Types of Claims Used in Persuasive Speeches
An argument may address three different kinds of claims: of fact, of value, and of policy. A persuasive speech may contain only one type of claim or, often, consist of several arguments addressing different kinds of claims.
Claims of Fact
Claims of fact focus on whether something is or is not true or whether something will or will not happen. They usually address issues for which two or more competing answers exist, or those for which an answer does not yet exist (called a speculative claim). An example of the first is “Global warming is causing hotter and dryer weather patterns.” An example of the second, a speculative claim, is “A woman president will be elected in the next U.S. presidential election.”
Claims of Value
Claims of value address issues of judgment. Rather than attempting to prove the truth of something, as in claims of fact, speakers arguing claims of value try to show that something is right or wrong, good or bad, worthy or unworthy. Examples include “Is assisted suicide ethical?” and “Is any painting worth 100 million dollars?”
Like claims of fact, claims of value require evidence. However, the evidence in support of a value claim tends to be more subjective than factual. In defending assisted suicide, for example, a speaker might be able to show that in certain situations compassion requires us to help terminally ill people take their own lives. Likewise, public opinion polls can be used to sway attitudes about a value (“after all, X percent of Americans support the death penalty”).
Claims of Policy
Claims of policy recommend that a specific course of action be taken or approved. Legislators regularly construct arguments based on claims of policy: “Should we pass a law restricting the use of handguns/genetically modified foods/firecrackers?” Anyone can argue for a claim of policy as long as he or she advocates for or against a given plan. Such claims might include “Voluntary prayer should be permitted in public schools” and “Stop-and-frisk programs should be banned.” Notice that in each claim the word should appears. A claim of policy speaks to an “ought” condition, proposing that better outcomes would be realized if the proposed condition was met.
By nature, claims of policy involve claims of fact and often claims of value as well. Consider the following example:
| POLICY CLAIM: | The city should provide walking paths in all municipal parks. |
| FACT: | Almost every park in the city is busy several times each day with recreational walkers. This activity is noticeably greater on weekends. |
| VALUE: | Walking on properly maintained paths is healthier both for walkers and for the park landscape. |
The fact and value claims become, essentially, pieces of evidence in support of the policy claim. The fact statement provides objective evidence, and the value statement offers a more subjective justification of the policy. See Table 25.1 for a summary and example of each type, and see Chapter 26 for guidelines on matching organizational patterns to the different types of claims.
A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Addressing Culture in the Persuasive Speech
Audience members’ cultural orientation will significantly affect their responses to persuasion due to culture-specific core values, norms, and premises.1
CORE VALUES Audience members of the same culture share core values, such as self-reliance and individual achievement (in individualist cultures such as the United States); and interdependence and group harmony (in collectivist cultures such as those of China and India; see also Chapter 6 on cultural differences). Usually, appeals that clash with core values are unsuccessful, although globalization may be leading to some cross-pollination of values.2
CULTURAL NORMS Cultural norms are a group’s rules for behavior. Attempts to persuade listeners to think or do things contrary to important norms will usually fail.3 The argument that intermarriage leads to happier couples, for example, will find greater acceptance among Reform rather than Orthodox Jews, since the latter group has strong prohibitions against the practice.
CULTURAL PREMISES Listeners sharing a common culture usually hold culturally specific values about identity and relationships, called cultural premises. Prevalent among the Danes and Israelis, for example, is the premise of egalitarianism, the belief that everyone should be equal. A different premise exists in Korea, Japan, and other Asian societies, where status most often is aligned strictly with one’s place in the social hierarchy. Bear in mind that it is difficult to challenge deeply held cultural premises.4
EMOTIONS Culture also influences our responses to emotional appeals. Appeals that touch on ego-focused emotions such as pride, anger, happiness, and frustration, for example, tend to find more acceptance among members of individualist cultures;5 those that use other-focused emotions such as empathy, indebtedness, and shame are more apt to encourage identification in collectivist cultures.6 Usually, it is best to appeal to emotions that lie within the audience’s “comfort zone.”7
Persuasion depends on appeals to values; culture shapes these values. Eliciting a range of emotions may therefore help you appeal to diverse audience members.
Charles Taylor/Shutterstock