Persuasion-Motivation Against Manipulation

Garcia 1

Maria Minerva Garcia

Communication 1020-009

Instructor: J. Gordon Storrs.

Exam II

Persuasion-Motivation against Manipulation

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

-Aristotle (Aristotle, 95).

One of the most important obligations of the public speaker is to maintain the standards of persuasion and motivation. They need to avoid manipulation of their audience by maintaining their ethics and always keeping in mind mutual best interests between the speaker and the audience.

As a public speaker, ethics are an important component for delivering a speech. It is the speaker’s ethical responsibility to grab the audience’s attention and to know the subject matter they are presenting. Stephen E. Lucas in his book The Art of Public Speaking says, “There are five basic guidelines for ethical public speaking. The first is to make sure your goals are ethically sound—that they are consistent with the welfare of society and your audience. The second is to be fully prepared for each speech. Every audience you address—in class and out—deserves your best effort. You do not want to waste their time or mislead them through low quality research or confused ideas. The third guideline is to be honest in what you say. Responsible speakers do not distort the truth for personal gain. They are accurate and fair in their message and in their methods.” (Lucas, Chapter2)

Using persuasion in public speaking gives the speaker the advantage of winning over the audience to their way of thinking. Although it is a public speaker’s objective to persuade the audience, the topic should increase the good of the public. It would be unethical as a public speaker to influence the audience to think or act in a way that is negative to society or any group or person who is part of the society. It is difficult to win over the complete audience and shouldn’t be expected. However, even if the speaker can’t persuade everyone, a good persuasive speaker will get those not persuaded to think harder about their position on the topic. A good persuasive speech will have the audience excited about the topic or have them re-thinking their position on the topic once they leave the event.

It is also unethical to cross the line from being a persuasive speaker to a manipulative speaker. A con-artist is one who uses manipulation to get what they want by making their target believe something that is not true or something that is a half-truth to get what they want. Just like a con-artist, manipulation will eventually lead to the audience not trusting the speaker or feeling like they have been ripped-off. Tommy Yan states, “…if you speak, you'd never want to be labeled a manipulator. Your credibility will be on the line. And you probably won't receive a return engagement.”(Yan, 6). Persuasion benefits the audience and the persuader. Manipulation benefits only the manipulator.

Motivation is used in public speaking to persuade the audience to take action. It is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. Using motivation during a speech is to persuade the audience to take action; it is a free choice. Motivation is thinking of the audience and yourself as one and helping each other to move to action. Motivation will help create an atmosphere of mutual success. Crossing the line between motivation and manipulation is unethical, selfish and unfair. Manipulation persuades and sometimes coerces the audience or someone to do something that will affect them, and will help only the one using manipulation. Manipulation creates a negative outcome as resentment, hate and in long term failure. Jonathan Fields an author, entrepreneur, and speaker said, “Manipulation implies persuasion with the intent to fool, control or contrive the person on the other side of the conversation into doing something, believing something, or buying into something that leaves them either harmed or without benefit.”(Fields, 11)

Maintaining the standards of persuasion and motivation while avoiding manipulation, is an obligation of the public speaker. Keeping those standards will help the public speaker shape an ethical personality. Keeping in mind mutual best interests between the speaker and the audience will help achieve the desired success.

Showing concern for the audience by presenting the topic honestly demonstrates integrity in the public speaker. Caring for others has to be a must in public speaking. Mark Twain said, “There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars.” If this is the case, we should decide to be on the side of the nervous rather than the liars.

Work Cited

Aristotle. “Rhetoric.” Book III, Indo-European Publishing. Los Angeles California, United States. 2011. Print.

Lucas, Stephen E. “The Art of Public Speaking.” University of Wisconsin-Madison. Eight Edition. McGraw Hill. 2009. New York, N.Y. Print.

Yan, Tommy. “Persuasion or Manipulation.” Ezine Articles. SparkNET. 2013. 6 May 2009. Web. 28 March 2013. <

Fields, Jonathan. “The Line Between Persuasion and Manipulation.” Jonathan Fields, Conversations at the Crossroads of Work, Play, Entrepreneurship & Life. 2013. Web. 29 March 2013. <