Real Communication An Introduction

Suppose you have found a magic lamp with a genie inside. The

genie will grant you one wish, but there’s a catch: you need to convince him that

your wish is worthwhile and that it will have a positive impact on the world.

Each year, TED (short for Technology, Entertainment, and Design), an orga-

nization devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” plays the role of this magic genie.

Winners receive $1,000,000 to turn a beneficial and world-changing idea into

reality. After months of preparation, TED Prize winners then unveil their wishes

and plans at the annual TED conference (TED Prize, 2013).

TED Prize winner and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver presented his wish (“To

teach every child about food”) at the 2010 conference in Long Beach, Califor-

nia. He opened his speech with a simple statement identifying an important

social and medical problem: “In the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four

Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat” (Oliver, 2010,

para. 1). Oliver went on to discuss the realities of obesity in the United States

and elsewhere, noting the personal health costs as well as the financial costs

of caring for people suffering from preventable, diet-related diseases. He then

discussed his experiences educating Americans in West Virginia, as part of his

Food Revolution television program.

Oliver openly considered the causes for the problem he was addressing: a lack

of education about healthy food choices at home and in schools; school lunch

programs focused on economics rather than on nutrition; a food industry that

promotes highly processed, unhealthy foods rather than more costly, healthy op-

tions; and confusing or misleading labeling on the foods we buy. He proposed

solutions, pointing to successful school lunch programs that could be easily rolled

out on a larger scale for a relatively small influx of cash. He also explained how

food businesses can—and, indeed, must—be an integral part of the solution.

Oliver ended his speech by reminding his listeners of his personal wish and

his goal for speaking that day: to form “a strong sustainable movement to edu-

cate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again, and to empower

people everywhere to fight obesity” (Oliver, 2010, para. 39).

chapter

Persuasive Speaking

16

The Goals of

Persuasive

Speaking

Developing a

Persuasive Topic

and Thesis

Persuading Your

Audience

Strategies for

Persuasive Speaking

Organizing Patterns

in Persuasive

Speaking

IN THIS CHAPTER

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