 In previous discussions we talked about different types of speaking, different purposes for public speaking and presentations. So in this video I want to give some tips focusing on speaking to persuade. What do we mean by speaking to persuade? Well when we speak to persuade we see to influence the attitudes, beliefs, values, or actions of others. So that word influence is key in them. We're trying to give people to change their mind, people to change their behaviors, whatever it is we're trying to influence them in some way. So we're going beyond just sharing information and trying to influence them in one of these ways. So when we think about persuasive strategies and there are different strategies for persuading people, first and foremost when we're trying to persuade it's important that we select a topic that matters. It's important that we select an important topic. We discussed a topic selection selecting from that intersection of topics you know, topics you love, and topics your audience will care about. So we need to be sure that we're selecting a topic that's important in the midst of those areas. We also need to prove the relevance to the audience. We need to demonstrate to the audience why they should care about this. That's critically important if we're going to be effective in persuading is that they understand why this is important to them. Then we can use Aristotle's persuasive appeals. We've discussed these previously, ethos, pathos, and logos. So just real quickly let's review what those are. So ethos is persuasion based on credibility. It's telling the audience that you can trust them, that they can trust you rather. So in order to do so, in order to demonstrate effective ethos, and include ethos as part of our persuasive strategy, we need to demonstrate to the audience that we are knowledgeable, that we have some expertise in that area either through experience or through research or academic knowledge. We need to be honest, tied to that. We need to be trustworthy. We need to be able to identify with an audience and build good will with that audience, letting them know that we have their best interests at heart. And then finally, we can use charismatic and confident delivery to help convey a sense of credibility and confidence to the audience and help them believe in us in that way. We also need to consider the persuasive appeal based on emotion, which is what we call pathos. So pathos is based on emotion. In order to develop pathos effectively within a persuasive speech, we can use examples and stories about people that will help connect that idea to the audience and place it in a real life context. We can use photos because they speak strongly to the heart and develop emotional appeals in that way. And we can use emotive language. We can select our language carefully in a way that elicits a particular motion. And in thinking about logos, in other words, persuasion based upon logic, so not appealing, not tugging at the heartstrings here, but appealing to the mind. We ought to be concerned with facts, statistics, sound reasoning. All of these things are what are going to demonstrate the accuracy and the veracity of our case through logical appeals. Just a reminder on the basics of logic. Logic starts with a claim. In other words, what do you know? Then you add to that evidence, or how do you know it? And then add to that reasoning, or how does your evidence prove your claim? What's the connection between those things? And then finally, the logic. That's where you end up when you add claim and evidence and reasoning together. You throw them in the blender and you end up with logic. So when we think about Aristotle's persuasive appeals, again, we need ethos of credibility. We need to pay those from emotional appeals and logos from the logical appeals. And then in the intersection of all of that is where you're going to find your most effective persuasion. Keep in mind also in terms of persuasive strategies, we want to patch holes by addressing counter arguments. So we ought to anticipate what arguments the audience might have to our claims and to our evidence and to our different appeals and address those within the speech kind of preemptively and patch those holes by addressing those counter arguments. We also need to remember that persuasion is incremental. It doesn't happen all at once. Persuasion doesn't only happen when you totally cause someone to do a complete turnaround in their view. Persuasion happens a little bit at a time. If we can get somebody to even reconsider their ideas, even if they don't end up changing their mind, if we can get them to even think about it or whatever, that should be considered a success. Persuasion happens in increments. It happens little bits at a time over time. We also need to target needs when we're thinking about persuasion. We ought to be targeting. You can use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs here as an example. We ought to target, well, where is the audience at and what can I do to meet them at that area of need? We ought to appeal to shared values. Again, we want to let the audience know that we have their best interests at heart, which involves letting them know that we understand who they are and that we share their values. And that's why we're expressing all of this to them and trying to change your mind about this particular attitude or behavior or whatever it is. Hopefully you have a little bit better idea of how you can go about persuading. Again, the most important thing initially is to identify your purpose. Once you identify that purpose as persuasion, you can use some of these strategies to help you deliver a more effective presentation.