Full Persuasive Speech: Arsenic in our Water Supply by Tracy McAlister

Audience Analysis

Tracy demonstrates a true audience-centered approach in her speech by presenting information that is relevant to her audience. By addressing the problems of and solutions to arsenic for an audience living in a city with a significant arsenic problem, she has chosen a topic that, while a national concern, is of particular concern to her listeners.

Rather than discussing the overall problem of arsenic in their city, Tracy narrows her focus to discuss how it directly affects members of the university community.

She makes a strong connection between the audience and the topic by discussing how general statistics apply to the audience. By personalizing the figures, Tracy connects the audience with the more abstract statistics.

Content and Supporting Ideas

To support her argument that arsenic is a serious health problem and reverse osmosis is an effective solution, Tracy cites multiple studies and articles that discuss the related health concerns and probability of these concerns. She cites the dates of the studies and articles that she references, thus making them credible to her audience.

Tracy illustrates her points with a series of concrete figures from the price of a personal reverse osmosis system to the number of gallons of water the college would use if they don't comply with new EPA arsenic standards. She shows that she has thoroughly researched her topic, and provides strong evidence to back up her claims.

Introductions, Transitions, and Conclusions

In her introduction, Tracy's attention getter is a rhetorical question with a startling and surprising answer. By opening with the startling fact that Norman, Oklahoma, ranks first in the list of cities with high amounts of arsenic in the water supply, she immediately alerts the audience to the severity of the problem and of its direct relevance to their lives.

In her transitions, Tracy clearly states her next point so the audience knows that she is moving on. She introduces the purpose of each main point before delving into it.

In her conclusion, Tracy reiterates her thesis and the central points of her speech. She uses a clever reference to being "number one" to remind the audience that arsenic is one thing they do not want to rank first in, thus tying the conclusion back to the introduction. Tracy not only reviews her objective, but she uses her conclusion to make a final appeal to the audience to take the knowledge they have gained through her speech and take action.

Delivery

Tracy speaks at a slow pace and articulates her words clearly and precisely. By changing her intonation she emphasizes key facts, particularly statistics, in order to make the audience aware of their significance.

Tracy appears confident and composed by maintaining eye contact with the audience throughout her speech. By doing so, she in turn inspires confidence in the audience, and makes her speech seem more credible.

Tracy appears to be delivering her speech entirely from memory. While this provides many benefits to her delivery, it causes some problems as well. Tracy pauses at times mid-sentence, as if trying to remember her sentence verbatim or to recall her next point. Having a key word or phrase outline could assist her in avoiding these slightly awkward moments.

Use of Visual Aids

Tracy uses a chart and a graph to illustrate the process of reverse osmosis. By presenting the audience with a flowchart of the reverse osmosis system, she helps the audience visualize how the system works. Tracy supplements her speech further with a filtration spectrum graph that demonstrates how reverse osmosis could filter out potential poisons. Tracy's visual aids are relevant to her thesis statement, and she successfully integrates them into her speech to help listeners understand and remember her main points.