How To Write A Persuasive Speech
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the presenter shares a simple yet effective technique for crafting persuasive speeches, emphasizing the use of real-life examples over mere facts and statistics. The speaker explains that while traditional teaching suggests facts are key to persuasion, human nature often resists such an approach. Instead, starting with a story or example that illustrates the point can significantly increase the persuasiveness of a speech. The presenter illustrates this with a personal story about the importance of wearing seat belts, using statistics to support the narrative rather than lead the argument, which can resonate more with the audience.
Takeaways
- 📝 Persuasive speeches can be challenging due to human nature's tendency to question facts and figures.
- 📚 Traditionally, people are taught that using more facts makes a speech more persuasive, but this can backfire as it triggers skepticism.
- 📖 The speaker suggests using real-life examples or stories as a more effective method to persuade an audience, a technique that dates back to ancient times.
- 📖 Parables from the Bible and stories from historical figures like Aesop demonstrate the power of storytelling in teaching moral lessons.
- 🚗 The script provides a personal example of the importance of wearing a seatbelt, illustrating the point with a vivid narrative of a car accident.
- 🔢 The Department of Transportation statistics are used to back up the narrative, showing that combining stories with facts can be more convincing.
- 👥 The technique of starting with a story and ending with an action or benefit statement is recommended to persuade the audience effectively.
- 🤔 The video acknowledges that people may still question statistics, but a personal story can make the message more relatable and harder to refute.
- 💡 Professional speakers often use stories to persuade their audiences, indicating that this method is widely recognized as effective in public speaking.
- 👍 The video encourages viewers to subscribe to the channel and engage with the content by leaving comments and questions.
- 🎶 The video ends with a call to action and a piece of music, indicating the conclusion of the presentation.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The main purpose of the video is to teach viewers a simple technique for designing a persuasive speech that can effectively win people over to their way of thinking.
What challenges are typically faced when trying to persuade an audience using facts and figures?
-When using facts and figures to persuade, human nature often leads to a devil's advocate response where people tend to find exceptions or counterexamples, making it difficult to convince them fully.
Why is it suggested to start a persuasive speech with an example or a story?
-Starting with an example or story helps to illustrate the point in a relatable way, which can be more effective in persuading the audience than presenting cold, hard facts alone.
What is the historical precedent for using stories to persuade?
-The technique of using stories to persuade dates back thousands of years, with examples such as parables in the Bible and stories used by philosophers like Aesop.
How can statistics be used effectively in a persuasive speech after telling a story?
-Statistics can be used to back up the story and reinforce the point being made, providing additional credibility and weight to the argument after the audience has been engaged by the narrative.
What is an example of a real-life story shared in the video to illustrate the importance of wearing a seatbelt?
-The speaker shares a personal experience of a car accident where he was wearing a seatbelt and survived with minor injuries, while the other driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, suffered severe injuries requiring extensive surgeries.
How does the speaker use the seatbelt example to transition into an action benefit statement?
-After recounting the accident story, the speaker concludes with the action benefit statement that wearing a seatbelt can prevent traumatic injuries in a crash, effectively persuading the audience of its importance.
What is the role of the Department of Transportation statistics in the persuasive speech about seatbelts?
-The Department of Transportation statistics serve as supporting evidence to the personal story, providing statistical proof to back up the narrative and strengthen the persuasive argument.
What is the significance of the 53% statistic mentioned in the script?
-The 53% statistic indicates that more than half of the motor vehicle fatalities were among people who were not wearing seatbelts, highlighting the risk associated with not wearing one.
How does the speaker address the potential counterargument to the seatbelt statistics?
-The speaker acknowledges the potential for counterarguments by pointing out that human nature leads people to find exceptions, which is why they recommend starting with a story to create a more persuasive argument.
What advice does the speaker give for structuring a persuasive speech effectively?
-The speaker advises starting with a relatable example or story, followed by an action benefit statement that succinctly summarizes the persuasive point, making the argument more compelling.
Outlines
📢 Persuasive Speech Techniques
This paragraph introduces the topic of the video, which is a simple method to design a persuasive speech. The speaker emphasizes the common challenge of persuading others using facts and statistics, which often triggers skepticism due to human nature. The paragraph also introduces the concept of using real-life examples or stories, like parables in the Bible, to effectively convey a message and persuade an audience. The example of promoting seatbelt use with supporting statistics is given to illustrate this technique.
🚨 Seatbelts: A Personal Story
The speaker shares a personal experience to drive home the importance of wearing seatbelts. While driving on a desolate road, the speaker was involved in a head-on collision caused by another driver crossing the center line. The speaker, who was wearing a seatbelt, survived the accident with minor injuries, while the other driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, suffered severe injuries requiring extensive medical intervention. The paragraph concludes with the speaker's recommendation to wear a seatbelt to avoid traumatic injuries in the event of a car crash, effectively using a personal narrative to persuade the audience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Persuasive Speech
💡Fearless Presentations
💡Human Nature
💡Facts and Figures
💡Parables
💡Professional Speaker
💡Seatbelt Statistics
💡Action Benefit Statement
💡Personal Story
💡Traumatic Injuries
💡Recovery
Highlights
The video introduces a simple way to design a persuasive speech.
Persuasive speeches can be useful in various situations, including staff meetings and formal presentations.
Traditionally, people believe that using facts and figures makes a speech persuasive.
Human nature often resists persuasion by facts alone, leading to skepticism.
A more effective persuasion technique is starting with a real-life example or story.
The use of parables in the Bible and stories by philosophers illustrates the power of storytelling in teaching.
Professional speakers often use stories to persuade their audience.
The speaker provides a personal example of the importance of wearing seatbelts.
Statistics from the Department of Transportation are cited to support the argument for seatbelt use.
The limitations of relying solely on statistics for persuasion are discussed.
A personal story about a car accident illustrates the impact of wearing a seatbelt.
The contrast between the speaker's and another driver's outcomes emphasizes the importance of seatbelts.
The technique of using a story followed by an action benefit statement is recommended for persuasion.
The video encourages viewers to subscribe to the channel and engage with the content.
The speaker promises to read and respond to all comments, fostering community engagement.
The video concludes with a teaser for the next installment of the Fearless Presentations series.
Transcripts
hey so in this video I'm gonna show you
a really simple way to design a
persuasive speech so if you're in a
situation where you're trying to win
people to your way of thinking but using
just your words then this technique can
be very very helpful and Doug's standard
with fearless presentations the fastest
easiest way to eliminate public speaking
fear and on this video we're gonna show
you some really simple things that you
can do if you're trying to persuade your
audience so this technique can be very
useful in staff meetings or if somebody
interrupts you with a question while
you're actually delivering your formal
presentation in those kind of situations
a lot of times we feel like we have to
be persuasive we have to win people to
our way of thinking and sometimes it can
be a little challenging the reason why
these types of speeches are fairly hard
to kind of pull off is that in most
cases human nature is kind of working
against us what we've been taught from
the time that we're in elementary school
junior high school high school is that
if we want to persuade somebody you want
to do it with facts and figures and
statistics the more facts that you have
the more persuasive you're gonna be the
problem with that though is that when
we're using facts statistics things like
that to try to persuade our audience
human nature kind of kicks in and we
want to play devil's advocate so by the
way this is true even if the person who
you're speaking to actually agrees with
the concept that you're trying to get
across to them the moment that you say
this is a hard and fast rule this is a
fact this is always true human nature
kind of kicks in we go oh wait a minute
I can think of at least one situation
where this thing would not be true and
when that when that happens it becomes
very difficult to win people to your way
of thinking so a better way to kind of
persuade people is instead of just using
facts and figures and statistics is to
start with an example a real-life
example that you can use to prove that
the concept that you're trying to get
across to your audience is true by the
way we didn't invent this this has been
around for thousands of years if you've
ever read the Bible the Gospels in the
Bible are full of parables which are
stories that are being used as a way to
kind of teach people a greater greater
piece of wisdom isse often back even you
know 300 years before Christ
was using stories as a way to tell
people the moral of this story so this
has been around for centuries and for
some reason we've just kind of stopped
using it in the business world but if
you ever watch a really really good
professional speaker a person who makes
a living speaking in front of groups
then he or she is most likely gonna use
stories as the way to persuade the
audience and you can do that as well so
I'll give you a good example of this so
let's say for instance that I want to
I'll just pick a random topic let's just
say that I want to convince you that you
should wear a seatbelt so what I did was
I went to the Internet and I kind of
looked up some statistics about
seatbelts these are actual statistics
from the Department of Transportation so
three statistics about why you should
wear a seatbelt the first one is that
53% of all motor vehicle fatalities from
last year were people who weren't
wearing seatbelts second statistic is
that people not wearing seatbelts are
thirty times more likely to be ejected
from the vehicle and then finally in a
single year crash deaths and injuries
cost us over seventy billion dollars so
if I kind of take those three statistics
and I use those as a way if that's
basically all I do is I just give you
those three statistics statistics and I
say okay you should wear your seatbelt
now there's a good chance that you're
gonna human nature's gonna kick in and
you're gonna want to poke holes at that
because that's what I want to do by the
way I'm sitting there reading these
statistics and the first one that was
mentioned was 53% of people who were
killed or injured in a motor vehicle
were not wearing their seatbelt I'm
thinking 53% it's kind of close to half
right so that means that 47% of the
people that were injured or killed we're
wearing the seatbelt so for me that's
not a real plausible fact that that kind
of proves the point
thus oh and by the way that's gonna
happen every time that you give a
statistic you're gonna have at least
some of the people in the audience that
will hear that statistic and say yeah I
can think of at least one situation
where that's not true so the technique
that we encourage people to use to be
more persuasive or to design a
persuasive speech is to start with an
example or a story that proves that
point is true so if I want to prove to
you that it's important to wear seat
belts all I have to do is think about
one specific time from my own life that
either I was wearing a seat belt and it
kept me from getting injured or I wasn't
wearing wearing a seat belt and I did
get injured or maybe it's some of that I
know that wasn't wearing a seat belt and
as a result they had to do all kinds of
surgeries and everything and I just tell
you that story and then use this
statistic as a way to back up the story
and all of a sudden it it works a whole
lot better that way so let me give you
an example like for instance from my own
life back when I was in my 20s I was
driving from West Texas to the Dallas
Fort Worth area and it's a desolate road
I mean there's just not a whole lot out
there and so I was listening to the
radios listen to to some CDs that I had
in my in my truck which you know that
was back before mp3s and iPhones and
stuff like that so it's kind of
challenging to kind of slip those CDs in
one at a time and find the correct track
and so but it didn't really matter
because there's nobody else on the road
I mean I'm the only car within miles and
miles and miles and and all of a sudden
I'm changing my CD and I look up and
when I look up there's headlights coming
right at me and there was a car that
actually ended up crossing over the
center line and hittin me head-on and
when I when that occurred I just totally
blacked out it was I lost consciousness
when I came to I was I'm kind of
checking I can see that something
traumatic has happened that I've been in
an accident because the car is kind of
the pickup truck has kind of crushed
around me but I've got my seatbelt on
and so I take it off and I'm trying to
open the door I can't get the door open
because it's crushed in but the the
windshield is shattered so I ended up
climbing out of my truck onto the hood
and kind of dropping down to the
pavement and when I looked at the the
guy who was in the other car I kind of
noticed that he had been crushed he
wasn't wearing a seat belt and his face
had smashed into the the steering wheel
and he it was it was he was a mess he
was a mess the other thing that it
occurred was after his face hit the
steering wheel his body continued to go
upward and his leg got trapped
underneath the steering wheel and kind
of he had a number of different
fractures in his leg so he ended up
being fine but the
difference was is that because I was
wearing my seatbelt I was back in the
game it took me three or four or five
weeks or so to to kind of recover from
the accident it took him years he had
surgery after surgery after surgery for
facial reconstruction and to put pins in
his legs and stuff like that and the
thing about it was that we were both
driving very similar vehicles we were
both hit at about the same spot on each
one of our of our cars the only
difference was that I was wearing a seat
belt and he wasn't so the action I
wouldn't suggest that you take is to
wear your seat belt if you do you're
going to be able to avoid some of those
traumatic injuries if you're in a very
difficult crash so do you see what I did
there was I spent two minutes three
minutes or so really giving you a
picture painting a picture in your mind
of what actually happened when I was in
that accident and I use the last couple
of seconds to slip the the action
statement or the the opinion that I have
about this and slip it in there so and
that's a great great great way to kind
of persuade your audience start with an
example a story then in with a with what
we call an action benefit statement and
if you do that you're gonna win people
to your way of thinking hey so if you
haven't yet subscribed to the channel
make sure and do that and leave me a
comment basically I read every single
one of these comments so if you have a
question or concern or an idea that I
have it covered make sure and leave that
in a comment and I'll respond to you as
fast as I can
we'll see you on the next fearless
presentations video
[Music]
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