Full Persuasive Speech: "Child Slavery and the Production of Chocolate" by David Kruckenberg

Audience Analysis

David's topic suits nearly any audience, but may be particularly interesting to his college listeners because they likely consume chocolate treats. He draws a reaction when he suggests their chocolate Easter bunnies were tainted by child slavery.

David's thesis is reasonable. Wisely, he does not ask his audience to forgo eating chocolate entirely. His claim of policy is to convince his listeners they should help send a message that child slavery used to produce chocolate is unacceptable.

Content and Supporting Ideas

David incorporates logos, ethos, and pathos in his speech. He uses a problem-cause-solution format appropriately to persuade his audience to agree with his claim of policy. He takes care to develop each of his three main points using logos as well as pathos and balances each section with strong source support and citations. Statistical data is used to underline the extent of the problem. His explanations about why child slavery in the chocolate industry continues are carefully built with support from current and reputable sources.

David offers examples to illustrate the problem and its causes, and to make statistical information meaningful. His example of fourteen year old Molique dramatically illustrates the life of a child slave. He mentions large chocolate companies such as Hershey‰Ûªs, Nestle, M&M Mars and Cadbury, and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. These familiar examples underscore his point that there is a critical lack of awareness among consumers.

David builds logical evidence and warrants for his claim. He compares the ability of consumers to demand organic products with the potential power consumers could wield to stop child slavery.

David does not ignore pathos. His quotations of the children cocoa workers arouse sympathy. Through effective word choices like "hazards," "brutal," "blood diamonds" and "blood chocolate" David stirs the emotions of his audience.

Introduction/Transitions/Conclusion

David opens with a quotation that shocks, arouses pathos, and puts his audience directly into the mind of a cruelly treated boy working on a cocoa plantation. After David successfully gains audience attention and sympathy he moves to personalize the problem by telling the audience that the chocolate they eat may have come from such a plantation. David ends the introduction with a clear thesis and preview of his three main points.

Throughout the speech David smoothly guides listeners through statistical data and several examples with well crafted transitions. He signals his first and second main points with rhetorical questions. The transition to his third main point offers a brief summary of the first two points and announces his intent to solve the problem by persuading his listeners to stop buying slave-produced chocolate.

The conclusion is a restatement of the main parts of the speech followed by a disturbing and haunting quotation that successfully reflects back to the quotation in the introduction. David uses language powerfully when he refers to our responsibility to children no matter how far away they live, and in his final words‰ÛÒ"Fair trade chocolate may cost us a little more money but that‰Ûªs a small price to pay to free thousands of children from slavery." The conclusion is brief, clear and memorably written.

Delivery

David uses exceptional vocal skills. His pace is outstanding; he cites sources with easy facility, and sounds concerned about his topic. He pauses effectively and vocally emphasizes words. David's facial expressions are genuine and his direct eye contact enhances credibility. He is dressed professionally and moves easily to attend to all parts of his audience and times his movements to signal topic shifts.

David's gestures are relaxed and illustrative. For example, his hand movements helpfully show the harvesting of cocoa and the difficulty of carrying heavy bags. When David is not gesturing he keeps his body still, communicating self-assurance and ease.

Visual Aids

Amanda uses PowerPoint slides to help her audience follow the stages of her experiment.

David uses one visual aid—a chocolate bar he pulls from his jacket and turns to show an enlargement of the fair trade certification label. He does not keep the chocolate bar visible very long and the certification label, although enlarged, is still small. If he wants his audience to become familiar with the label to act he must make it more visible and for longer.