Persuasive Speech

O.k., we are talking about types of persuasion and the last thing I want to talk to you about is really important. I call it degrees of change and what I'm talking about is, what is it that you want to accomplish in your speech? Do you want just a little bit of action taken? Do you want to change a belief or an attitude a little bit or do you want a full turnaround?

O.k., that's something that you have to know as you write your persuasive speech. Now, I'm not going to tell you not to go for the gold and you know 'I really want a big time change this attitude'. I do want to tell you that it's a little smarter to take baby steps, but again it depends on your topic. And depending on what it is you want to accomplish, a little bit or a lot, will depend on the approach that you use.

There's two kinds of approaches I want to talk about and foot-in-the-door is the first approach. And foot-in-the-door is when you just want to talk a little bit about a subject that you want people to start thinking about. Like this, you're going to a smokers' convention and you want to convince them to stop smoking, yeah, you want to go with that foot-in-the-door. Just put that information out there a little bit for them to start chewing on, right?

O.k., the other type of approach is what we call door-in-the-face.

O.k., you want to use door-in-the-face when you go to the smokers' convention and as soon as your speech is over, you want everyone of those smokers to apply their non-smoking patch and never smoke again.

O.k., you've got to come in strong. You've got to hit them with a door-in-the-face to achieve what it is you want to accomplish. So, know your approach, know your question, know your types of persuasion.

Well, of course you know them, I just taught them to you, so get out there and write a great speech."