23 1 Leading and following With a persuasive or motivational speech, you want to convince your audience of something or you want to change the way they look at something. You want to get support for your views, or you might want to inspire your audience to act in some way. For example, perhaps you want to persuade a group of students that voting is not only a right, but a duty, and so inspire them to vote. Or, you may want to motivate them to recycle. Structure Although a speech is a text meant for performing, you have to structure your thoughts. A speech should have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. In the introduction, you can open with a quote or a relevant fact to catch people’s attention. You then state the main reason for your speech in an interesting way. In the body of your speech, you present three main points or arguments. In addition to arguments, anecdotes and stories of personal success might also work well on an audience. In the conclusion, you summarise your arguments. For effect, you can end the speech with a call to action, or get the audience thinking with a rhetorical question. Language The language you use is the key to getting your message across and captivating your audience. Using the personal pronouns I and you lets the audience know it is a direct message from you to them. Us and we are especially valuable for including your audience in the issue. In addition, you can use emotive language to strengthen your message and sway your audience’s feelings about your point. It is also common to repeat words or phrases to make your message completely clear and memorable. This is helped by the rhythm that repetition can bring. The use of poetic devices, such as similes and metaphors, is valuable too. They create images for your audience, making your language come alive. support – styðja a view – skoðun to act – hér: að bregðast við a duty – skylda to state – tjá/ gera grein fyrir to captivate – hrífa emotive – tilfinningaþrunginn to sway – hafa áhrif á a poetic device – ljóðrænt stílbragð An anecdote is a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. We use emotive language to create an emotional response in an audience. For example, do you say: “These trees have stood for hundreds of years.” OR “These majestic trees have stood for generations upon generations.” We use inclusive language to encourage the audience to see their role in an issue but to not feel singled out or blamed. For example, do you say: “If you all do just a little bit more …” OR “If we all do a bit more …” Simile: The trees stood as tall as towers. Metaphor: The circus was a magnet for the children.
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