Learning the features of persuasion – and how persuasion and propaganda overlap – form a part of your lang and lit course. So if you happen to be given a persuasive speech in your final Paper 1 exam, you can count yourself lucky. Persuasive speeches are organised around clear formal frameworks, such as appeals to logic and emotional appeals, and also provide a chance for individual speakers to express themselves stylistically. Check the formal features of persuasive speeches opposite and, if you want to learn more, visit the course page for this unit of study. Then browse these sample responses to see how to put your learning into practice:
SAMPLE RESPONSES:
William Morris Lecture
TRY FOR YOURSELF:
KEY FEATURES OF SPEECHES
Ethos: the speaker establishes his or her credibility and may allude to a moral, social or spiritual leader with whom the audience cannot disagree.
Logos: clear, reasonable arguments, facts and statistics and quoting experts in the field are all ways of establishing a logical appeal.
Pathos: emotive language and imagery are ways of helping the audience empathize with the feelings of other – often vulnerable – people.
Persuasive: the speaker attempts to make his or her listener think in a certain way, believe something or take action.
Direct address: the speaker tries to draw closer to the listeners by addressing them as ‘you’ – look out for the use of ‘we’ or‘ us’ to include the speaker and listener on the same side – and be wary of attempts to compliment the listener.
Modality: modal verbs are small but important words (such as ‘must’, ‘need’, ‘should’, ‘might,’ and so on) that reveal the speaker’s degree of certainty and strength of feeling. You can study modality here.
Rhetorical devices: all kinds of rhythmical, structural, auditory and linguistic tricks can be employed by a skilled speaker. They are too many to list here, but rhetorical strategies can be studied and learned.
Logical Fallacies: also called ‘argumentation fallacies.’ Common fallacies in speeches are glittering generalizations, simplification and slippery slope.