Persuasive speeches are designed with the intention of convincing or winning over an audience. The goal of the speech is to reinforce an existing idea in the audience, or to inflict some change in their prevailing mindset. Usually these speeches have to do with an important decision or opinion by the audience.  Some persuasive speech topics: A lawyer may address a Judge or Jury about the important aspects of a case and will lay-out arguments and facts supporting his and his client’s side. In a political speech, a candidate may address constituents during a political rally to convince them of pressing concerns and how his candidacy addresses those concerns. An environmentalist may explain the damages of carbon emissions to the local wildlife and outline arguments why a certain factory or industrial plant should not be built at a certain location.

Persuasive speeches are really just informative or demonstrative speeches at the core but constructed with a deliberate agenda not just to inform an audience but to sway their opinions and many times: their actions. In these types of speeches, context takes a larger role as the success of the persuasion depends highly on how well the audience can relate to the words and values being projected by the speaker, and the relevance of the issue, opinion, or action to their personal lives.

A great help in constructing and delivering Persuasive Speeches is to use facts and logic to support your arguments, but intersperse personal sentiments between the facts to help sway the audience. Emotional appeals can also heavily affect an audience and achieving this requires a very thorough understanding of the kind of audience receiving the speech. Finally a crucial ingredient for persuading an audience is to keep the idea you are advocating very precise to allow the audience to appreciate the idea better. Attempting to cover too many opinions will reduce the effectiveness of your pursuasive speech as the audience may find it difficult to appreciate too many points.

Inspirational Speeches

A related category to Persuasive Speeches is the Inspirational Speech. These speeches are written and delivered to cater to the sensibilities of the audience, but are not necessarily explicitly endorsing a cause or action on the part of the audience. Inspirational Speeches are usually more general and discuss broader concerns and can use stories, facts, and experiences to sway the audience into accepting a certain point of view or value. The context of the audience is just as important but Inspirational Speeches can leave the question hanging for the audience to answer.

For example, Environmental Consciousness can be the topic of an Inspirational Speech, while a Persuasive Speech might discuss specific actions in the name of Environmental Consciousness. Both speeches can warn against complacency about the environment, the dire consequences of inaction, but the promise of a brighter future if actions are taken.

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