Public Speaking Handbook

How to develop Your Persuasive speech 16.4 363

Determine Your Persuasive Purpose

When you persuade others, you don’t always have to strive for dramatic changes
in their attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior. People rarely make major life
changes after hearing just one persuasive message. Your speaking goal may be
to move listeners a bit closer to your ultimate persuasive objective.
social judgment theory suggests that when listeners are confronted with
a persuasive message, their responses fall into one of three categories: (1) a lati-
tude of acceptance, in which they generally agree with the speaker; (2) a latitude
of rejection, in which they disagree with the speaker; (3) a latitude of noncom-
mitment, in which they are not yet committed either to agree or disagree—they
are not sure how to respond.^13
It is important to know which latitude your listeners are in before you be-
gin so that you can choose a realistic persuasive goal. If most of your listeners
are in the latitude of rejection, it will be difficult to move them to the latitude of
acceptance in a single ten-minute speech. As shown in Figure 16.4, perhaps the
best you can do is to make them less certain about rejecting your idea by moving
them to the latitude of noncommitment. Sometimes just getting audience mem-
bers to listen and not reject a new idea may be all you can hope to accomplish.

Develop Your Central Idea and Main Ideas

The overall structure of your speech flows from your central idea and the main
ideas that support your central idea. Your central idea, as you recall, is a one-
sentence summary of your speech. When persuading others, most speakers find

Latitude of Rejection

Listeners disagree

with the speaker

Latitude of Acceptance

Listeners agree

with the speaker

Latitude of Noncommitment

Listeners are uncommitted

or not sure how to respond

Speaker’s position

(in favor of proposal)

Speaker’s realistic speech

objective (Audience will be

uncommitted and will listen to

an alternative point of view.)

Audience’s initial

position (against

speaker’s proposal)

Figure 16.4 a Model of social Judgment theory
When developing your specific persuasive objective for one speech, be realistic. according to
social judgment theory, your goal may be to nudge your audience along the continuum of accept-
ance toward the latitude of noncommitment rather than to propel them from one end to the other.
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