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Speech Communication 1113

Persuasive Speeches Assignment

Dr. Holly Kruse

RUN-THROUGH DUE DATE: Thursday, April 6th

FINAL SPEECH DUE DATE: Tuesday, April 25th

In this speech you will choose a truly controversial social, political, economic, or environmental topic, and you will argue that a policy needs to be adopted or changed. You will establish that a problem of some significance exists, and then you will propose a focused, well-researched, and well-argued policy to address the problem. Remember that in order to convincingly argue your position you need to acknowledge and refute the arguments made by those who disagree with you, and you will need to demonstrate that the policy change you advocate is workable. You also need to be aware of whether your audience will be friendly/hostile/neutral towards your position; then you should adjust your speech accordingly.

Guidelines

  • You must email two or three possibletopicsin which you’re interested in speaking by 6:00 p.m. on Friday, March 10th to . Put the time your section meets (11:30 or 1:00) in the subject line of your email. Possible topics must be interesting to you, potentially relevant to the audience, and well adapted to the audience. They should not be too simple or too complex. They will likely eventually need to be narrowed.
  • OnThursday April 6th, you will give a run-through of the main points of your persuasive speech in a 3-4-minute-long speech in which you will present the main points, including arguments and reasoning, that you plan to use in the final version of your persuasive speech. You will need to cite three sources in this run-through of thebody of your persuasive speech. This speech will not require an introduction and conclusion, and there will not be a question and answer period at the end of the speech.By class time on the first day of run-through speeches (October 24th), you will upload a keyword outline (not a sentence outline), and it will include preliminary central idea (also known as a thesis statement), specific purpose statement, your main points and supporting points, and a works cited page.
  • On the first day that final persuasive speeches are given (Tuesday, April 25th), you will upload to MyRSUby the start of class a typed, MLA-formatted sentence outline with an included bibliography (on a separate page at the end of the outline, but part of the same document) that lists at least fivesubstantive, authoritative sources. All sources cited in your speech must be in the bibliography.
  • The final persuasive speech is six minutes in length, and it requires you to cite fiveauthoritative sources in the body of your speech. In other words, you must clearly identify the sources in your speech. All sources must be no more than seven years old, unless you can argue that your older source is relevant. You may not use a dictionary or encyclopedia as a source, unless it is a specialized academic one. Two of your sources may be online-only; the other three must exist in non-webpage form (even if they also appear on the internet). All sources from the RSU Stratton Taylor Library online databases count as non-web sources.
  • Remember to organize your speech according to the specifications laid out in the speech evaluation form for the course. This speech must be organized as a two-main-point problem-solution or three-main-point problem-cause-solution speech.
  • Use critical thinking skills! The speech must be free the fallacies of reasoning, including those described in your textbook. Your evidence and reasoning must be of high quality, and clearly and effectively presented.
  • Do not lift huge portions of language verbatim out of your sources, but do summarize and paraphrase the information from them. However, be sure to choose interesting examples, facts, and quotations to help your speech come alive for your audience so that can get a clear image of what you’re talking about.
  • If you didn’t use a presentation aid in the body of your informative speech, you must use one in your final persuasive speech. If you are using a computer visual aid, upload it to the MyRSUdrop box when you upload your final outline. All computer visual aids must be in a slideshow format, and no video aids are allowed.
  • Final persuasive speeches will be followed by brief question and answer periods.
  • You will speak from a delivery outline. This is different from the sentence/preparation outline that you upload to e-campus for the final persuasive speech. You will be allowed to speak from either one side of one (neat, and not from a notebook) full sheet of paper to use as notes, or five index cards. Do not bring a notebook up front to give your speech.
  • When giving your speech, please remove hats and/or sunglasses, and spit out any gum. Business casual attire is required for your final persuasive speech.