How to Prepare a Persuasive Speech

A good persuasive speech is hard to prepare.

The art of persuasive speaking is a difficult one to master. However, it is not an impossible goal to achieve. Though it will take a good amount of thought, research and preparation, anyone can develop an effective persuasive speech if they put their mind to it.

Things You'll Need

• Computer

Instructions

Developing the Speech

1. Select a topic. Topics should be problem-related, meaning concerning some kind of issue that needs to be solved. Topics that are policy-related are usually easiest. Examples might include foster care reform, the failings of standardized testing or why the death penalty is wrong. Whatever topic you choose, it should be something you're passionate about, as you'll have to spend a long time researching and reading about related concepts. Something you care about will also be easier to spend time writing about.

2. Research your topic thoroughly. It is important to have a complete understanding of the scope of your topic. Look into the the history of the subject, as well as recent developments that may impact the status of the problem you have selected to speak on. Statistics, studies and stories are all helpful pieces of information to collect. There are a multitude of sources you can draw from to get this information, including newspapers, journals, books, television programs, personal interviews with experts and, of course, websites. Acceptable websites include those of universities, colleges, advocacy organization, or the government. Most of this research can be done on a computer, which allows you to save any pertinent material in a centralized location, like a file folder on your hard drive dedicated to your speech.

3. Organize your research. Try to sort your research into three categories: research pertaining to the problem, research pertaining to the cause of the problem and research pertaining to potential solutions to the problem. Once this organization is completed, go to each category and further organize your research into the the sub categories of data, such as statistics and study results; opinions, such as testimony or quotes from experts and anecdotes, such as stories of individuals who have been hurt by the problem in question.

4. With your research in mind, organize your information. The best way to do this is to write an outline to provide structure to the information you're presenting. A persuasive speech should have three main body points: problem, cause and solution. Each point should have a thesis sentence to start with. So, if you were giving a speech about why the death penalty is bad, your thesis for the problem point might be, "The death penalty is unjust." Each point should have two subpoints within it at least. In our example, subpoints might include, "The death penalty is applied in a discriminatory fashion," and "The death penalty is given to innocent people." With each subpoint, you should provide at least one piece of research in support. For instance, if you are trying to support the argument that the death penalty is given to innocent people, you would cite a study that reported on the number of innocent people that have been killed by the death penalty in the last few years. Outline your entire speech in this manner. Keep in mind that a unified analysis approach is usually most effective in a persuasive speech, which means that your first problem subpoint should be caused by your first causes subpoint and solved by your first solution subpoint.

5. Put the parts of your outline together into a speech. Each slot in your outline should already be written as a complete sentence, which means that, for the most part, you'll be writing transition sentences between your points. The most important parts to include are a preview after your point's thesis statement of the two to three subpoints you'll be discussing in order to prepare your future listeners for what is to come.

6. Write your introduction. Your introduction should begin with attention-getting device. This can be an anecdote related to the problem or startling statistic, but it should have a source attached to it. An introduction that is directly related to the problem you are speaking about is far more persuasive. After the attention getting device, you should link the information presented back to the overall thesis of your speech, which should be that the problem you are referring to is big, and requires action. For example, following the previously mentioned death sentence example, your attention getting device might be a reference to a man who was innocently put to death and exonerated years later. Your tie back and thesis would be something along the lines of, "Unfortunately, cases like this are just one example of how wrong the death penalty is. The death penalty should absolutely be abolished." After your thesis, provide a preview of your coming points. In this example, the preview would say, "To best understand why this is true, we will first examine the problems associated with the death penalty, before investigating the causes of its continued existence, and finally presenting some solutions that we can implement to change all of that."

7. Write your conclusion. The first sentence should be a review of the points you have made, and can be tied to a restatement of your thesis. In a speech about the death penalty, one might say, "After looking at the problems, causes and solutions associated with the practice of the death penalty, it is clear that the death penalty should be abolished." At this point, you should provide a one- to two-sentence tie back to the attention getting device with a snappy ending. In this case, it might say something like, "Hopefully, if we can implement the solutions discussed, there will be no more tragic tales of men being exonerated after being buried for years beforehand.

Tips & Warnings

• Use emotional language to pull your listeners in. Try to engage your audience by using inclusive language like "we" throughout the speech.

• You should always revise and edit your speech several times before you begin to prepare to perform it. If, while researching, you find that your topic does not have a strong literature base to support it, you should consider finding a new topic.

Resources

• 200+ Persuasive Speech Ideas