400 17.5 Using PersUasive strategies
problem can be documented and a solution can be proposed to deal with the
evils of the well-documented problem.
When you are speaking to an apathetic audience or when listeners are not
aware that a problem exists, a problem–solution pattern works nicely. Your chal-
lenge will be to provide ample evidence to document that your perception of the
problem is accurate. The Sample Persuasive Speech in this chapter shows how
Texas State University student Colter Ray met this challenge. You’ll also need to
convince your listeners that the solution that you advocate is the most appropri-
ate one to resolve the problem.You ARe wHAT You eAT: wHY You SHoulD eAT
GRASS-FeD oRGAnIC BeeF
Colter Ray, Texas State University^37
Have you ever thought where your food comes from? And I’m not talking
about just the supermarket, but I’m talking about where it came from
before the supermarket. For a society that we live in that’s so obsessed
with fast food and dieting, health, prescriptions, The Biggest Loser, and
racing for the cure, it’s sort of dumbfounding that so many people don’t
even question where their food is coming from.
I myself started looking into this a while ago and ended up making the
decision to switch from the normal ground beef, which is grain-fed round
beef, to organic grass-fed ground beef, and in the two years since I made
the switch, I’ve become much healthier, much more energetic, and overall,
just feel better about myself.
In general I believe that grass-fed ground beef is the better choice
when it comes to that or grain-fed, which is what most people buy. So,
today we’ll look at the unhealthy by-products found in grain-fed ground
beef, as well as the unhealthy process by which that beef is made, and
then we’ll talk a little bit about grass-fed as a possible solution.
To begin, let’s talk about the unhealthy by-products you might find in
a normal tube of ground beef that you would buy from the supermarket.
According to Gerald Zirnstein, a former scientist with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, 70 percent of our ground beef that we would buy contains
what he calls “pink slime.” And this is really just beef trimmings that have
been put together and sprayed down with ammonia gas to kill off bacteria.
And this pink slime was originally only allowed in dog food and then over
time it became allowed to be used in melted-down form in cooking oil.
And then finally it was allowed to be used in our ground beef as filler. And
so how did this happen? How did we come to adding this pink slime to
our ground beef? Well what ended up happening was that Joann Smith,
who used to work for the USDA as an undersecretary, ended up saying
that it was OK to add this, even though all the USDA scientists were
not even willing to go as far as naming this pink slime to be meat. They
wanted it to be listed as a separate ingredient, but she said, “No, it’s OK,”
SAMple peRSuASIVe SpeeCH
Colter catches his audience’s
attention with a rhetorical
question. He wants his listeners
to be more mindful of what they
eat and where their food comes
from.
He helps to establish his
credibility by noting his personal
experience with the topic.Here, Colter previews his major
idea and provides a general
overview of his main points.
By stating his purpose in his
introduction, he is assuming
that his audience will be
generally favorable toward his
goal or at least not hostile to his
key purpose.In this portion of his speech,
Colter states the problem and
documents the significance of
the problem using statistics and
expert testimony.