How to Write a Persuasive Speech for Public Speaking

Refine your persuasive skills as you prepare for your speech.

Knowingly or not, you have been persuading people throughout your life. In childhood you likely persuaded a friend to play a certain game or to be a "partner in crime" in a dare. You used persuasive skills appropriate for your maturity and the situation to persuade someone to do something or convince someone to believe something. Now, you can support those skills with factual information and applicable examples and use them in public speaking.

Instructions

1. 

   Get as much information as you can about your audience.

   Know your audience and your speech's purpose. To effectively persuade, you need to also know, and anticipate, any arguments against your position. Use your audience research to gauge whether the majority has a mindset against your position, are largely in favor or are undecided. This will help you structure your points and prepare you for either an antagonistic or a friendly question-and-answer session.

2. Choose the most salient points about your topic that you feel will be most effective with this particular audience. For example, if the topic is on loosening federal government restrictions on growing industrial hemp, and your audience is largely college students, you probably will meet with little resistance. You may want to focus your speech on persuading the audience to lobby elected officials for lifting onerous regulations and requirements.

3. Establish your credibility early as you write your introduction. You will have more success gaining your audience's attention and persuading effectively if you are strongly connected to the situation, whether as an expert, a victim or a participant. Using the example of hemp production, perhaps you are, or know, of farmers who risk losing their family farms because of low crop prices, and industrial hemp could save this dying profession and way of life.

4. Choose two to four important points, and write down emotional or rational connections about each point. Use these appeals with your audience. The points support your angle and are the most important things you want your audience to remember. You will introduce these in your introduction and summarize them in your closing. For example: "Industrial hemp cannot be used as a drug because it contains almost no THC. It will grow in almost any soil type and requires almost no pesticides. Further, there is an industrial market for industrial hemp that we are losing to other countries such as China."

5. 

   Use an outline so you can keep your connection to your audience.

   Make an outline of your speech. Organize your thoughts coherently and engage your audience. You cannot do that from a prepared, full-length written speech. An outline allows you to periodically refer to the most important points about your argument without losing the important connection with your audience.

Tips & Warnings

• Use words that sound normal and conversational to you.

• Practice is an important tool in your persuasion. Recruit friends to be your practice audience, and have them ask you difficult questions.

• Do not get into a combative question-and-answer session. Make sure your answers reflect your main points.

References

• Cal Poly Pomona: Persuasive Speech Tips
• North American Industrial Hemp Council: Hemp Defined
• Cannabis Culture Magazine: North Dakota Farmers File Lawsuit Against DEA to Grow Hemp
• The Total Communicator: Questions, Anyone?

Resources

• Academic Writing Tips: Controversial Persuasive Speech