IV. The Most Satisfactory Solution
A. The problem must be met immediately.
B. We should consider the possibility of making personal contributions through the Children's Aid Plan.
1. You may "adopt" (support) a boy or girl in an orphanage from one of 28 different countries.
2. You receive the child's history and may correspond with the child.
3. The plan is non-political and non-sectarian.
4. The support is non-obligatory, that is, it may be withdrawn at any time.
5. The cost for one month is about UAH 120.
V. Action on the Solution
A. This is not much money from an individual or from a group.
1. Less than UAH 40.00 a week will help to provide a young and innocent victim of circumstances with nutritious food, adequate shelter, and proper schooling.
2. The average Ukrainian can easily afford this much each week. (Statistics)
B. As an individual or member of a group, you can make your contributions with very little inconvenience.
1. Just write to Children's Aid.
2. Jean de la Bruyere said, "Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well timed." (Quotation)
3. Now is the time to help our world's hungry children—before they become hungry adults.
Refutation Pattern
In this type of speeches, your main goal is to knock down arguments or ideas that you feel are false. You may want to attack what another speaker has said, or you might want to refute popularly held ideas or beliefs which you think are false. A refutation speech can offer a different policy, directly support the opposing view, point out flaws in the original speech or strengthen the argument for the opposing idea.
Sample Speech Outline
Choosing the Major at a Higher School Does not Mean Choosing the Life Path
General purpose: to persuade
Specific purpose: to persuade my listeners that the major isn’t determinative but merely one of many factors that can shape your career path.
Central idea/Thesis statement: Choosing a major is not a life-changing decision, but just one element combined with experience and character that will determine your career path.
Introduction
Attention material: It may sound cliché but once you graduate from high school, the real life begins. I have nothing against this statement. But does it actually mean that how this life plays out is shaped by what you decide to do after high school? I doubt.
Credibility material: If I were back in high school and someone asked me about my plans, I’d say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. One of the myths behind choosing a major is that it locks you into a specific career path. I’d rather we got rid of this myth before it’s time we gave advice to our future children.
Central idea/Thesis statement: Choosing a major is not a life-changing decision, but just one element combined with experience and character that will determine your career path.
Preview: We’ll see how some of the most widely accepted stereotypes concerning choosing a major can be easily disproved
Transition: Let’s begin by facing the truth…
Body
I. Most parents insist on their children choosing “the right major”, something safe and promising.
A. Every choice means sacrifice, and to reduce this sacrifice, we have to think about our interests and strengths, not about safety.
B. In our world of economic troubles and high unemployment, no degree guarantees you safety. But working on the subject that fascinates you even temporarily guarantees you moral satisfaction.
Transition: Let’s consider another stereotype…
II. They say if you pick the wrong major, because of this one mistake you’ll go astray and life will turn out horribly miserable.
A. It’s never late to change your path as long as you’re honest with yourself.
B. A strong personality will never run astray just because of the wrong choice and making a mistake is a great part of our experience.
Transition: And finally they claim that…
III. Choosing the subject matter which you simply like means you’ll graduate without skills.
A. Every path leads to more than one destination.
B. Very often it’s not the major that is valued by employers, but critical thinking, problem solving and effective communicational skills.
Conclusion
Summary statement: To conclude, I’d like to say that choosing a major can be a life-changing decision, but it doesn’t have to be. Philosophy majors are at the helms of some major corporations, and math majors have gone into career as varied as sports, entertainment, and politics. Instead of asking, “What can I do with this major?” you may want to ask, “What can’t I do with it?”
Concluding remark: Napoleon Bonaparte had a point advising us: “Let the path be open to talent”/ So, don’t deny the desires and curiosities, the doubts and dissatisfactions, the joy and the darkness that might knock you off the path you have set for yourself. Open yourself to the possibilities they represent.
Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
Many speakers have found one organizational framework particularly effective in motivating receivers to act. This preferred pattern is called “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence” and was developed over three decades ago by a professor of speech at Purdue University, Alan Monroe. Based on the psychology of persuasion, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence comprises five key steps that sequentially move listeners towards accepting and acting upon a proposition of policy.
Step One. Attention. It is at the outset of a speech that you work to gain the attention of your audience. In this stage, it is up to you to whet the appetite of receivers and increase their interest in our proposal.
Step Two. Need. During this part of the speech, you show your receivers that there is a serious problem with a present situation. By explicitly stating the need and illustrating it with an array of supporting materials and by showing audience members what’s wrong and relating it to their interests and desires, you prepare them for your solution.
Step Three. Satisfaction. You have shown audience that there is a need, and now you satisfy their desire for a solution. In this phase, you present your plan and explain it fully to audience members. Help them understand that alleviating the problem will also satisfy their interests and desires.
Step Four. Visualization. You drive your plan home by visualizing its benefits for your receivers and by visualizing how things will be different and better when your plan is put into action. In other words, you need to demonstrate for receivers how what you are proposing will benefit them and improve the situation as well.
Step Five. Action. As soon as your audience is persuaded that your policy is the right one, you are ready to ask them to support it and act upon it. Tell the audience members specifically what you would like them to so, and conclude with an appeal that reinforces their commitment and desire to respond as you ask.
As one theorist suggested, “Rhetoric is the process of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas”. The diversity inherent in ideas is only matched by the diversity of viewpoints that people have about them.
Types of Proposition
A proposition is a declarative sentence which states the general position of a persuasive message; it is a declarative sentence which states a claim. It is important that a speaker knows which type of proposition he/she is proving in a speech.
Effective proposition/thesis statements usually possess these characteristics:
1. Must be controversial (difference/conflict).
2. Must involve one central idea.
3. Must be stated in neutral language.
4. Must provide a clear, concise statement of the position of the speaker.
5. Burden of proof is on the maker of the proposition.
Traditionally, propositions are divided into one of three types:
Propositions of policy are declarative statements which state or imply a course of action and usually contain the word “should”. A policy claim is a statement regarding the merits of one course of action as opposed to other courses of action. What makes a policy claim arguable is that, even though people and institutions may not be totally certain about the proper course of action to take, they still must act. To argue in defence of a policy claim is to state that, given the knowledge we have at the present time, it is best to act in the manner proposed rather than in some alternative way. You are supposed to advocate the adoption of a future action or behavior. A persuasive speech that changes a policy is one that focuses on a particular action. When you give a speech on a policy, you try to convince the audience to act on some policy or agree that some policy should be changed.
Examples would be the following:
· People should get more exercise.
· People should give to their favorite charity.
· People should vote for candidate X.
· AIDS victims should be quarantined.
Propositions of value call for a judgment that cannot be verified objectively. Value claims are arguable statements concerning the relative merits of something which is measured subjectively (e.g., "Victoria is a better place to go for summer vacation than Calgary"). What makes a value claim arguable is that different people may disagree on the criteria used to evaluate something (e.g., weather, live entertainment, water sports). Differing value claims may be used to argue the value of a variety of topics (e.g., movies, styles of living, community organizations). Defending a value claim involves offering a set of criteria for consideration, defending the set of criteria as legitimate, and showing how applying the criteria justifies the claim. You are required to judge or evaluate an issue. You ask the audience to believe something is right or wrong, good or bad, effective or ineffective.
Examples are the following:
· Frances Farley is a superior candidate.
· Irish Spring soap smells manly.
· Surrogate motherhood is immoral.
· National health insurance is harmful to the consumer.
Propositions of fact are statements which sound like a fact and usually contain some conjugation of the verb “to be”. A fact claim is a statement about how things were in the past, how they are in the present, or how they will be in the future. A fact claim is not a fact; it only claims to be a fact. What makes it arguable is that the speaker has no direct way of establishing the truth of the claim. For example, "The Earth is round" is a proven fact. "In our right-handed world, left-handed people are discriminated against" is a fact claim. A persuasive speaker must provide arguments which build a case in favor of the claim, showing that the claim is probably true, or at least is more likely true than false. You develop a sentence you believe is true and must be verified by evidence. They are not actual facts, but facts as they are perceived by the persuasive speaker.
The following are propositions of fact:
· UFOs exist.
· National health insurance will increase taxes.
· Nuclear power plants are a safe energy source.
A proposition, an arguable resolution phrased in a declarative sentence, acts as the focal point for your arguments and supporting materials. Like the specific purpose statement, the proposition statement relates the overall objective of the speech at the end of the introduction. But unlike the specific purpose, the proposition reveals a clear point of view on a controversial topic.
To convince your audience that a relationship exists between TV violence and the behavior of young children, you could state several propositions:
· Violence on television contributes to violent behavior in young children.
· Violence in TV cartoons has harmful effects on young children.
· TV violence can contribute to severe emotional trauma in young children.
Select one of the above statements and conduct research to find supporting evidence – statistics, testimonies, and examples. You would need to be certain that the evidence did indeed back up your proposition. If it did not, you would be faced with three choices: (1) conducting a more extensive search for evidence until you found suitable data; (2) rephrasing the proposition to correspond to existing evidence; or (3) looking for other issue.
When you have written your proposition and gathered your evidence, you will construct logical arguments to support your point of view. Thorough search and appropriate evidence are extremely important to your success as a persuasive speaker. Your speech will have a significant impact your listeners if they feel your proposition is validated by careful search and good evidence.
Your choice of the definite proposition type will influence the number of steps in the Motivated Sequence pattern. (adapted from Hauer and Martley)
Proposition of policy speech (to change the status quo/to maintain the status quo)
1. Attention Step
The first step of the motivated sequence in the proposition of policy is the attention step. This will be composed of perhaps two or three one-point speeches; an illustration or quotation is often the opening statement. Next in the attention step is a definition of terms, to give the audience some background information, followed by a discussion of the way things are today – the present situation. The whole thrust of a proposition of policy hinges on the "present situation." Some people refer to this as the "status quo." The way that material in the proposition of policy speech is presented is based on whether you, the speaker, want to change the status quo or to maintain the status quo: no change.
2. Need Step
In a speech to change the status quo, the need step lists the problems resulting from the present situation. The need step is presented in the negative, a series of one-point speeches that tell the bad points of the present situation. If you want to maintain the status quo, you will develop problems, but you will use the problems to illustrate what will happen in the future if the proposed changes are made. Usually the problems are developed in a cause-effect relationship: “If we do this and this, so and so will result.”
Proposition (something should/should not be done)
3. Satisfaction Step
This step offers the solution to the problem. It comes in two parts – what to do and how to do it (the plan). If you want to maintain the status quo, you would describe some way to prevent change from the present situation from occurring.
4. Visualization Step
The visualization (or VIZ) step tells the results, or the benefits that will occur when the speaker's recommended course of action is followed. If you want to maintain the status quo, this step would show the benefits we have now, with no change.
5. Action Step
This step summarizes the strongest portion of the speech, either the satisfaction or the visualization (VIZ) step. The speech always ends with a request/appeal for action on the part of audience members.