At the beginning of your speech, after presenting and presenting your argument, you convince your audience that you are both a trusted person and that you have the experience to address that particular argument. To be trustworthy, tell an anecdote about your personal commitment to the subject you are talking about and describe the steps you have taken to learn about the problem. Be optimistic, speak with confidence and practice your speech so you can hold it without interference. This is necessary for your audience to believe you and agree with you. Critical listeners will want to hear that you are taking care of yourself and logically refute the arguments often made that contradict your own. For example, if you convince listeners to support the construction of a new neighbourhood school, you explain why the main arguments against the construction of the school are based on false, logically false or morally unsustainable information. Experienced speakers can construct effective arguments by playing “devil`s supporters” or pretending to take an opposition position and then landing them as flawed and insufficient. In addition, Sherif and Hovland predicted that for most people there was a threshold where it would not be possible to change their attitude and where people moved from the margin of acceptance to the margin of non-commitment or refusal. Chart 17.2 “Shift and change of position” represents this process. The entire area covered by the left side of the curve represents options with which a person would agree, even if there is an initial lag between the spokesperson and the viewer at the beginning of the speech.
However, there comes a time when the gap between the spokesperson and the viewer becomes too large, which fits into the options that the viewer automatically rejects. In essence, it is important for you to know what options you can realistically convince your audience and what options will never happen. There may be no way for you to convince your audience to make a major or double in a foreign language, but perhaps you can take it to a minor in a foreign language. Even if you may not reach your full end goal, it`s better than doing nothing at all. One of the most frequently cited and discussed organizational models for compelling speeches is Alan H. Monroe`s motivated sequence. The purpose of Monroe`s motivated sequence is to help stakeholders “sequence support materials and motivating calls to form a useful organizational model for speeches as a whole.” Deutsch, K.M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., Monroe, A. H. (2010). Principles of Public Speech (17th edition).
Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 236. In trying to convince an audience, Anne realizes that some of her listeners really like critical thinking and information processing. As Anne knows this, she ensures that her speech has very good arguments, fully supported by relevant research.
