Persuasive Speech Worksheet PDF

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worksheet to prepare for persuasive speech- Professor Shana Meganck...

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Complete this worksheet with your group. It is okay if you are unable to answer some of these questions. The purpose of this activity is to guide your group discussions as you prepare for your persuasive speech. Your group name____Group 5___________________ 1. What is your topic for your persuasive speech? How quarantine has had more positive effects than negative implications on the world. 2. A central premise of social judgment theory (SJT) is that in order to change people’s attitudes, you must first know an individual’s starting position on a topic. Seeking radical change in an audience’s attitudes is a recipe for persuasive failure. Instead, it is important to consider how you can seek incremental attitude change among your audience. SJT imagines a continuum around which a person’s position on a topic (their “anchor point”) is centered. SJT proposes that there are three “zones” or latitudes in people’s attitudes along this continuum. Positions falling in the latitude of acceptance are positions that people find tolerable. Positions falling in the latitude of noncommitment are those that people are neutral or ambivalent towards. Positions falling in the latitude of rejection are those that people find objectionable. a) For the “average” audience member in this class, what do you think their “anchor point” (i.e., preferred position) is on your topic? -

The average audience member would have an anchor point that quarantine has had a negative impact on their lives

b) For the “average” audience member in this class, what positions on your topic do you think fall within their latitude of acceptance? -

Most people are open minded- the quarantine has had both positive effects and negative drawbacks

c) For the “average” audience member in this class, what positions on your topic do you think fall within their latitude of non-commitment?

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Most aspects of quarantine, such as working from home (communication through technology) is still productive.

d) For the “average” audience member in this class, what positions on your topic do you think fall within their latitude of rejection?

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Never being able to have physical gatherings could become the new normal.

3. Now that you have considered where various positions on your topic fall in relation to your audience’s anchor point, and latitudes of acceptance/non-commitment/rejection, what position on your topic do you think your group should argue for? That latitude of acceptance: the benefits of quarantine outweigh the drawbacks

4. A central finding from research using the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is that attitude change occurring via central route processing (i.e., relatively mindful processing whereby the individual careful considers the evidence and reasoning in an argument) results in attitudes that are more enduring, more predictive of future behavior, and more resistant to counter persuasion than attitude change occurring via peripheral route processing (i.e., relatively mindless processing whereby individuals look for mental shortcuts when making decisions). ELM research has also shown that individuals are more likely to use central route processing when a message is perceived as novel/surprising, and when the topic is perceived as personally relevant. a) What are some ways to make the topic novel/interesting to your audience?

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To discuss statistics about the environment: The reduced emissions from everyone staying home (picture of before/ after or clear water in Venice) To connect it to their lives discussing personal implications that are actually beneficial

b) What are some ways to make the topic personally relevant to the audience?

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Everyone is going through quarantine and most of our generation sees it as negative, so taking the positive viewpoint makes it personally relevant to their personal experience with it. You get to really see what you took for granted- you don’t notice it until it’s gone

4. Is your persuasive proposition a proposition of fact, value, or policy? If your persuasive proposition is not a proposition of policy, reword it as such.

Persuasive proposition of policy: People should continue to practice some of the methods implemented during quarantine and continue to learn from their experiences in quarantine

5. Monroe’s motivated sequence is a technique for organizing persuasive speeches in order to inspire action in your audience. Consider how, specifically, you can incorporate the five steps into your persuasive speech. a) Attention: create interest at the beginning of your speech

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Startling Appeal: List the positive aspects of quarantine

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Showing pictures of how air pollution has cleared; the improvement of sanitation; statistics about health improving; statistics about familial relationships improving

b) Need: present the problem to be solved

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The necessity of remaining optimistic during trying times

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Problem: Too many people are not looking at the positives of quarantine, but rather are focusing on the negatives during quarantine (pessimistic) c) Satisfaction: provide a solution to the problem you identified

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Look at the positive effects on the environment, public sanitation, self improvement, improvement of familial relationships d) Visualization: provide an image for your audience of it would look like if your solution was adopted [positive visualization], and/or what it would look like if your solution was NOT adopted [negative visualization]

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Water in Venice: positive visualization

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china/ Singapore/ LA: pictures of reduced air pollution (before/ after)

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Pictures of clean subways, grocery stores, etc

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A powerpoint to display statistics, graphs, and pictures of the topics we discuss e) Action: make a specific, reasonable call-to-action

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Encourage people to continue to work from home; moving most businesses to online and encouraging people to remember what they learned while in quarantine and to continue those practices and lessons

6. How can you incorporate emotional appeals into your speech to amplify the impact of your message? -

Connect it to future generations: make the world a place that you would want your grandchildren to live in

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Some more time to contemplate your health and what you want (self- improvement)

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Being pessimistic vs optimistic during this time: it is a good time to take advantage of extra time to focus on the positive and improve yourself and your society

7. Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual holds two conflicting beliefs (e.g., believing that climate change is an important issue, while also supporting a political candidate who thinks climate change is a hoax), or when an inconsistency exists between an individual’s beliefs and their behavior (e.g., a smoker who believes that smoking is very likely to cause cancer). Emphasizing this dissonance can cause individuals to feel discomfort, and thus encourages them to seek attitude or behavior change (in order to reduce this discomfort). What opportunities, if any, are there for you to emphasize cognitive dissonance in your speech? -

Believing that quarantine doesn’t make a difference/ not supporting it, but carrying out the regulations and accepting that it is only a matter of time

8. The contrast effect (also called the door-in-the face strategy) is a common sales tactic. Essentially, individuals are more likely to accept a request when it is contrasted a much larger request. How might you frame your call-to-action so that the request seems reasonable? -

We are not asking you to stay in quarantine for the rest of your life as there is a biological need to connect, but just asking you to stay mindful

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If you don’t stay in quarantine now and respect the regulations, then we will have to face a much larger call to action in the future

9. Plan the logistics of your presentation. a) How will you divide the work for your speech in terms of the presentation (i.e., who will speak when)?

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Emily: Introduction/ Introducing the need; transition to improvement on familial relationships

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Brady: Self Improvement

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Skyler: positive impacts on the environment

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David: Improvements on public sanitation

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Neyla: Conclusion/ Call to Action b) How will you divide the work for your speech in terms of the full-sentence outline (i.e., who will write what)?

Each person will write their own part of the outline c) What are your deadlines for preparing the speech? When will you practice your speech?

Everyone will be finished with their part by Tuesday night; practice Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. d) What platform will you use to record your speech? (Note: There are suggestions for this on the assignment guidelines.) Zoom / WebEx...