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Speaking Persuasively

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(If you have Real Audio installed on your computer, you can actually listen to some famous speeches at the History Channel website: Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Churchill, John F Kennedy and many others!)

A speech that tries to persuade people to agree with the speaker is like a written argument. Both of them need to contain clear statements of what the author believes and these statements need to be supported by evidence.

In addition, an effective speech can use certain techniques that help to make the argument sound more convincing. Some of these are outlined below.

Lists of three

• "I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock."

(Earl Spencer at funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, 6 Sept. 1997)

• "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."

(Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 2)

Parallelism (repetition of words, phrases or sentence patterns)

• "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed … I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves … I have a dream that my four little children … I have a dream today."

(Dr Martin Luther King Jnr., Washington, 28 Aug. 1963)

• "They came after the Jews, and I was not a Jew, so I did not protest. They came after the Trade Unionists, and I was not a Trade Unionist, so I did not protest. They came after the Roman Catholics, and I was not a Roman Catholic, so I did not protest. Then they came after me, and there was no one left to protest."

(Pastor Niemoller, Lutheran minister killed in a Nazi death camp)

• "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."

(John F Kennedy, US president, inaugural address, 1960)

Personal commitment/experience

• "I went to segregated schools, swam in segregated swimming pools, sat in all-white sections at the movies … By the grace of God, I had a grandfather… who taught me it was wrong."

(Bill Clinton, US president, San Diego, 14 June 1997)

Involving the audience

• "We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward."

(Earl Spencer at funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, 6 Sept. 1997)

• "In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course."

(John F Kennedy, US president, inaugural address, 1960)

Statistics/Quotations

• "In 1960-61 the per capita Government spending on African students at State-aided schools was estimated at R12.46. In the same year, the per capita spending on white children in the Cape Province was R144.57."

(Nelson Mandela, Rivonia trial, 1942)

Rhetorical questions (you don’t expect an answer!)

• "Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war? Why did some of America's largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler's Germany until 1942?"

(Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor, at the White House, 12 April 1999)

• "You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by the same limitation?"

(Ronald Reagan, US president, inaugural address, 20 Jan., 1981)

Ending strongly

• "The 21st century awaits us. Let us confront its challenge with confidence, and together give our children the future they deserve."

(Tony Blair, British PM, in Irish parliament, 26 Nov. 1998)

• "…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

(Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address, 19 Nov. 1863)

Back to "Rice Without Rain", Chapter 11
 

 Frankie Meehan