Persuasive Presentations

Chapter 12 introduces the topic of persuasive presentations with a case study involving Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ speech to the United Nations advocating for world leaders to work toward providing affordable health care to their citizens. The content of the chapter begins by discussing how presentations have changed with the prevalence of new technologies. Then, the chapter details how to create an organized presentation by first explaining how to determine one’s persuasive purpose. This involves coming up with a topic, determining one’s general purpose statement and specific purpose statement, and then considering the nature of one’s persuasive presentation by determining if the topic is a question of policy, value, or fact. The text then suggests considering the audience by determining their attitudes and beliefs. Next, various organizational patterns are detailed, including the cause-and-effect pattern, the problem-solution pattern, and Monroe’s motivated sequence. This section also offers a sample persuasive outline. Chapter 12 then details the different types of arguments, including argument by example, definition, analogy, cause, sign, statistic, and principle or value. Finally, the chapter discusses standards for argument, which include relevance, sufficiency, and credibility.