Back to Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language
University of Washington

Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language

In the professional realm, we need to be able to argue without being argumentative. Whether you are fundraising for a nonprofit, pitching a business proposal, or suggesting a change to company policy, you are making arguments. In making the case for your topic, you often want to raise awareness, identify a pressing problem, discuss appropriate solutions, and outline specific steps for the audience. To be persuasive, you must be clear (the audience may have little to no existing knowledge), you must be convincing (you are trying to sway the audience that your argument is valid), and you must be compelling (you are trying to motivate the audience enough so that they want to take specific actions). Persuasive speaking thus requires clarity, strategy, topic mastery, plus a sense of style and presence. By the end of this course, you should be able to design persuasive speeches that address problems and solutions and that motivate audience members. You should be able to use rhetorical style strategically and deliver passionate and compelling speeches. Learners will record speeches, providing and receiving peer feedback.

Status: Problem Solving
Status: Verbal Strategic Communication
BeginnerCourse17 hours

Featured reviews

RS

5.0Reviewed Jun 2, 2020

Great course! I highly recommend this if you're looking into improving your communication skills, especially communicating ideas.

PS

5.0Reviewed May 9, 2020

I liked it and I can say for sure it clears the doubts of a speaker and gives a clear understanding of how one can write effective speeches.Regards

EL

5.0Reviewed Feb 13, 2021

I learnt a lot from this course. What I like most is the discussions around arrangement, style, and fallacies. Thank you, Prof. McGarrity.

GM

5.0Reviewed May 31, 2020

Loved it! Doing the whole 4 courses specialization. And the entire series is extremely interesting, quite fun to go through, and last but not least, very useful!

CW

5.0Reviewed May 3, 2021

This is an engaging course that sharpens skills on good and sound speeches that make sense and communicate ones key points with an argumentative but motivating speech.

KC

5.0Reviewed Jun 2, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. Professor has a good sense of humor. He did a good job at explaining what makes a persu

PS

5.0Reviewed Oct 2, 2018

Another great course by Matt. Really breaks down what you learned in the first course to use with persuasive speeches. Really enjoyed.

FA

5.0Reviewed Jul 20, 2017

very interesting and helpful course, taught by a great professor in a lovely, easy and sometimes even funny way.

GG

5.0Reviewed Jul 4, 2017

Well done Matt. The course is full of practice tools how to prepare ourselves to convince others to our initiatives, thought etc.

CC

5.0Reviewed Dec 3, 2020

Dr. Matt McGarrity, is an excellent lecturer and this course is a must have regardless of your field of study/expertise.

SN

4.0Reviewed Dec 11, 2021

Well-structured course with ample examples to follow the intrinsic components of speaking and presentation skills. Great Job done by Dr. Matt!

YY

4.0Reviewed May 23, 2021

This course provides some useful tips in public speaking, which is pretty good. There are some provided material that is also helpful in extra reading.

All reviews

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Prerna Srivastava
5.0
Reviewed May 10, 2020
KAVYA MOOLYA
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Reviewed Sep 22, 2020
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Reviewed Apr 6, 2018