National Speech & Debate Association •
www.speechanddebate.org
Tips for Writing a Persuasive Speech |
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TIPS FOR WRITING A PERSUASIVE SPEECH
Putting together a three-minute speech can be daunting—especially if you’ve never
written one before! The key to effective communication lies in a well organized, clearly
articulated, and thoroughly researched and sourced argument. The following outlines the
basic format of a persuasive speech, but speeches may take alternative forms.
Introduction
There are four key components to an introduction: the attention getting device (AGD), common ground, thesis, and preview.
For the sake of this speech, you’ll want to keep your introduction around 20 seconds (give or take).
• Attention Getting Device: Start your speech o with a quotation, a short narrative, a mind blowing statistic—anything
to wow your audience and grab their attention. Make sure your AGD is topical, though. You don’t want to start o your
speech praising Ryan Gosling’s good looks when the subject is clean city water.
• Common Ground: In order to be persuasive, you need to establish common ground with your audience. They need
to feel directly connected to the problem. Think about what you have in common with your audience—their values,
interests, shared experiences—which can relate back to your topic.
• Thesis: The thesis is simply your solution statement. Use it as a call to action for the audience. Example: “We need to find
aordable and sustainable ways to produce clean water.”
• Preview: This is the easiest piece of the introduction to write because, at its core, it’s the same for every speech. Give the
audience a roadmap, or signposts, of the next three big points you’ll be discussing. In a persuasive speech, your signposts
are typically the problems, causes, and solutions. Example: “Let’s first learn more about this pressing problem, next identify
the causes of unclean water, and finally establish some solutions.”
Body
You are now going to write the body of the speech, which consists of problems, causes, and solutions. The body is the meat
and potatoes of your speech. For the purpose of this speech, the body should be about two minutes long. You should spend
about 40 seconds per point.
• Problems: This is where you’ll describe the problem you chose to discuss. First, restate the problem. Next, you’ll need to
give evidence supporting your claim. Use articles, journals, and statistics to assert your problem exists, is significant, and
has harms associated with it. You could have a source for each of those areas (existence, significance, and harms) and make