ChaPter 17 Persuasive Speaking
problem, that solutions exist, and that we can be part of those solutions? For which
causes would I sign a petition or join a protest?
• What practices enrich my life? What have I discovered that makes life more meaningful?
What activities expand our horizons? Improve our health? Lead to more fulfilling
personal relationships?
Carrie’s speech about grief counseling on campus grew out of her experiences
following her father’s death. (It is available in Appendix B and on your online resources.)
Other students spoke to convince listeners that rap music reinforces male dominance,
that photoshopped images in ads are unethical, that the audience should attend a ballet
or learn another language, and so on.Make a Claim
After you have chosen a topic, your next step is to identify the major claim—a debatable
point or proposal, conclusion, or generalization—to support, whether it be fact, value,
or policy.Claims of Fact
Factual claims address controversial questions about what, when, where, why, or
how something happened or will happen. We use terms such as true or false, correct or
incorrect, yes or no to assess their validity. The three general categories regarding facts are
debatable points, causal relationships, and predictions.
Debatable points are disputable statements about things that do or do not exist
(existence) or things that did or did not happen (history). Here are two examples about
which reasonable people disagree:
There is life on other planets.
Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone to assassinate President Kennedy.
Causal claims are made about the relationship between occurrences. Often two
things regularly occur together (correlation). But does that mean they are linked in
such a way that the first one leads to the other? In other words, correlation and causa-
tion are not synonymous. For example, skipping breakfast and poor grades may occur
together in an elementary school (correlation), but does skipping breakfast actually lead
to poor grades (causation)? Other factors such as tardiness and absences may have more
impact on grades than breakfast.^5 Here are examples of causal claims:
Certain meat marinades reduce carcinogens in grilled chicken.^6
Too much time spent on Facebook causes depression in young girls.
Claims of prediction contend that something will or will not happen in the future.
For example,
Almost every country will be able to build or buy armed drones within ten years.^7
A deadly strain of flu will become a pandemic in the coming year.
In short, debatable points, causal claims, and predictions generate differences of
opinion that need evidence or support before audiences accept them. All three types
often exist in the same issue. Take climate change, for example. Someone might argue
that (1) unnatural climate change exists, (2) human activity caused it, and (3) if we don’t
do something, there will be dire consequences for the planet. Others might accept the
existence of change, but dispute the causes or the proposed solutions.claim a debatable point or
proposal, conclusion, or gen-
eralization that some people
won’t accept without some
sort of evidence or backing
factual claims argument
about debatable points,
causation, or predictions
debatable points disputable
statement about facts of exis-
tence or history
causal claim claim about
the relationship links between
occurrences
correlation two things occur
together, but one does not
necessarily lead to the other
claims of prediction claim
that something will or will
not happen in the future
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