, act in this or that way, agree with something. To this end, an imperative mood should be used in motivational speeches. Energetic phrases starting with "do", "donate", "join", "create", "buy" are most likely to reinforce the effect of a motivational speech
Preparatory research
A motivational speaker should very well realize what are positions, or actions he/she is going to popularize. Besides, a thorough preparatory research is required to take into account numerous factors that can influence the process of listening and further decision-making. These are as follows:
1) Social factors: status, education, values of the audience;
2) Pragmatic factors: requirements, needs and interests of the audience.
Structure/outline
A standard motivational speech can be based upon several patterns, depending upon the situation of speaking and a goal a speaker is going to achieve. These are:
1) Monroe's motivational sequence;
2) Comparative advantages pattern.
Monroe's motivational sequence is a five-stage scheme of proving the necessity of some changes, actions, etc. The scheme comprises:
a) Attracting attention of the audience to some problem that needs solution (with the help of a startling opening, visual aids, statistics, etc.)
b) Proving the need for improvements and changes of a situation: different kinds of testimonies should be provided to demonstrate inefficiency of existing methods of solving the problem. The audience should be ready to absorb the new one as revolutionary, promising, positive.
c) Giving 'satisfaction' to the need: displaying a new workable solution to the problem and making sure the audience has understood your explanations. Bright details often facilitate learning of the new information.
d) Making the visualization of practical benefits, which a new solution brings. The visualization can be realized with the help visual aids, language imagery, and emotional presentation.
e) Motivating the audience to act according to your plan. In the final part of the motivational speech, it is expedient that the speaker recalls the initial problem and systematizes the benefits of his/her innovative solution.
A comparative advantage pattern is closely related to the Monroe's motivational sequence but it is mainly used when there are several alternatives to choose of. The major difference is in structuring the stages of satisfying the need and visualizing practical benefits because several plans and approaches should be compared and contrasted to find out the best one.
Topics/basic concepts
A motivational speech can incorporate several types of topics, specific and general. General themes to appeal to are such as leadership, personal growth, teambuilding, breakthroughs, career development, etc.
Requirements
General requirements of logical structuring and emotional representation are applicable to motivational speech.