How Can We Define Persuasive Speech and Techniques? Persuasive speech can get defined as a unique kind or sort of communication or sermon. It comes with the capability and ability to engross and convince a significant portion of the individuals present as an audience. These types or categories of orations can coerce a participant or listener to pay close attention and understand the points getting delivered in their complete essence. In addition to that, a persuasive speech can influence and sway an individual to perform a mentioned activity or action.
A persuasive speech can control the thought process of an audience and convince them to comprehend and accept a presented viewpoint or topic. It can be the entire subject matter or merely a part of it. Its ultimate goal and purpose lie in making the attending individuals do as the delivered content dictates.
Different and distinct elements and parameters come together to make a speech persuasive and compelling. These factors work in a harmonious relationship and order to make the content and subject matter “powerful.”
Persuasive techniques are the methods and practices used to make the delivered content convincing and acceptable. They enhance and boost the success of a persuasive speech and help to sway the audience significantly.
What are the Three Elements of a Persuasive Speech that Target the Audience?
A persuasive speech utilizes and implements three modes and elements that increase the power of convincement of the content that gets delivered by the speaker. They serve as the three fundamental pillars of swaying an audience and speaking to them publicly. On top of that, they work to appeal to the attending individuals and listeners to convince them of something. For that reason, the three qualities are necessary to make the people accept a presented viewpoint.
These three elements of a persuasive speech that target the audience consist of the following:
Ethos
The element of the ethos of a persuasive speech indicates and depicts the character and credibility of the speaker. It does so when the individual speaks on a public forum. It serves as the most crucial appeal in any lecture or oration. It involves the parameters of convincing the listeners and attending people that the speaker or the content deliverer comes from a good and respectable background and deserves to stand at the stage, presenting the subject matter.
Ethos is exceedingly essential because most people judge others’ qualifications and standards by their characters and achievements. They can get convinced by anything the speaker says only when they know that the latter is credible enough to trust the words. Various parameters such as audience willingness, speech environment, and body language also play a role here. They affect and determine the success of persuasive speech.
Ethos must get established from the beginning of a persuasive speech. Otherwise, the audience would not concentrate on and listen to the presented subject matters. It is necessary to let the listeners know that they would profit from understanding the content. It often helps when the speaker is a specialist in the field.
Pathos
The pathos of a persuasive speech refers to the emotional appeal or bond that the speaker creates with the audience. It includes the factors and variables of sympathy, pity, and empathy. Pathos stirs the emotions and feelings of the listeners to connect with them and ultimately influence them.
Suppose a speaker delivering a persuasive speech has a low pathos. In that case, the audience is highly likely to find faults and flaws in the content and the arguments.
Logos
The element of logos targets the rational aspects, logical arguments, and reasoning of the audience. It depends and works on the intelligence of the attending individuals and listeners and offers evidence and proof to support the delivered content. On top of that, logos enhance the ethos of a persuasive speech by making the speaker look knowledgeable and highly educated.
How Do Persuasive Techniques Relate to Mental Health?
Persuasive techniques primarily utilize the pathos element of a persuasive speech to connect to the audience mentally. It helps the listeners and attending individuals understand and accept the delivered and presented content from an emotional standpoint.
In recent times, persuasive technologies (PTs) have come up. They use different and distinct types and versions of persuasive techniques. They utilize them to improve the mental health condition of an individual. They target the growing concerns and issues that may harm and impair the psychiatric stability and balance in various people. It may consist of depression, stress, anxiety, self-harm, etc.
Mental health problems have a multi-sided effect on the patient, their direct surroundings, and the entirety of society. An individual can face and suffer from a decreased quality and standard of life. It may originate due to the emotional outcomes that these issues bring. On top of that, they may undergo potential cases of poverty, lowered productivity, abuse vulnerabilities, and social problems. They may even face decreased income and financial earnings and rates.
On a bigger scale, an accumulation of individuals with mental health with no proper medical facilities can result in society’s decline. It may lead to a loss in GDP per year. Social cohesion degradation and corrosion is another rising issue. All these may, in turn, give rise to more cases of mental health issues. In the worst scenarios, loss of life via suicide is a possibility.
For that very reason, it is exceedingly essential to target and solve mental health issues and cases. Persuasive techniques and speech do this by connecting with the patients mentally. They make the individuals understand their situation and convince them of the better side of things that waits for them. The two treatment methods connect with the listeners, jerking their emotional, logical, and ethical aspects and viewpoints.
Conclusion
To summarize, persuasive techniques persuade a person or listener to get over their mental problems. They do so by solving the issue at its root cause, often by eradicating the low self-esteem and confidence that the patient has in themselves.