Using Rhetoric to Address Injustice

Persuasive Speech Assignment

Your assignment is to craft and deliver a short (3-5 minutes) speech.  Your goal is to persuade your classmates to join you in working to address a contemporary instance of social injustice.  The social injustice you choose to focus on may be:

• of local, state, national, or global origin,

• an isolated incident or part of a larger pattern.

The speech you compose should reflect your knowledge of the rhetorical strategies of effective persuasion:

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

as well as devices characteristic of good writing in general and speech-writing in particular, including but not limited to:

• repetition

• parallel structure

• active verbs

You must cite three credible outside sources during the text of your speech.  Documentation should appear parenthetically in-text and on a final Works Cited page; required style is MLA.

Suggested Outline for Persuasive Speech

• Introduction:  Greet and directly address your audience.  Arouse their curiosity and attention with an anecdote, story, startling statistic or fact.  Clearly state your theme. Give them a reason to listen.

• Body:  Help your audience to visualize the social injustice you're discussing.  Include your outside source references here.  Reinforce your theme.

• Call to Action:  Conclude your speech by inviting your audience to join you in addressing this injustice.  Consider circling back to some element of your introduction.  Recapture your main idea.