262 � Part 3 � Informative and Persuasive Speaking

____ 8. Did the speaker use an appropriate persuasive speech organizational patterns?

___ Statement of reasons

___ Comparative advantages

___ Criteria satisfaction

___ Problem solution

General Criteria____ 1. Was the specific goal clear?

____ 2. Was the introduction effective in creating interest and involving the audi-ence in the speech?

____ 3. Was the speech organized using an appropriate persuasive pattern?

____ 4. Was the language clear, vivid, emphatic, and appropriate?

____ 5. Was the conclusion effective in summarizing what had been said and mobi-lizing the audience to act?

____ 6. Was the speech delivered enthusiastically, with vocal expressiveness,fluency, spontaneity, and directness?

Overall evaluation of the speech (check one):

____ excellent ____ good ____ average ____ fair ____ poor

Use the information from this checklist to support your evaluation.

You can use your Challenge of Effective Speaking CD-ROM to access this checklistonline under student resources for Chapter 13 at the Challenge of Effective SpeakingWeb site.

S A M P L E S P E E C H

Sample Speech to Convince

Downloading Musicby Tobias Varland5

SPEECH GOAL: I want to convince members of the audience that they should notdownload music from the Internet.

Audience Adaptation PlanAUDIENCE ATTITUDE: When I asked people about their feelings about downloading, I found that most realized that it was easy to do and that it saved them time and money. There was a general belief that downloading didn’t really hurt compa-nies that much. But most also mentioned that they realized that it was not theright thing to do, but with so many doing it, chances of being caught were prettylow. As I put these data together, I determined that although the audience wasnot set against downloading, they were not totally in favor of doing it either. So I put the majority in the group of undecided, or not that worried about the consequences.

REASONS: I believe that the three reasons that are most likely to convince the au-dience are that downloading is really harmful to companies, that downloading isharmful to the computer (few people even mention this as a possible downside),and that downloading is not only illegal, but can be costly.

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Chapter 13 � Persuasive Speaking: Reasoning with Your Audience � 263

SELECTING AN ORGANIZATION TO MEET AUDIENCE NEEDS: Given that the majority of theclass seemed indifferent or certainly not worried about the consequences, I de-termined that a logical reasons approach was appropriate. I have organized myspeech in such a way that it will gain momentum throughout the speech, and(hopefully) by the end of the speech the audience will have no choice but to con-sider my suggestions.

OutlineINTRODUCTION

I. Over the past few weeks I’ve discovered that large numbers of people aredoing something that in my mind is unbelievably stupid.

II. They’re saving approximately 99 cents for doing something that could costthem as much as $150,000.

III. They’re downloading copyrighted music off the Internet.

THESIS STATEMENT: There are three good reasons for not downloading music off theInternet: it’s extremely harmful to recording companies and artists, it’s harmful tocomputers, and it’s illegal.

BODY

I. Downloading music is extremely harmful to recording companies and artists.

A. Record sales have declined radically in the last five years.1. About 41 percent of people are downloading music for free rather than

buying records, according to Fortune magazine.2. Since 1993 average annual profit has dropped from 20 percent to less

than 5 percent.B. People are losing jobs.

1. This year three major recording companies, BMG, EMI, and Sony Mu-sic, fired 4,200 people as a result.

II. The second reason that you should not be downloading music from the Inter-net is that it is extremely harmful to your computer.

A. In order to download music from the Internet people must use some sortof spot check program.1. Just one such program, His Eye, is has 65 million users.

B. According to PC Magazine, by installing such a program you also installseveral others such as spyware.1. These programs monitor who you send e-mails to, copies your e-mail

messages, and stores them on your server.2. They also send out spam directories that can actually take control of

your computer, locking you out of your own computer, using your com-puter for illegal practices, and saying you are responsible for it be-cause it is your computer.a. For instance, a graduate student who is writing a thesis could have

it stolen and published before he or she get a chance to print it.3. Saving a few dollars instead of buying CDs or buying individual songs

off the Internet can put people at such huge risk that it’s unbelievablethat they continue to do it.

III. The third and most important reason for not downloading music is that it’s il-legal.

A. Music in the United States is protected by copyright law.1. When you download music off the Internet, you are committing theft.

B. Recording studios have filed numerous lawsuits.1. According to CBC News, one company just filed a lawsuit against four

college students from New England who had all downloaded 1,500songs apiece.

(continued)

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264 � Part 3 � Informative and Persuasive Speaking

2. They sought fines of $150,000 per song that these students haddownloaded, according to the CEC News.

3. Although the company didn’t get the $150,000 per song, each studentwas forced to pay somewhere between $12,500 and $17,500 andwas kicked out of school.

C. All of this happened because they wanted to save themselves 15 bucksper CD.

CONCLUSION

I. So, think about it: downloading is harmful to the recording industry, it is likelyto be harmful to your computer, and most of all, it could result in tremendousfinancial loss to you because it is illegal.

II. I would encourage you to consider these things before you download anythingelse. Consider whether or not it’s really worth it.

SOURCES: CBC News (Web Site), http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/05/02/Consumers/record/lawsuit 03052. Seith, Robert CWK Senior Producer, “Downloading Copyrighted Music,” http://www.connecting withkids.com/tipsheet/2003/115_mar12/music.html. “Songs in the Key of Steve,” FortuneMagazine, May 19, 2003. “Spyware: It’s Lurking on Your Machine,” PC Magazine, April 22, 2003. “Study Links Burning and Downloading to Falling Music Sales,” The Write News, June 20, 2003,www.writenews.com. Sweeting, Paul “Avast ye pirates! The copyright industries, particularly the recordcompanies, are entering dangerous new waters.” Video Business, June 30, 2003 v23 i26 p10(1)

Speech

As I was talking with a lot of my friends and acquaintances, I discovered a prettyamazing phenomenon. I discovered that almost every person I talked to does some-thing that in my mind is unbelievably stupid. Anyone know what I’m talking about?It’s a behavior that has become extremely popular: illegally downloading copyrightedmusic off the Internet. Today I’d like to convince you that you should not downloadmusic on your computer. Why? For at least three reasons.

The first reason is that it’s extremely harmful to recording companies and record-ing artists. I’m going to discuss some numbers with you—and I want you to thinkabout them. The first number is 61. According to The Write News, CD record sales inthe United States have dropped 61 percent in just the last year. The second number is41. Downloading has become extremely popular, according to Fortune magazine. To-day, about 41 percent of people who love music are downloading it for free ratherthan buy records. Third is a set of numbers: 20/5. Obviously downloading is veryharmful to recording companies. In 1993 recording companies made an average an-nual profit of just over 20 percent. Now they’re making less than 5 percent profit.That’s 20 to 5! The last number is 4,200. During this last year, three major recordingcompanies, BMG, EMI, and Sony Music, have fired 4,200 people because they couldnot gainfully employ these people. As much as you would like to think that music isfor the sake of art, people do it because they love doing it, music is a business. To gettheir money out of it, recording companies can’t continue to produce music, theartists have no ambition in producing music, and therefore by downloading musicmost people would say, I’m trying to support this music, I want to listen to it, I want tohear it—what they’re really doing is destroying an industry and insuring that therewill not be as much music produced in the future.

The second reason that you should not be downloading music from the Internetis that it is extremely harmful to your computer. In order to download this musicfrom the Internet, almost everybody uses some sort of spot check program. The mostpopular program right now is called His Eye, a program that has as many as 65 mil-lion users. The problem is that when you install His Eye on your computer, you installnumerous other programs like spyware. This spyware does things to your computersuch as monitors who you send e-mails to, copies your e-mail messages and stores

Analysis

Tobias begins indirectly by sharinghis opinions about a behavior thathas become very popular. This in-direct method is designed to getpeople interested in determiningwhat he is going to talk about.

Here, he states his goal and men-tions that he will focus on threereasons.

His first reason is designed to fo-cus on one important harm thatresults from downloading.

Notice the presentation of infor-mation used to support his point.Throughout this section he citessources and gives a variety of statistics.

Here he tries to get his audience tothink about what he has said. Hemakes a good case showing thatdownloading has in fact a majoreffect on companies and artists.

In this second reason Tobias looksat material with which the audi-ence may be totally unfamiliar.

Here he is talking about side ef-fects that result from downloadingmethods. Some of these side effectsdon’t seem to be that importance,

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Chapter 13 � Persuasive Speaking: Reasoning with Your Audience � 265

them on your server, copies your editors’ books, sends those addresses out to spamdirectories that can actually take control of your computer, locking you out of yourown computer, use your computer for illegal practices and saying you are responsiblefor it since it is your computer. Let’s look at a potential consequence. Suppose you’rea graduate student and you’re writing a thesis paper. It could be stolen and publishedbefore you get a chance to print it. It seems that people are doing this to save them-selves a few dollars from buying CDs or buying individual songs off the Internet andputting themselves in such huge risk that it’s unbelievable that they continue to do it.

The third one, and the most important reason why this should not be done is, it’sillegal. Music in the United States is protected by copyright law. When you downloadthis music off the Internet, you are committing theft. Recording companies recentlyhave been on a kind of a rampage in catching people who’ve been doing this. Theywant to be very aggressive about it. And they just filed a lawsuit against four collegestudents from New England who had all downloaded 1500 songs apiece. The record-ing industry sought a fine of 150,000 dollars per song that these students had down-loaded. This is according to the CEC News. The recording industry didn’t get the150,000 dollars per song, there’s no way that these students could ever pay that muchmoney to the recording companies. Each student was forced to pay somewhere be-tween 12,500 and 17,500 dollars along with being kicked out of school and they werevery lucky apparently to avoid at least a six-month jail sentence. All to save themselves15 bucks per CD. I know that as a college student if somebody told me that I was re-sponsible all of a sudden for paying a 15,000 dollar fine, I’m kind of out of luck—Ican’t pay a 15,000 dollar fine.

So, thinking about it, there are these three very obvious reasons that by down-loading off the Internet you are costing people dollars, you’re destroying somepeople’s careers, sound engineers, that’s all they know, they can’t be employed any-more, because their companies are undermined by people trying to save a few dollars.You’re putting your privacy and your computer at risk and making yourself further li-able for damages done with your computer by other people. And you’re breaking thelaw. In a society where people—if people don’t obey the law, in one instance, what’sto keep them from not obeying in another instance. How can you break this law andcondemn somebody else for breaking another law? It doesn’t make sense, the wholepackage of downloading copyrighted music off the Internet doesn’t make sense, andmost people just don’t think about that. So I would encourage you to consider thesethings before you download anything else. �

but in fact are. He shows that al-lowing access enables others to takeadvantage of your machine.

In short, he’s focusing on unnec-essary risks that may result fromyour use of various downloadingprograms.

Notice how he keeps coming backto his key point: for relativelysmall savings, you are takingtremendous risks—and you mightnot even be aware of the potentialharms.

Since the audience may not totallyaccept the importance of these firsttwo reasons, Tobias closes with histhird, and most important rea-son—that some or much of whatyour doing is not only illegal, butalso could be tremendously detri-mental to you.

The point is that the industry ismaking examples of some individ-uals by seeing to it that they payfines. So the costs are not$150,000, but would you be ableto afford the 12,500 to 17,500dollars that some have been re-quired to pay? And, can you af-ford to be “kicked out of school?”

Again he comes back to the rela-tively small amount of money thatpeople save in comparison to whatcan be monumental risks.

Here he does a good job of re-inforcing and reemphasizing the nature of the problems that are being created as a result ofdownloading.

He finishes with a strong appealto the lack of sense of continuingsuch behavior.

A very good speech of reasons. Notice how he put a strong reasonfirst, a reason that might be im-portant second, and the strongestreason third.

Most of his information was welldocumented. And the way he pre-sented the information really getsus to think. �

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