Real Communication An Introduction

Chapter 16  Persuasive Speaking 487

Main point 1: Some parents claim that providing condoms is immoral and

encourages casual sex among students.

Main point 2: Sexual relations, regardless of moral values, will occur among

students in a college atmosphere.

Main point 3: If condoms are difficult to obtain, sexual activity will result in

unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Main point 4: Students will engage in sexual relations regardless of whether

condoms are available, so it is to everyone’s advantage that students have

easy access to safe sex methods.

The use of this format with a hostile audience can actually help you build
credibility. Having established a sense of respect and goodwill between speaker
and audience by acknowledging those points, you can then move on to explain
the reasons why you believe, nonetheless, that your thesis is true.

Comparative Advantage Pattern

Another way to organize speech points is to show that your viewpoint is superior
to other viewpoints on the topic. This arrangement, called the comparative
advantage pattern, is most effective when your audience is already aware of the
issue or problem and agrees that a solution is needed. Because listeners are aware
of the issue, you can skip over establishing its existence and can move directly to
favorably comparing your position with the alternatives. With this strategy, you
are assuming that your audience is open to various alternative solutions.
To maintain your credibility, it is important that you identify alternatives
that your audience is familiar with as well as those that are supported by oppos-
ing interests. If you omit familiar alternatives, your listeners will wonder if
you are fully informed on the topic and become skeptical of your comparative
alternative as well as your credibility. The final step in a comparative advantage
speech is to drive home the unique advantages of your option relative to compet-
ing options with brief but compelling evidence.

Thesis: New members of our hospital’s board of directors must be conflict-free.

Main point 1: Justin Davis is an officer in two other organizations.

Main point 2: Vivian Alvarez will spend six months next year in London.

Main point 3: Lillian Rosenthal’s husband served as our director two years ago.

Main point 4: Sam Dhatri has no potential conflicts for service.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

In Chapter 13, we gave you a brief introduction to Alan Monroe’s motivated
sequence pattern for organizing your speech. It is a time-tested variant of the
problem–solution pattern and has proved quite effective for persuasive speaking,
particularly when you want your audience to do something—buy a product or
donate time or money to a cause, for example. We’ll elaborate on Monroe’s five-
step sequence here:

Have you ever sat through a

lecture or a class where the

instructor offered a lesson

that affirmed a point of view

different from your own? Did

the instructor acknowledge

differing viewpoints? If so,

what was your reaction to

hearing the instructor’s argu-

ment against your belief?

Did you respect the speaker

more or less for addressing

your counterpoints?

AND YOU?