HOW TO COMMUNICATE: Emotional Appeals
HOW TO COMMUNICATE|Video Skills
EMOTIONAL APPEALS
Adapting your persuasive speech to your audience’s needs and emotions can help you succeed. Learn how to make emotional appeals competently by completing the How to Communicate video activity below.
CONSIDER THIS:
Your final speech assignment is a persuasive one, and you decide to encourage your classmates to shop at local businesses. Since your parents own their own bakery, you feel very strongly about this issue. In addition to the arguments you developed from your research on the issue, you want to inspire your audience to feel as passionate about local shopping as you do yourself.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
The advice below illustrates how you can make emotional appeals without overplaying your examples. As you watch the video, consider how your supporting materials, language style, and nonverbal behaviors influence the success of emotional appeals. Then, test your knowledge of key skills, and create your own responses to the What if? video prompts on the next page.
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LIST THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSES YOU WANT YOUR AUDIENCE TO EXPERIENCE. Do this after writing your specific purpose statement. Depending on your topic, these might be negative emotions (anger, guilt, shame) or positive emotions (happiness, hope, pride). (“Shopping local preserves the special character of a city and instills pride in its residents.”)
SELECT APPROPRIATE SUPPORTING MATERIALS. When investigating your speech, look for stories, examples, and images that reflect the depth of emotion associated with the topic. (“In their book Better Together: Restoring the American Community, Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein state...”)
CAREFULLY CHOOSE WHERE TO MAKE YOUR EMOTIONAL APPEALS. When composing your speech, match your stories, examples, and images to places where they will have impact—such as gaining attention in your introduction or supporting a main point. Be sure to have a mix of evidence and emotional appeals. (“Some local business owners may have been in your neighborhood for years and know a lot about the area. Consider the story of Frank Catalfumo...”)
ENHANCE YOUR DELIVERY. When making your appeals, pay particular attention to using your voice, face, and gestures to express emotion as you tell a story, share an example, or explain an image.