1. Persuasion and The ethics of public speaking
Terry A. Ring
Chemical Engineering
University of Utah

2. Lab This Week & Next

3. Persuasion
Process of changing or reinforcing attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Ethos—credibility
Pathos—emotional appeal
Logos—logical appeal (reasoning & evidence)
People will be persuaded by one or more of these reasons

4. Qualities of Positive Ethos
Credibility—whether you are qualified to speak on a given topic
Competence
Character
Establish Credibility
Competence—informed, skilled, knowledgeable
Trustworthiness—believable and honest
Dynamism—energy (charisma)
Enhance Credibility
Initial
Derived
Terminal

5. Strengthen Your Ethos
Each time you speak, people form impressions of you
Share audience concerns
Cite reputable experts
Use personal experience
Be clear and be interesting
Consider different points of view
Deliver a dynamic talk

6. Appealing to Emotions (pathos)
Fundamental to motivating an audience
Never a substitute for logical arguments and available evidence
Dimensions of emotion = pleasure, curosity, power
Be ethical when using emotion. Use:
Concrete examples
Emotion-arousing words
Visual images to evoke emotion
Appropriate metaphors and similes
Appropriate fear appeals
Appeal to several emotions; hope, pride, courage, etc.

7. Ethical Considerations
Avoid deception and manipulation
Recognize and respect power of emotions
Avoid distraction and disorientation
Don’t overwhelm audience with emotions
Use emotional appeals to supplement and complement well-reasoned arguments

8. More Ethical Considerations
Have ethical goals and use ethical means
Ethical dilemmas
Professional obligations can create
A conflict of responsibilities
A choice between “the lesser of two evils”
Circumstances can create
Situations dictate a change
Does the end justify the means?

9. Ethical Guidelines Are your proposals consistent w/ prevailing norms?
Would you violate your own ethics by speaking out?
Are you willing to stick to your ethical principles?
What are the ethical standards?
Your basic ethical obligations
Tell the truth
Take responsibility for your words and actions
Avoid plagiarism(!!!)

10. The Ethical Speaker Is not expected to be perfectly objective
Provides good arguments, sound reasoning and solid evidence
Remains open to new information
Is well informed and fully prepared
Contributes useful presentations

11. Building an Argument (logos)
Use logic and evidence to persuade
Logic—System of rules for making inferences
Reasoning—Process of drawing conclusions from evidence
Evidence—Facts, examples, statistics, expert opinions
Claims
Debatable assertion by speaker
Takes a side on an issue and invites debate
A statement with which you want your audience to agree
Types of Claims
Assertion by Speaker
Value
Policy

12. Types of Claims

13. Assertion Claims Claims about the truth or falsity of an assertion
Involve existence, scope or causality
Questions about past / present
Predictions of the future
Require empirical proof: real examples, statistics, and expert testimony
Example:
To persuade my audience that William Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him.

14. Value Claims
Claims about the worth, rightness, and morality of an idea or action
Involve what we consider good or bad, right or wrong
Focus on what we believe to be appropriate, legal, ethical or moral
Determine how we should evaluate facts, ideas or actions
Example:
To persuade my audience that bicycle riding is the ideal form of land transportation.

15. Policy Claim
Claim about whether a specific course of action should or should not be taken
Determine our future actions
Deal with how to solve problems
Evaluate options by costs, feasibility, advantages and disadvantages
“Should” is either stated or implied
Two kinds of policy claims:
Speeches to gain passive agreement
Speeches to gain immediate action

16. Speeches to Gain Passive Agreement
Goal is to convince audience that a given policy is desirable without encouraging the audience to take action in support of it.
Examples:
To persuade my audience that there should be stricter safety standards on amusement park rides.
To persuade my audience that the age for full driving privileges should be raised to 18.

17. Speeches to Gain Immediate Action
Goal is to convince the audience to take action in support of a given policy
Examples:
To persuade my audience to vote in the next presidential election.
(i.e. everyone old enough to vote should vote)
To persuade my audience to become literacy tutors. (i.e. you should be a literacy tutor)

18. Analyzing Policy Claims
Need—you must establish that there is a need for change
Burden of Proof—your obligation to prove that change is necessary
Plan—you must have a plan to solve the problem
Practicality—Does your solution solve the problem? Does it create new problems? Has this plan worked elsewhere? How has this plan been implemented elsewhere?

19. Reasonable Arguments
Qualified at a level appropriate to the strength of the reasoning and evidence behind it
Words that indicate our level of confidence
Examples: “possibly”, “probably”, or “beyond any doubt”
Recognize reservations
Exceptions to our claim, or conditions under which we no longer hold the claim
“Unless”
Evidence
Consider the criteria or standards that support your evaluation
Reflect on the rules, principles or standards we employ in making judgments
Tests: quality, relevancy, amount

20. Forms of Reasoning

21. Inductive Reasoning
Moves from a set of specific examples to a general conclusion
A number of representative examples makes the case
Claims must be carefully qualified
Reservations may be needed
Can be strengthened with evidence
Example
Fact 1: My physical education course last term was easy
Fact 2: My roommate’s physical education course was easy
Fact 3: My brother’s physical education course was easy
Conclusion: Physical education courses are easy

22. Deductive Reasoning
Draws a conclusion about a specific case based on generally accepted premise
Usually we reason from qualified premises to probable conclusions
Premises are often already accepted by audience
Speaker may assume the audience will fill in the missing premise
Syllogism is a classic example
Example
The U.S. Constitution guarantees all U.S. citizens the right to vote
Women are U.S. citizens
Therefore, the U.S. Constitution guarantees women the right to vote

23. Causal Reasoning From effect to cause, or cause to effect Example
At the heart of scientific investigation
Rarely simple
Reputable sources are important
Qualified due to complexity
Can be difficult to claim causation
Example
Drinking soda will make you fat
Caution: post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "after this, therefore because of this")
Example :“Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X."

24. Reasoning By Analogy What is true in one case will be true in another
Literal analogy compares similar examples
Figurative analogy is similar to metaphor; rarely proves anything
Should be qualified
Example
If you’re good at racquetball, you’ll be good at Ping- Pong

25. Organizational Patterns

26. Chronological Good for step-by-step process or historical events
Begin with a specific point in time, move ahead or back from there
The principle of recency—the event discussed last is the one that the audience will remember best

27. Spatial Organizes according to space or physical relationship
Arranges ideas according to their location and direction
Can progress up or down, east or west, forward or backward
Ideas must be developed in logical order

28. Categorical Arrange by distinct topics Addresses
types
forms
qualities
aspects
Can organize in a variety of ways
Recency—highlights one point more than the others
Primacy—puts the most important or convincing point first
Complexity—moves from simple to complex

29. Building to a Climax
Simple to difficult, least to most, neutral to intense
Effective for gaining audience agreement or action
Can also reverse the pattern, from most to least

30. Cause & Effect Moves from cause to effect, or effect to cause
Good to explain how an event unfolded
Chronology does not equal cause
Guard against over-simplification
Must be able to demonstrate that one event actually caused something else to occur

31. Problem-Solution Typically used in persuasive speaking
Speaker usually proposes a best solution
Reflective Thinking Sequence
Causes & extent of problem?
Effects of problem?
Criteria by which solutions should be judged?
Possible solutions (strengths & weaknesses)
Best solution?
Put into effect how?
Definition & limits of problems

32. Motivated Sequence Attention—get listeners’ attention
Need—establish problem or issue and convince audience of the need for change; demonstrate that this need affects audience directly
Satisfaction—identify how your plan will satisfy the need and explain solution
Visualization—use positive visualization to explain how great life will be after your solution is implemented, or use negative visualization to show how terrible life will be if it is not
Action—tell audience the specific action(s) they must take to implement solution

33. Possible Presentation Topics
4903/pres-topics.php

34. Possible Presentation Topics