How to Write a Persuasive Speech: Detailed Guide for Persuasive Speaking

If you want to be understood and reach your aims, you need to learn how to write a persuasive speech and then successfully deliver it. Persuasive speaking may be helpful in your daily life, at school, and at the workplace. In this article, we want to shed light on how to write a persuasive speech and give you easy recommendations you can follow right now.

What Is a Persuasive Speech

A persuasive speech is aimed to change, reshape, or support the audience’s point of views, attitudes, beliefs, and values. The result of a good persuasive speech is to prompt the audience to take specific action or reshape their thinking.

There are three types of persuasive speeches:

• Factual. This type is based on something that has factual proof. This speech should persuade the audience about truthfulness or falsity of a particular topic. For example, the issue of the life of Mars can be based on existing facts and researches.
• Value. Typically, this type is referred to speeches that touch ethical or moral values. For example, you can talk about women’s right to abortion.
• Policy. Usually, this type is applied if you need to convince your audience to adopt a particular view on policy, law, or a candidate.

How to Write a Persuasive Speech Step by Step

1. Pick the topic. You need to consider your interests, audience, available resources, time, and setting. It’s highly important to speak about something you care and have enough knowledge about. You need to feel comfortable with the chosen topic and be sure that you can find the right words to persuade the audience.

2. Analyze your audience. What type of evidence will be more effective? Whom will likely take your stance? Which qualities do listeners respect in a speaker? How much does the audience know about the topic? Put yourself in the audience’s place and try to imagine what they think about the chosen topic.

3. Write a thesis statement. How to write a thesis statement for a persuasive speech? First, you need to find the specific purpose of your speech. What does it mean? The purpose of a persuasive speech is to persuade, convince, deepen the feelings towards, motivate to make a change, etc. Second, after you detect the primary purpose, you need to match it with your topic and result you want you to receive. For example, a specific purpose may be to convince the audience to vote in the upcoming election and increase political awareness among students.

4. Conduct research. It’s highly important to know your topic thoroughly to be able to persuade the audience. Also, you need to find convincing arguments to win the listener’s favor. For example, if you are going to talk about depression, you need to add statistics and other data from proven sources.

5. Write an outline. How to write a persuasive speech outline? Properly organized speech will create a more significant persuasive impact. Generally, persuasive speech consists of the following three parts:

– Introduction. How to write a persuasive speech introduction? Here you need to attract the listener’s attention, provide a thesis statement, and make a preview of the points you are going to discuss next. A good introduction should establish the credibility of your words. Also, it will be great to add a personal relevance of your listeners to the topic.

 – The body. State each point/reason and support with evidence, examples, and convincing vocabulary. The text should be well organized and express clear viewpoints. Every part of your speech should be connected with transition sentences. In the table below, you can pick one of the patterns to use in your speech.

 – Conclusion. In the end, it’s desirable to briefly repeat information about the main points and leave a memorable message impossible to ignore. Notice that the conclusion is your last chance to persuade your listeners. Restate main points and explain the audience why they should care. Use a signal phrase like “Thank you for your attention” to inform your audience that it’s the end of your speech.

Here is a list of organizational patterns that will make your speech more persuasive:

6. Practice your speech. Delivering a persuasive speech may differ from other speech types. You may need to use all your enthusiasm and passion to make the listeners take your stance. Make your private audience (family or friends) to train your public speaking skills. Ask them to give you feedback on specific aspects of your speech and comment on the effectiveness of your arguments.

Persuasive Speech Sample Analyzed

The following persuasive speech sample should help you understand the recommendations we provided. We have supported the example with comments to point out important points to consider while writing a persuasive speech.

Click on images to view them in full size.

Tips on How to Write a Good Persuasive Speech

• Be ready for questions. Persuasive speeches frequently raise questions from the listeners. Predict the list of possible questions and articulate your answers. In any case, stay open-minded and respect your listeners.
• Add visuals. A well-designed PowerPoint presentation will only increase the persuasive impact of your speech. Most people are visually oriented so having carefully picked images and text will build more trust in your words.
• The tone of the speech shouldn’t be forceful. People don’t like it when they are forced to change their decisions. A good persuasive speech should offer a credible list of arguments that will help the listener take your stance.
• Pick arguments wisely. You need to be careful with arguments, as your audience may ignore them or negatively react to them. Use only proven facts and statistics.
• Tell a story. Add a personal touch to your speech to build a closer connection with the audience.
• Avoid too many numbers. Don’t overwhelm people with information even if you know that the audience has a lack of knowledge about the topic.
• Use persuasive techniques. You can use emotional and logical appeal, apply parallelism, tell an anecdote, or make an analogy to highlight your ideas in the best way.
• End strongly. Many speakers fail to end their thoughts properly, and the ending turns into mumbling. In case you don’t know what to say, emphasize the final word.

How to Make Your Speech Even More Persuasive

Here are some hints that you can use while writing and delivering a persuasive speech.

– Cut the following phrases: “actually,” “but,” “no,” “simply,” “just,” “incorrect,” “recommend,” etc. Words that have a negative context should be avoided to create the right tone for your speech.
– Train your vocal power. Go into the woods or a big empty room and try to scream and speak loudly. Try to feel all the power of your voice and correctly spell out all words. Regular practice will help you avoid trembling and strengthen your voice.
– Sincerely believe your words. You won’t sound persuasive if you don’t agree with what you say. Speak about what you really care about and completely agree with.
– Avoid filler words. But “umm,” “um,” “uh,” “err,” “hmmm,” “like,” “you see/know,” “totally,” “I guess” are the most common filler words used to fill the pauses between ideas. Use pauses instead, and try to control the words you use in your speech.
– Prepare ahead. You won’t be able to persuasively talk about a specific topic if you don’t know enough about it. Also, you will need some practice to learn information and use the best techniques to make your speech sound persuasive.
– Mind your manners. A good speaker is a good listener too. If someone is asking a question or giving you a response, show your patience, don’t interrupt, and listen to the end.
– Show your passion. Nothing makes speech more engaging and persuasive than emotions. Your passion and enthusiasm are automatically transferred to your listeners.

Speaking persuasively may take time and patience, as this type of speech requires practice and preparation. We hope that this guide will help you develop an effective and compelling persuasive speech that will turn your audience to your side.