Chapter 14: Persuasive Presentations

Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide

The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes.
The Integrator Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources relevant to each
objective.

Integrated Objectives Resources

Identify real-world situations that involve In the text:
motivational speeches, goodwill speeches, Page references: 469-474
proposals, and sales presentations. Activities: 1-3
. Career Tip: How to Request a Raise

Key terms: benefits; features; goodwill speech; Instructor's Manual online:

motivational speech; proposal; sales presentation Discussion Launchers: 1-4
Classroom Activities: 1,2

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 2
Design a persuasive appeal that is ethical as well as In the text:
effective. Page references: 474-476
Ethical Challenge: Principled Persuasion
Key terms: persuasion
Instructor's Manual online:
Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 5,6
Classroom Activities: 3,4
Video Activity: 1
Apply the persuasive strategies discussed in these In the text:
pages to a presentation you are designing. Page references: 476-485
Activities: 4
Key terms: anchor; credibility; fallacy; latitude of Career Tips:
acceptance; latitude of noncommitment; latitude of Logic versus Emotion: Which Is Better?
rejection Standing in Your Audience's Shoes
On Your Feet: Public Service Announcement
Self-Assessment: Persuasive Strategies

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 7-12
Classroom Activity: 5
Video Activity: 2
Choose the most persuasive organizational plan for In the text:
your topic, audience, and situation. Page references: 485-495
Activity: 6
Key terms: comparative advantages; criteria

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satisfaction; motivated sequence; problem-solution
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 13
Classroom Activities: 6
Other resources found on the Online Learning Center:
Student online center
Glossary
Key Term Flashcards
Key Term Crosswords
Self-Quizzes
Instructor online center
PowerPoint Files

About Chapter 14

Chapter 14 focuses on four types of persuasive presentations in business and professional settings:
goodwill speeches, motivational speeches, proposals, and sales presentations. The text compares in
straightforward language the purposes of these four types, and it presents suggestions for selecting
organizational patterns that match each purpose.
This chapter continues with a discussion of ethical persuasion, developing students' sensitivity to the
distinctions among persuasion, coercion, and manipulation. The chapter then introduces Aristotle's classic
triad of persuasive modes: ethos, logos, and pathos. A section is devoted to each mode, giving students an
arsenal of ideas for building credibility, avoiding logical fallacies, and incorporating psychological
appeals. Here, the text revisits various strategies of audience analysis taught in Chapter 10, emphasizing
the importance of matching persuasive strategies to the needs, type, and cultural style of an audience.
Effective persuasion requires speakers to incorporate elements of ethos, logos, and pathos in their
presentations. Enhancing speaker credibility during a persuasive presentation involves demonstrating
competence, trustworthiness, similarity to the audience, and sincerity. Maximizing credibility relates to
the concept of effective encoding from Chapter 1. The concept of logos can be linked to clarity of
messages from Chapter 5. An effective choice of psychological appeals relates to earlier discussions of
audience awareness, addressed in the communication model (Chapter 1) and audience analysis (Chapter
10).
Adapting to various audiences also involves careful choices with regard to organization and
evidence. The last section of the chapter reintroduces four organizational patterns from Chapter 10:
problem-solution, comparative advantages, criteria satisfaction, and motivational sequence. Here,
students see how these previously learned patterns can be readily adapted to persuasive purposes.
Throughout the chapter, students will be able to incorporate previously taught skills as they plan and
deliver contemporary business presentations that are both ethical and persuasive.

Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling Assignment

Which of your classmates typically demonstrates the most credible ethos in speaking?
The most sound logos? The most convincing pathos? What elements from these speakers
can you incorporate into your own speeches?

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Discussion Launchers

1. Consider effective and ineffective motivational speeches you have heard. Compare aspects
of these speeches, such as organization, content, length, and delivery. What have you
learned from observation that you can use to enhance your own ability to motivate others.

2. Think of a goodwill presentation that you have attended. What strategies did the speaker use
to creating a positive image of the cause that was being represented? How successful were
these strategies? Can you think of any suggestions you could give this speaker for enriching
the positive image?

3. Recall a proposal you have made that the receiver didnt agree to. After having read this
chapter, how might you rework your presentation? Do you think this revised proposal might
be more successful if you had a chance to present it over again to the original audience in the
original setting?

4. The first three headings in the section about Sales Presentation exhort you to focus on your
client, not your product. Why is this so?

5. When have you felt that you have been the object of someone's persuasion? Someone's
coercion? Someone's manipulation? Before reading this chapter, how would you have
explained the differences among these concepts? Do the differences lie in what the speaker
intends or in how you perceive what the speaker is doing?
6. According to the text, what distinguishes an ethical from an unethical attempt to persuade?
Do you agree or disagree with the text? Why?

7. What will be the topic of your next persuasive presentation? How can you assure the
audience that you have sufficient credibility (ethos) to address this topic?

8. Think about various speakers you've listened to. Which ones did you perceive as most
credible? What had the speaker done to enhance his or her credibility? What, in your
mind, most quickly destroys the credibility of a speaker? Why?

9. Have you ever given a speech in which you felt that you didnt have much credibility as a
speaker? Why didnt you have credibility? How did the audience react? How did you
feel? If you could present this speech again, how would you build more credibility?

10. We frequently read or hear examples of logical fallacies in the media (especially in political
speeches and advertisements). Recall an example of a logical fallacy you have run across
recently. Does it fit into one of the categories of logical fallacies identified in this chapter? If
so, which one? If not, create your own new category of fallacies to be aware of.

11. Which kind of evidence is more persuasive to you, logical or emotional? Which is less
persuasive? Does your response vary with the claim and the context? With the speaker?
Explain.

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 12. How can you identify your audience's psychological needs so you can address them in your
presentation?

13. Discuss potential advantages and disadvantages of each of the patterns of organization
identified in this chapter.

Classroom Activities

1. Drafting a Proposal

Objective: Students will apply skills from this chapter to draft an outline of a proposal.

Procedure:
Review with the class the section of this chapter titled "Proposals." Then, have
students form groups. Each group should choose an initiative they would like to propose,
along with an audience and a setting where they would present the proposal. Groups
should choose either the problem-solution, criteria satisfaction, comparative advantages,
or motivated sequence pattern of organization. They must justify their choice of
organizational pattern and content based on the audience and occasion.

Class Discussion: Have each group present their outlines to the class. Invite classmates
to raise additional points or to question the effectiveness of the group's strategies. After
all groups have presented, you may wish to stimulate further discussion:
What do you think makes a proposal effective?
What features might reduce the chances that a proposal will be accepted?

2. Planning a Sales Presentation

Objective: Students will apply skills from this chapter to draft an outline of a sales
presentation.

Procedure: The day before this assignment, ask students to bring an item they would
like to "sell" to their classmates. If possible, they should bring product documentation
such as feature descriptions and user manuals.
Review with the class the section of this chapter titled "Sales Presentations."
Then have students form groups. Each group should select one of their items and
develop a presentation with the goal of "selling" this item to their classmates. Instruct
groups to work through each of the subheadings in the "Sales Presentation" section
(Establish Client Relationships before Your Presentation; Put Your Clients' Needs First;
Listen to Your Clients; Emphasize Benefits, Not Features; and Use an Effective Closing
Strategy). Students should jot down how they would achieve each topic. Allow time for
each group to show their item to the class and explain how they achieved the tasks
indicated under each of these headings.

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 Class Discussion: As each group presents, invite classmates to raise additional points or
to question the effectiveness of the group's strategies. After all groups have presented,
you may wish to reinforce the importance of putting audience needs first by pursuing
additional questions:
Have you ever attended a sales presentation?
Did it seem to follow these guidelines? Explain why or why not.
If so, was your reaction positive or negative? Explain.
What would you suggest to salespersons who want to leave a positive impression
on their clients?
If the sales presentation did not follow these guidelines, did you learn anything
that you would like to add to this conversation?

3. Identifying Ethical and Unethical Persuasive Strategies

Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to better identify
persuasive strategies as they appear in contemporary communication situations familiar to
them.
Procedure: The day before you do this activity, ask each student to bring an example of a
persuasive message from a print advertisement. As an alternative, you can assemble a stack
of magazine ads yourself. Before completing the exercise, review with the class the sections
of the text titled "Ethical Persuasion" and "Persuasive Strategies." Be sure students are
familiar with the terms "ethos," "logos," and "pathos."
Divide the class into pairs. Each pair will examine their ad to determine characteristics of
the intended audience. They should then locate examples of ethos, logos, and pathos appeals
in the ad. Encourage students to critique the ethical qualities of the ad, distinguishing among
persuasion, manipulation, and coercion. When pairs have completed their analysis, have
them take turns presenting their findings to the class.

Class Discussion: Class discussion could focus on advertisers' strategies of audience

analysis and persuasion. As each pair presents, allow class members to quiz other students
about their analyses. After all pairs have presented, continue the discussion:
How can you identify an advertiser's desired audience for an ad? What is the value of
doing audience analysis when attempting to persuade?
How can you identify advertisements that attempt to coerce and manipulate the
audience to buy a product?
What types of persuasive appeals do print advertisements frequently employ? Why?
(Refer to the Career Tip titled "Logic vs. Emotion: Which is Better?"
Which types of advertisements are less likely to persuade you? Why?

4. Propaganda Games

Objective: Students will increase their ability to identify logical fallacies. This exercise
will help them avoid using fallacious evidence in their own speeches and will make them
more-knowledgeable consumers.

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 Procedure: This exercise is based on the Propaganda Critic website. The URL is
http://www.propagandacritic.com/

Before assigning this activity, convey to students the following message, which
appears on this website under the link: Logical fallacies > Bad logic or propaganda?

"It should be noted that a message can be illogical without being propagandistic -- we all
make logical mistakes. The difference is that propagandists deliberately manipulate logic
in order to promote their cause."
Students should work in pairs or small groups to complete this exercise. Instruct students
to visit the URL. Each group will select one example of a propaganda technique
described on the site. Ask the group to prepare a short presentation about that technique,
which will include a definition and examples. It will also offer advice about detecting
such propaganda when you are listening to speeches and avoiding such propaganda when
you are selecting evidence for your own presentations.

Class Discussion: Follow each group's presentation with a question-and-answer session.

5. Supporting Persuasive Claims

Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to develop credible,
logical, and psychological support for a persuasive claim.

Procedure: Start by dividing the class into four groups and giving each group one of the
following persuasive claims:
College education should be as free and as available as high school education is.
This university should allow/forbid gay/lesbian clubs to meet on campus.
All students should be required to verify that their assignments are original by
submitting them to an electronic plagiarism-detection service before they turn
them in.
The local business community should sponsor student interns to facilitate their
career growth and development.
Childcare and health care should be provided free for all students and faculty,
both full time and part time.
Tell students to develop one or two examples each of credibility, logical, and psychological
support they could incorporate to support their claim. Since students will not have access to
research materials in class, these will only be idea starters, not actual evidence.

Class Discussion: Have a spokesperson from each group give examples of support they
thought of, and which category (credibility, logical, or psychological) it fits into. Be sure
each group incorporates all three types of support. After each, have the other groups evaluate
the supporting materials used by the speaker. Explain to students that they would need to do
further research to make their support more specific, but this is a way to start thinking about
the types of support you might wish to include.

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6. Organizing Persuasive Messages

Objective: Students will select the most effective organizational patterns for a variety of
topics and then develop main points.

Procedure: Distribute a list of possible topics to small groups of students. Instruct students
to define their persuasive goal and specify information about the audience and setting. They
should then choose an organizational pattern, justify their choice, and identify main points
they could use. If you are short of time, you could assign the same topic to each group and
then share the results.

Examples of topics:
Your boss has asked you to report on how sales of three products have changed
over the past five years.
You are trying to persuade a large business to switch from its present temporary
service agency to your company.
You want to persuade selected students who will be graduating from college to
work for your company.
You want to persuade your boss to hire a new assistant in your department.
You want to show employees that the upcoming move to a new office site will be
worth the disruption and an additional 25-minute commute. The new site has
more space, state-of-the-art equipment, better parking, and more convenient
dining.

Class Discussion: Ask each group to share its recommendations with the class. Critique the
pattern choices, paying particular attention to students justifications.
What is your overall persuasive goal in this situation?
What is your relationship to the audience? How does this affect your credibility?
How does the specific occasion and setting affect your choice of pattern?
What other considerations influenced your choice of pattern?
Why did you choose these particular main points?

Video Activities

1. Analyzing Persuasive Strategies and Speaker Credibility

Objective: This activity provides students with an opportunity to identify strategies for
persuasion and speaker credibility in a business or professional presentation.

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 Procedure: Distribute to each student a copy of the handout titled "Persuasive Strategies
and Speaker Credibility" located at the end of this section. Show a video of a presentation
from C-SPAN. Instruct the students, individually or in small groups, to determine which of
the persuasive strategies and speaker-credibility techniques were most evident in the
presentation. Using the chart as a guide, ask students to explain their conclusions and to cite
the parts of the presentation that support their contentions regarding the most evident
strategies and techniques in the presentation.

Class Discussion: After a brief discussion about the various strategies students identified in
the speech, pose the following questions to help students critically analyze the effectiveness
and quality of the persuasive appeals used.
Which strategies did you view to be most effective?
How do persuasive strategies affect a speaker's credibility? Can persuasive strategies
be used to make a non-credible speaker appear credible? If so, how?
What impact did these strategies have on the speakers credibility as a presenter?
Could the speaker have drawn upon different persuasive strategies to appear even
more credible? If so, which ones?

2. Other Peoples Money

Objective: The purpose of this activity is to enable students to apply the principles of the
different forms of proof, arguments, and audience analysis as they relate to the text. Viewing
the film will also provide students with examples that they can apply to the team paper
assignment.

Procedure: Other Peoples Money portrays a rival investor, played by Danny DeVito,
attempting to take over a local steel-manufacturing company. During a meeting with the
stockholders of the company, DeVito and the company's president present their perspectives
and make persuasive appeals in an attempt to sway their audience. Begin the clip as the vice
president of the company calls the meeting to order, and end after DeVito has finished his
presentation. Students should be able to better understand the following elements and
concepts as they apply to persuasive presentations: types of proof, types of arguments, and
the importance of audience analysis. At this juncture, students could be asked to apply the
presentations and interpret the messages from a humanistic perspective. Lecture could also
continue while focusing on moral and ethical decisions that are relevant while asking
students for examples from the film that go with or against ethical messages.

Class Discussion: After viewing the clip, the following questions could be used to facilitate
class discussion.
How does each speaker use ethos, pathos, and logos in his presentation?
What types of arguments does each speaker use?
How does each speaker use audience analysis?
Whom would you vote for? Why?

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 Persuasive Strategies & Speaker Credibility
Does the speech show Quote from speech that demonstrates this
or explanation of how this was done
Persuasive Strategies
Appeal to audience needs

Set realistic goal

Focus on critical audience

segment
Defer thesis for hostile
audience
Present ample evidence

Cite opposing ideas

Adapt to cultural style

Maximize Speaker
Credibility
Demonstrate competence

Earn audience trust

Emphasize similarity with

audience
Increase appeal to audience

Demonstrate sincerity

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Additional Resources

Print

Bettinghaus, E. P., & Cody, M. J. (1994). Persuasive communication (5th ed.). Fort Worth, TX:
Harcourt Brace.
Includes sections on theories of attitude change, ethics of persuasion, components of persuasion,
language, and nonverbal communication. Discusses persuasion in formal organizations, conflict,
interpersonal settings, and in groups.

Jaffe, C. (1995). Reasoning. In Public speaking: A cultural perspective (pp. 340373). Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth.

What may be a "good reason" in one culture is not necessarily so in another. Understanding
cultural influences on reasoning is a pervasive theme in this chapter, and the engrossing and enlightening
examples will broaden student perspectives in choosing reasoning strategies that make sense for various
cultural groups.

Rush, T. (1993). The power of ethical persuasion: winning through understanding at work and at
home. New York: Penguin Books.
The premise of this book is that persuasion must be preceded by understanding the other person's
point of view and that ethical persuasion treats others with respect, fairness, and care.

Rybacki, K.C., & Rybacki, D.J. (1991). Advocacy and opposition: An introduction to
argumentation (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
This text provides instruction in and illustration of basic theories of argument and reasoning. In
addition, it contains a chapter that identifies and explains common fallacies. Another section provides a
discussion of ethical issues related to argumentation.

Video
Great Speeches Volumes I-XI and Great Speeches-Today's Women. 90140 min. each. The Educational
Video Group.
Each volume contains five speakers representing the U.S. in the 20th century. Wonderful for
analysis and enjoyment.

Communicating Successfully: How to Give a More Persuasive Presentation. 23 min.. Time-Life Films.

Powerful Presentation Skills by Debra Smith. 3-volume video (2 1/2 hrs.) or 4 audiocassettes (3 1/2 hrs.).
CareerTrack.
This video distinguishes between speaking and presenting, and it discusses the presentations
you'll make at team meetings, committees, brainstorming sessions. Includes getting an audiences
attention, anxiety, closing a speech, and tips on persuasion.

Speaking Persuasively. RMI Media.

Covers purposes and preparation of persuasive messages, consideration of internal and external
factors, and audience analysis.

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Web
Patricia Fripp, Consultant
http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html
This site offers a number of free educational articles. Scroll down to the headings Sales
and Marketing.

Propaganda
http://www.propagandacritic.com/
Encourage students to visit this site to find descriptions of common propaganda
techniques and logical fallacies, complete with current and historical examples.

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