470 Part 4 Public Speakingc “LGBTQ individuals should have the same rights as all other Americans.”c “Colleges and universities should not consider race when making admissions
decisions.”
c “Any vehicle that gets poor gas mileage (say, less than twenty-five miles per
gallon) should be banned in the United States.”In advocating for any of these statements, your task as the speaker would be to
persuade the audience that a current policy is not working or that a new policy is
needed. Propositions of policy are common during election campaigns as candi-
dates—especially challengers—offer their ideas and plans for what a government
should do and how they would do it.
No matter what your topic, and no matter which type of proposition you
are advocating, you’ll need to know as much as possible about your listeners in
order to persuade them effectively. This is the topic of the next section.Persuading Your Audience
A student once told us an interesting story about audience analysis. At a church
service the Sunday after Thanksgiving, her pastor preached on the religious
meaning of Christmas (likely in response to the shopping binges known to take
place the weekend after many of us eat a little too much stuffing and apple pie).
He was hoping to persuade his audience to avoid getting caught up in com-
mercialism, present swapping, and credit card debt. “He was passionate about
the topic, and his points were right on,” the student said, “but the congregation
already agreed with him. It almost felt like he was angry with us or something. It
was uncomfortable.”
As this story shows, it is crucial to know your audience before
developing your speech, as this knowledge will help you tailor your
organization, research, and supporting points. It will even help you
determine your specific purpose—whether to try to change or to
reaffirm the audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. This was the
mistake of our student’s pastor. He would have benefited from thor-
oughly understanding his listeners’ disposition and needs as well as
what is most relevant to them.Understanding Your Audience’s Disposition
According to social judgment theory (Sherif, Sherif, & Nebergall,
1965), your ability to successfully persuade your audience depends on
the audience’s current attitudes or disposition toward your topic, as
well as how strongly they feel about their current position.
Let’s consider this theory in light of the following example: you
are the student government president at a regional college where it
is easy for students to visit their hometowns on the weekends. As
such, your school has gained a reputation of being a “suitcase” school,
making for dull weekends for those students who remain on campus.
To address this problem, you propose that the school ban first- andFROM PROPOSING
to improve the quality of
campus dining to champion-
ing for more money for
student events, propositions
of policy are common in
student government elections.
Image Source Plus/Alamy
During a campaign season,
pay attention to the
candidates’ speeches
and debates, or visit
presidentialrhetoric.com
to view current and past
presidential speeches. How
often does the speaker put
forth propositions of fact? Of
value? Of policy? Does one
type of proposition seem to
cause more debate or
controversy than others?AND YOU?