Purpose of Assignment*: 

In this final speech, you will apply all of the concepts you have learned so far in this course. This acts as your final for this course. 

Throughout the semester we have been building your final speech together. This assignment is where you show mastery of speech building, editing, working with feedback, and speech delivery.  

Basic requirements for the persuasive speech: 

• You will use the modes of persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos) to convince your audience to take steps to enact change in their lives and in their communities.  

• Your thesis should be a proposition of policy. As you can see, the following thesis statement previews what is coming up in the speech in one single sentence. This statement also challenges the status quo as needed for a proposition of policy.
  • For example: The prison industrial complex is harmful to our entire community, and we need to change the laws that enable it, the systems that profit from it, and use harm reduction techniques as we work towards abolition. 

• You must call for a direct and specific course of action from your audience. The following is an example of the main point of the call to action step. Each call to action needs specific steps the audience can take.
  • For example: A solution like prison abolition takes years, but I have two things that you can do TODAY to help work towards it, which include your commitment to read more information and have a conversation with at least one person about prison abolition.  

• You will speak for six to eight (6-8) minutes without any edits. 

• If you are taking this class online, your recording will follow course filming guidelines. 
  *If you are taking this class in person, you will present your speech to your classmates and instructors during your scheduled class meeting. 
• Your speech should follow Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Download Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.
• You will share your Visual Aid as you deliver your speech. Online students: Click here for instructions on how to share your screen so viewers can see your presentation aid. On-ground students: Be sure to have your presentation aid saved and accessible for reference during the final speech delivery in class. The presentation aid is worth 50 points. More specific details are below.  

Details: 

Speech Organization

• The speech should be well organized following the outline and demonstrate instructor feedback has guided improvement. 
• There should be a clearly identifiable logical transition bridging each component of the speech. 
• Each main point should be clearly stated and developed with at least two (2) sub-points. 
• Use principles of clear explanation like organizers (signposts, acronyms, slogans), emphasis cues, analogies, and repetition. 

Speech Development (Each of these must be labeled in your final outline) 

• Use all three modes of persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos). 
• Use at least one instance of valid reasoning (i.e., causal, inductive, deductive, analogical). 
• Use at least two different methods to establish your credibility with the audience (i.e., sociability, competence, trustworthiness, dynamism).
• Use at least one appeal to audience needs and one appeal to audience values.
• Cite at least three (3) reliable sources in your speech. Consulting more than three sources will likely prove beneficial.  

Speech Delivery

• Your style (language choice) should be clear, appropriate to the audience, vivid, and varied.
• Your delivery skills should be the best so far— extemporaneous, conversational, energetic, and non-distracting. 
• Bodywork/non-verbal communication should be purposeful to your speech.
• You must also have an accessible visual aid (submitted and graded as a separate item). Link to assignment 

Visual Aid

The purpose of this component of the assignment is to show mastery in providing the audience with visual representations of the information in your speech. 

Make sure that your visual aid enhances your speech, gives clarity to the audience, and follows the guidelines below. Use feedback from your draft to improve your work and submit the final version. 

Your final visual aid must: 

• be edited for basic grammar and spelling 

• cover each step of Monroe’s Motivated sequence 

• include three (3) citations in APA format 

• include a slide that introduces the visual aid and a slide that concludes the visual aid. 

• include a thesis 

• use accessible fonts and colors 

• include text and images