Speech Assignment #3: Persuasive Speech and Outline
The persuasive speech should convince your audience to adopt a particular perspective and/or totake a specific course of action on a fact, value, or policy claim. Evaluation will be based on yourability to present and support your position in a civil, ethical, and convincing manner that isadapted to and respectful of the opposing perspective(s) and of your audience.
For this speech, you will be expected to:
• Write and deliver a speech advocating a single position on a topic about which you arepassionate. The topic should be significant beyond your personal experience and have at least two clearly defined divergent positions. Your speech will argue for one position.
• Organize your speech according to the arrangement which best fits your argument structure.Main and supporting points should show unity, coherence, balance, and mutual exclusivity. Thespeech should be easy to follow, understand, and remember. Information should be adapted tothe audience’s level of knowledge. A clear, central idea should be maintained throughout thespeech, with a clear purpose and thesis.
• Use a variety of supporting materials that will clarify and support your claim, respectfullypresent the opposing perspective(s), and hold the interest of your audience. The informationshould go beyond your personal experience. Cite all information that isn’t common knowledgeor doesn’t derive from your personal experience and ideas. A minimum of Five outside sources is required.
• Sources should be:
o Credible.
o Current.
? A minimum of two sources should be within the last ten years.
o Cited accurately. Sources should be cited in the speech, outline, and bibliography.
Papers will be reviewed for plagiarism; appropriate consequences will be enforced.
***Note:The proper use and crediting of information accounts for 10% of the speech grade and
15% of the outline grade.
• Include a complete introduction and conclusion. The introduction should contain anattention-getter, purpose, relevance, and thesis/preview statement. The conclusion should includea restatement of the thesis, a review of the main points, and a memorable closing thought.
• Use extemporaneous delivery. Engage the audience. Frequent eye contact (over 80%) with theaudience is required; no reading from outlines or note cards. Language should be conversationalbut of academic standard. All speech criteria, including delivery, will be assessed.
• Include presentation aids that enhance your speech. Aids may be technical or non-technical.Set-up should be arranged before the start of class. Whether technological or manual, the aidshould be prepared and presented according to a professional standard.
• Stay within the time limit of 5-6 minutes. Time limits will be strictly enforced
Professor Rogers
4 November 2015
Persuasive Speech Outline
I. INTRODUCTION
A. ATTENTION GETTER: An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind…or does it?
1. The death penalty is a well established punishment in the United States, but is it
really the best choice?
2. My name is Jane Doe and I do not support the death penalty.
B. In this speech, I will explain why I am against the death penalty.
1. I have heard many stories about the death penalty, some positive, some
negative. My biggest concern are the negative ones.
2. People should be informed about the issues involved in the death penalty
because the death penalty not only affects the person accused, it affects all of
us.
C. CREDIBILITY STATEMENT Are there specific reasons why you personally
disagree with the death penalty? Someone you know was a victim of it? Moral beliefs make
you disagree with this notion?
D. THESIS: In order to save the government millions of dollars, stop the murder by our
society, and prevent the execution of innocent people, we need to abolish the death
penalty for good.
1. The death penalty is expensive.
2. The death penalty is hypocritical and immoral.
3. The death penalty puts innocent lives at risk.
TRANSITION: The whole point is to kill these killers, but what if the expenses of the death
penalty are killing us?
II. BODY
A. The death penalty is expensive.
1. Instead of drawing funds for killing, wouldn’t you want to spend these funds on
other, much more important things?
2. ”In California the current system costs $137 million per year; it would cost
$11.5 million for a system without the death penalty” State your sources…
According to the California Commission for the Fair Administration, “ In
California….[and you must state your sources when you deliver your speech]
(California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, July 2008) (Death
Penalty Cost)
3. “Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes” (Fox News)
Can you further explain this?
TRANSITION/INTERNAL PREVIEW:
B. The death penalty is hypocritical and immoral.
1. The government would argue about which was the best way to kill someone.
Thus, why they got rid of the electric chair. Because in one incident, flames broke
out from a prisoner’s head as he was being electrified. So they decided to settle
with the quick and easy way. Injection. (Los Angeles Times). State your sources.
a. Both lead to the same outcome, but this way is so much better…
right?
B. Killing is killing. There is no way to sugar coat it. Murder is
murder. What lesson are we teaching when we kill because
someone else killed?
2. “The “eye for an eye” concept is hypocritical (“You murdered someone.
Your punishment? Murder!), obsolete and barbaric, and is not reason
enough to continue performing executions, no matter how heinous a crime
is.” (KPC News)
a. The death penalty does not solve anything. Sure, we’re getting
rid of the people who may have committed a horrid crime. And
yes, most if not all of those people deserved this as a punishment.
But why give them the easy way out? Why not let them suffer in
their cells?
b. Murder is obviously not okay; it is a horrible thing. However,
what kind of example are we setting if we, as a community, kill as
well? It is simply hypocritical and inhumane.
c. We are killing these criminals off and we are welcoming other
people to watch…what problem does that solve? here you
can actually include Michel Foucalt (Book: Discipline
and Punishment) as he states that back then in ancient
times people were executed in public as a spectacle for
everyone to see. This would be great supportive evidence.
You don’t have to read the entire book. Just familiarize
yourself with that part. Nothing.Sure, it makes people feel better.
I understand. I would want to kill a person who killed or hurt my
family.
d. But my thoughts and what makes me feel better emotionally
after time, is not what our rules as a society should be based on.
We’re supposed to be sending the message that killing is wrong,
yet we kill too.
TRANSITION/INTERNAL SUMMARY: You cannot do anything about a mistake when it’s
done in the case of the death penalty.
C. The death penalty puts innocent lives at risk.
1. “Our legal system, as much as we like to think it full proof, still
convicts innocent people. Eve n in this day and age, where DNA testing is
the norm, people are wrongfully convicted of crimes that they did not
commit; some of them being, consequently, executed.” (KPC News) State
your sources
a. According to a study, more than four percent of people are
probably innocent, but are still sentenced to death in the United
States (Huffington Post). State your sources
b. From 1973-2004, 7,482 people were given death sentences. Out
of those people, 117 were exonerated (Huffington Post). These 117
innocent victims could have been killed because they were
wrongly convicted.
2. Carlos DeLuna, Ruben Cantu, Larry Griffin, David Spence, Leo Jones,
and Troy Davis. These are just a few of the names of people who were
killed because of the death penalty, but there was evidence that indicated
that they could have been innocent (Death Penalty Information Center).
a. Carlos DeLuna was sentenced for stabbing a woman. He was
executed in 1989. However, new evidence pointed the crime to a
man named Carlos Hernandez. In time, he ended up confessing to
the crime (Death Penalty Information Center).
b. Imagine that we impose the death penalty on an innocent person.
What does that make us as a society? Murderers? Or is it okay
because this time it was just a mistake? Stories like these should
make a person feel sick to their stomach. It is gruesome and
irresponsible.
TRANSITION/SIGNAL ENDING: It surprises me that after all of these incidents occurred, that
the death penalty is still active to this day.
III. CONCLUSION
A. To save us the outrageous expenses, to stop the wrong in this world, and to end the
execution of the innocent, we must put an end to the death penalty.
B. The death penalty is expensive, it is hypocritical and immoral, and it puts innocent
lives at risk.
C. “Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?”
– Holly Near
