Persuasive Speeches Outline Template (Page 2 of 6) in pdf

Getting an audience to accept an issue’s importance depends on whether you adequately explain the issue and how clearly you

describe it. The audience must be able to comprehend an issue and see its connection to their own life in order to develop a position or

change a position they may already hold. However, an audience can comprehend an issue and accept its importance to their lives, but

still disagree with you. That means there must be one more step in the persuasive process.

Stage #4: Integration

The final and most important stage of the persuasive process is integration. In this stage, the audience adopts the position that

you want them to take. This occurs when audiences fully understand the issue, accept that it is relevant to their lives, and agree

with your proposition regarding what to think or how to act. Your position becomes a part of the audience’s personal philosophy and

way of seeing the world. This change will vary among audience members, but ultimately, because you are seeking to change their

understanding and feelings about something or someone, you bear significant ethical responsibilities.

The ability to achieve integration with persuasive speeches and messages depends upon several factors. The evidence, reasoning, and

logic you present are obviously key to successfully changing an audience, as well as the audience’s disposition toward the topic itself.

The third component of persuasion is your credibility as a speaker. When an audience sees you as reputable, fair, and ethical, it will

enhance your ability to integrate your position into their own worldview. This aspect of persuasion is called credibility, and it comes in

several forms, which we will detail next.

Types of Credibility

Credibility, or the ability of a person to inspire belief or trust in others, is an incredibly fluid concept. The degree to which we are

credible varies based on who we speak with, what we speak about, and the way we speak about something. We can increase or

decrease our level of credibility with our words or actions, thus making it something we must pay close attention to when delivering

remarks to others. In persuasive speaking, it is essential that the audience see you as a credible source of information or you will have

an almost impossible task of convincing them to do or believe as you ask. In this section, we will explore three basic types of credibility.

Initial Credibility

The first form of credibility we will cover is initial credibility, which refers to the credibility that you have with the audience before you

begin your speech. All of us carry a certain level of credibility on a topic going into a speech, but it varies depending on the topic and the

audience. For instance, when giving a presentation in a classroom to fellow students you likely will have little initial credibility because

they are unfamiliar with you and your experience. This presents a hurdle you must overcome if you want the audience to listen to you

and believe what you say.

Initial credibility is not always zero for every speaker. In fact, the more experience speakers have with a subject, or even the more

recognizable their name, the more credibility an audience will give them before they even speak. Consider attending a presentation on

television comedy shows by writer and producer Chuck Lorre. You may recognize him as the mind behind Two and a Half Men, The Big

Bang Theory, and Two Broke Girls. These shows are quite popular and successful, thus enhancing his initial credibility to speak on the

topic. In your public speaking class, you and your classmates might even have some initial credibility based on classroom interactions

and other conversations in class. Nonetheless, strong initial credibility does not guarantee success or even that the audience will

continue to see the speaker as credible.

Derived Credibility

After the speech begins, whatever you say or do immediately influences your level of credibility, thus making it no longer initial. The

form of credibility that manifests itself during your presentation is called derived credibility because it is the trustworthiness and

believability you garner during the speech. After the speech begins, your level of credibility can either increase or decrease depending

upon a number of different factors such as:

your perceived level of preparation

your delivery

the organization of your points

the quality of your evidence and information

the way you speak to the audience, regardless of whether they agree with you

Derived credibility is very important because it helps you win over members of the audience who may be skeptical of your position, or

in some cases, even opposed to it. It also helps strengthen the level of agreement among your supporters. Relying simply on initial

credibility and not trying to maintain or improve your trustworthiness with an audience can lead to disastrous consequences because

Persuasive Speeches Outline Template Page 2

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