Your purpose is : To give an extemporaneous persuasive speech (planned, researched, practiced in advance). The speech must try to influence people to change their beliefs or behaviors and must contain college-level academic content based on research.
Study Thinkwell’s chapters on persuasion before choosing a topic. Choose a narrow, controversial issue important to you, relevant to your audience, and realistic for the timeframe. Avoid choosing “old” topics such as abortion, death penalty, euthanasia, and others unless you choose a new slant or focus. There are so many possible topics.
Hints for writing the specific purpose: Use the same rules for writing the persuasive purpose as you did for the informative one, except this time, include the concept of persuade or convince. Include in the purpose the action, belief, or attitude you wish them to adopt. Always have a specific purpose in mind before you give a speech. The specific purpose focuses on the audience, not on you!! Tell what you want the speech to accomplish. A specific purpose is similar to a behavioral objective teachers write for their lesson plans; it should be something you can measure with a test of some kind. It is not your goal. It is what you want the audience to get out of your speech.
