Page 405 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

372 Part 4 Contexts for Public Speaking

Former New York
mayor Rudy Giuliani
used his persuasive
skills after September
11, 2001 to encourage
New Yorkers to return
to their normal lives.

Persuasion doesn’t come cheap. Businesses and their advertising agencies, for
persuasion
example, spent about $140 million in the attempt to persuade the 2007 Super
The process by which a
Bowl audience to stay loyal, switch products, or simply remember their compa-
speaker infl uences what
ny’s name. Was it money well spent? Not necessarily. Persuasion isn’t just expen-
audience members think
sive, it’s also much more diffi cult than most people think.
or do.
Consider the fact that public and private agencies spend hundreds of millions
of dollars each year in the attempt to persuade people to take better care of their
health. Despite their best efforts, however, people continue to abuse their health
in obvious ways. They eat too much and exercise too little. Some smoke and oth-
ers chew, even though warnings about the severe risks to their user’s health ap-
pear on the packaging of cigarettes and “smokeless” tobacco. To paraphrase an
old adage, you can surround people with persuasive messages, but you cannot
make them behave accordingly.
This chapter focuses on persuasion in general and public speaking specifi -
cally. We return to the rhetorical situation but this time look at it through the
eyes of speakers who hope to infl uence their audiences in some specifi c fashion.
In recognition that this is easier said than done, we begin with a discussion of
the different purposes persuasive speeches can perform. We next tie these pur-
poses to audiences, speakers and their messages, and the context in which they
speak. Finally, we integrate this information with strategies speakers can take to
best realize their persuasive purposes.

Persuasive Purposes

Recall that the rhetorical situation needs to be looked at with the purpose of
a speech clearly in mind. Persuasive speeches can and often do serve differ-
ent purposes. In the case of an initial speech or at the beginning of a persua-
sive campaign, the purpose may be as simple as creating a forceful and lasting