Public Speaking

Choose a Specific Purpose (^243)
your subject meets those standards. Set audience-centered criteria^22 by answering ques-
tions such as these:
• What criteria do we use to make and apply judgments regarding this issue?
• Where do these criteria come from?
• Why should we accept these sources?
Helene faced a hostile or at least moderately negative crowd when she presented
her value claim: Snakes make good pets. So she first set up some criteria that people com-
monly look for in a good pet:^23
• A pet should be interesting.
• Pets should be easy to care for.
• You should be able to read a pet’s emotions.
She then linked each point to snakes.
• She presented several interesting facts about snakes.
• She described how easy they were to care for.
• She explained how to read a snake’s emotions.
At the end of her speech, no one was ready to run out and buy a snake, but listeners
were more willing to evaluate snakes positively—at least as pets for someone else.
Convincing about Policies
To convince an audience that a policy claim is workable, you must adequately address
the stock issues, which are defined as the fundamental questions that must be answered
if a proposition is to be accepted or rejected. In other words, what questions would a
thinking, reasonable person ask and need to have answered to make a reasoned decision
about a particular issue?^24
The four stock issues related to policy claims are harm (or ill), blame, cure, and cost.
• Harm is sometimes called ill. Here you define the problem, explain its history, and
show that it is significant enough to call for a solution. Develop the quantitative harms
(the number of people affected) by using statistics or studies that show how wide-
spread it is. Also include qualitative harms (how it affects an individual’s or group’s
quality of life) by using examples or testimony from people involved with the
problem.
• Blame is the “cause” part of the problem where you link a cause or causes to the
effects you established in the harm section. What elements of the status quo contrib-
ute to the problem or allow it to remain unsolved? Some causes may be structural,
meaning that laws or organizations are either in place and should be removed, or
that structures are lacking, and the problem exists because they are not there. Other
causes may be attitudinal, meaning that individuals or groups lack the understand-
ing or the will to solve the problem. Either way, support your causal claims by using
scientific studies, plausible explanations, and testimony from experts who have inves-
tigated the problem in depth.^25
• Cure is the “solution” section of the speech where you provide a plan and describe
how it will create solvency, an effective solution to the problem. What must happen
for the problem to be solved? Who will do it? How? Through what agency? At what
price? How will the plan eliminate or bypass the structural or attitudinal causes?
Clear and detailed answers to these questions will help convince your listeners that
your plan will actually solve the problem.
• Cost is the “feasibility” part of the plan in which you do a cost–benefit analysis and
weigh the advantages against the disadvantages. You must show that the plan will actu-
ally work. Some plans look good on paper, but they are too costly in time or money
to be practical.
stock issues the questions
a reasonable person would
need to have answered
before forming a reasoned
decision about a topic
harm the problem in a stock
issues case; also called ill
blame the cause of the
problem
cure the solution
solvency the proposed
plan will actually solve the
problem
cost advantages weighed
against the disadvantages
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