What makes a good persuasive argument? Why are some people more persuasive than others? Is it simply a question of good looks, a good speaking voice, or that so-called intangible quality, charisma? Paying attention to good presentation techniques will certainly improve the polish of your presentation, but simply making a smooth delivery while ignoring content will not persuade your audience.
In fact, there are several techniques, which, once mastered, will improve your persuasive speaking skills tenfold. Persuasive skills are not restricted to the podium and can help when on job interviews, or making presentations in class. For those who are serious about improving their persuasive speaking skills, there are Toastmasters chapters worldwide where members meet weekly to deliver and evaluate speeches.
How to Add Credibility to Persuasive Speeches
It is critical to establish credibility with an audience so that they will open their minds and listen to you. The following attributes will help an audience assign credibility to speakers:
- Competence – Is the speaker prepared and is she knowledgeable in her field? Can she convey this knowledge clearly to her audience? Without an organized presentation and well-researched material, a speaker can easily fall prey to restless and/or more educated audience members.
- Trustworthiness – Is the speaker trustworthy? In order for audiences to follow and ultimately accept the speaker's argument, they must initially believe in the speaker's honesty. A speaker can establish this by injecting a personal anecdote or admission into her speech. This helps establish common ground with the audience.
- Practice – Practicing speeches beforehand with a makeshift audience results in a professional delivery by addressing problems with fluency, expressiveness, and conviction.
One further note on credibility: Gerry Spence in How to Argue and Win Every Time, states: "The key to opening the other to our arguments is to empower the other to reject us. By relinquishing power to the other, we avoid the other's fear of us or our argument." Put into practice, this could simply mean telling your audience upfront that if you are not able to convince them, they have the right to reject your argument, an arguably bold strategy, but one which has potentially high payoffs.
How to Use Evidence in Persuasive Speeches
Evidence, whether in written essays or verbal presentations, always helps to support your argument. The rules for evidence are:
- Use specific evidence
- Use novel evidence, with original evidence being even better
- Ensure that evidence is from credible sources, and cite the sources in your speech
- Explain why you have chosen the evidence to support your argument; don't rely on your audience to figure this out.
Using Logic in Persuasive Speeches
Logic or reasoning is a crucial part of persuasive speeches and there are several types that can be used:
- Reasoning from specific instances – For example, If your cousin, your friend, and your neighbour are having difficulty selling their homes, you could argue that the real estate market is very weak. In order to avoid making sweeping generalizations that can't be verified; however, use solid statistics regarding the real estate market to support your examples.
- Reasoning from Principle – This is the reverse of the above and goes from the general to the specific. As above, be sure to provide statistics to support your argument.
- Causal Reasoning – This establishes a relationship between causes and effects. Make sure you do not link the wrong cause to the effect. In the example above, you could argue that the weak real estate market was caused by the city's recent implementation of a new land transfer tax.
- Analogical Reasoning – This happens when you compare two similar situations and infer that what is true for the first is also true for the second. For example, "We worked overtime last weekend and were able to process all orders so if we work overtime this weekend, we should be able to process all orders again." Note: Ensure that both cases being compared are alike.
Emotion in Persuasive Speeches
Using emotion or passion in persuasive speeches is one of the most important keys to connecting with your audience. Conveying emotion demonstrates that the speaker is human, as well as taps into the emotions of the audience. To add emotional appeal to persuasive speeches:
- Use language that is descriptive, colourful, and even a bit dramatic
- Add adjectives and adverbs for more detail to create vivid examples
- Modulate your speaking voice from loud to soft tones as appropriate
- Pause after making a strong point, which allows the audience to feel the full impact of your words
- Use hand gestures, sparingly, but where appropriate.
Delivering persuasive speeches is not a mystical art. By ensuring that speeches are delivered with emotion and contain well-researched material to provide credibility, evidence to support arguments, examples which audiences can identify with, and logic using various types of reasoning, speakers will increase their chances of persuading their audiences to, at the very least, consider their arguments.
Reference:
Spence, Gerry. How to Argue and Win Every Time: At Home, at Work, in Court, Everywhere, Every Day, St. Martin's Griffin, 1996, 307 p.
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