Persuasive and effective writing is where many students falter. As children, most students have vivid imaginations and excel in creative writing but when it comes to persuading our parents to buy us a pet or finally take that vacation to Wonderla, the conversation ends up blowing up in our faces. How can we use common tips used by influential writers and motivational speakers to change our lives and get more from ordinary arguments.
1) KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Your audience is an important factor in your speech or script, because essentially, they are the ones that you have to connect with. For example, a group of kids would be much more biased towards a funny and interactive speech while older students or adults would be partial to a more informative, one-sided speech with larger amounts of data. The way you speak, your tone, is also essential. Nobody wants to hear a monotonous, half-asleep speaker who has no passion for the topic they are speaking about. Your enthusiasm makes you a better speaker and writer (and may even help you grow your audience). Apart from the tone and appeal of your audience, the age of your audience will also impact your speech. Using difficult synonyms when you're presenting to a group of 2nd graders is less effective than if you use the same speech for 10th graders.
2) RESEARCH BOTH SIDES
It's imperative to understand how your opposition thinks because it allows you to come up with rebuttals or counterpoints. It can drastically impact your persuasion and influence on another person, be it in person or on paper. For example, in a persuasive paper, instead of following the usual template, you can break tradition and find reasons why not only you are right but why your opposition is wrong. Lets take an example: you are trying to convince your parents to let you adopt a pet dog. Now, your parents may say that dogs are difficult to take care of and you don't have the responsibility to take care of a living organism. You, in rebuttal can mention not only that dogs significantly increase the happiness in a persons life but also look at it from their point of view. Your parents are most likely afraid that picking up after the pet and taking care of it will be their responsibility. Assuring them that you will 100% take care of and pay for your pet can convince them otherwise, or you can take it a step further and take care of one of your friends pet for a few days.
3) START INSPIRATIONAL
Speeches become captivating for the listener when the speech starts with a quote. A straightforward approach to speaking my seem efficient and less time-consuming, but if you audience isn't engaged, then they aren't really listening. Starting with a question may be the best way to keep your audience engaged and interactive. Quotes hook the listener, especially those from well known people. One big NO-NO is to start your speech with "Hello my name is BLANK and today I will be talking about BLANK." This is an immediate snooze button. It isn't inherently a bad introduction, but its mediocrity is immense and can lead to people ignoring what you have to say. Try to instead, start with introducing the topic then introducing yourself. If we take the topic air pollution, instead of starting with your name and grade, instead start with "50 billion tonnes. That's a huge amount. That's also the amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere every year." After this introduction, proceed to introduce yourself, then get to the rest of your speech.
These introductions are called hooks, because they figuratively hook the audience into your speech, guaranteeing that you have their attention.
4) WHEN IN DOUBT: REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT
Truth be told, repetition is one of the best tools any public speaker or writer has. This is because of various reasons, the main one being that whoever heard or read your piece will never forget it. Repeating a catchphrase is one of the insisting (though occasionally irritating) neutron pathway connectors. Everyone from teachers (who teach 1st graders their time tables) to politicians (while campaigning) use this technique. Admittedly, this may not work if you are personally trying to convince someone of something, but it is effective when you are trying to inspire an idea. When using repetition be sure to find the perfect balance, which may vary from speech to speech. To much repetition can become annoying and vexing while to little can seem out of place and may fail to register in your audiences' brain.
5) GIVE ME PROOF
Essentially, you can sugarcoat as much as possible, but no one will truly believe you unless you can provide facts to backup your answer. This can be in the form of statistics, experiments, studies, whatever you please, but as you incorporate facts into your speech, your initial statement seems more likely to be right or just in their eyes.
6) FOCUS ON THE "WHY?"
Emphasising why you believe in one view or why you want something speaks as your value and purpose. Your value for the action or idea being fulfilled, should be spoken about from your passion. Your purpose is essentially your intention through gaining whatever it is you have mentioned in your speech. The question 'why' may evoke emotion, which will allow you to connect to your audience easier (by using either empathy or sympathy).
7) ETHOS, PATHOS, & LOGOS ALL THE WAY
Aristotle's principles of ethos, pathos and logos are age old laws of persuasion. They are a three-pronged, simple approach to influencing an audience.
The first law of persuasion, pathos is translated to 'experience', 'suffering' or 'emotion'. Essentially what Aristotle says is that appealing to emotions is one of the best guaranteed way to convince someone to support. Inferring from the translation of pathos to 'suffering', it can also be used in a sympathetic manner. Due to the humaneness of your audience, pathos is probably the most effective law of persuasion.
Ethos translates to 'character' in Greek. It utilizes authority and expertise to assure the audience that your points are valid. It convinces the audience that you have experience in that field. Often, ethos is less used when it comes to persuasion but it is just as efficient as any other method proposed by Aristotle.
The last method of persuasion endorsed by Aristotle was logos. From Greek, it translates to "reason" or "argument". Basically, what logos says is that logic and reasoning can be used to coax someone into siding with you. Though it is not the most effective method, this can be used with more practical and formal audiences. Statistics, facts, studies, experiments, etc. fall under the logos category.
8) CONSIDER YOUR TONE
The tone of delivery plays a key part in the message received by your audience. Not only does tone include mood and emotion conveyed, but also the pacing of your speech. Make sure that your speech doesn't come across as monotonous and change the intonation depending on the importance of what you are conveying during that particular line. A faster tone of speaking is usually frowned upon and an average clear tone of speaking should be used when conveying general messages and fillers. A slow, clear tone is used when conveying important or key ideas in your speech.
9) CLARITY
Clarity and enunciation is essential for understanding speeches. Public speakers recommend exaggeratedly rolling your r's or reciting tongue twisters prior to your speech. If you find yourself stumbling over your words, take a deep breath, calm your mind and pick up right where you left off. Remember, if you're a beginner, nobody will judge you based on your clarity and speaking skills but rather the message you are putting forward. If you're nervous or anxious about speaking, look into the crowd and imagine you're speaking to a close family member or friend.
10) RECIPROCITY
Finally, the last tip, be sure to engage your audience in your speech by asking questions and making relatable examples and scenarios to help them further understand your message. A two-way conversation is always more intriguing for the audience. Along with their proactiveness, your audiences interest and attentiveness increases many times over. Your idea or point of view will be taken into heavier consideration if reciprocity is included in your speech/writing.
To end this post, I'd like to mention that the best way to speak your best is to practise in front of a mirror or a friend. Your family/friends will be honest and constructive judges of your speech and will help your overall execution when your final performance is given.
That's all from me,
"The Book Keeper"