Toastmasters Tips for a Persuasive Speech

The ability to persuade others is a key skill for strong leaders and communicators. In a persuasive speech, your aim is to influence the thinking or behavior of listeners. You can do this in several ways.

Inspire: You want to inspire excitement in your audience about your topic or reinforce their existing ideas and beliefs.

Convince: You want to change audience members’ opinions or persuade them to develop the same opinion you have.

Call to action: You want listeners to take some type of action after hearing your speech, such as buy a product, try an activity, or volunteer with an organization.

Often, these different types of persuasion are combined in a speech, which brings even more depth to your presentation.

One important aspect to making a powerful argument is knowing your topic well. Keep these suggestions in mind:

• Research the issue thoroughly.
• Be prepared to support your position with evidence from credible sources.
• Look at different perspectives surrounding the issue.
• Know your goal.
• Language is important too. Include strong, descriptive phrasing whenever possible. The words you use have an impact on your audience.