Persuasive Speech Organizer Using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
(Five Steps to a thought-provoking presentation)
Well-used and proven method to organize presentations for maximum impact created by
Alan Monroe, a Purdue University psychology professor.
Step One: Get Attention
Use story telling, humor, a shocking statistic, or a rhetorical question – anything that will
get the audience to sit up and take notice.
Attention getter is only part of your introduction, you will still need to:
--give audience a reason to listen (How will this impact their life?)
--establish your credibility (Why are you competent to speak on the issue and where
did your authority come from?)
--state your purpose (thesis) that previews or lets the audience know what to expect
(What exactly are you trying to persuade the audience to believe and how does it
solve the issue or problem?)
Step Two: Establish the Need
Convince your audience there’s a problem. This set of statements must help the
audience realize that what’s happening right now isn’t good enough – AND it needs to
change.
--Use statistics to back up your statements.
--Talk about the consequences of maintaining the status quo and not making changes.
--Show your audience how the problem directly affects them.
DO NOT share solutions here – only make the audience uncomfortable, restless and
ready to do the “something” that you recommend later in the speech.
What is the problem (NEED) that needs a solution (CHANGED)?
Step Three: Satisfy the Need
(Main points of your speech represent reasons why this solution will “satisfy the need
established above”)
Introduce your solution.
--How will these reasons solve the problem that your audience is ready to address?
--Discuss the facts of each reason separately. Elaborate and give details to make
sure the audience understands your position and solution.
--Clearly state what you want the audience to do or believe.
--Summarize your information from time to time as you speak.
--Use examples, testimonials, and statistics to prove the effectiveness of your
solution.
Reason 1:
What do you want the audience to do or believe? (stated clearly)
How does it solve problem?
What Facts and details can you provide to prove it solves problem?
(examples, testimonials, statistics)
What do other people believe? (opponents?)
How can you prepare counterarguments to anticipated objections.
Reason 2:
What do you want the audience to do or believe? (stated clearly)
How does it solve problem?
What Facts and details can you provide to prove it solves problem?
(examples, testimonials, statistics)
What do other people believe? (opponents?)
How can you prepare counterarguments to anticipated objections.
Step Four: Visualize the Future
Describe what the situation will look like if the audience does nothing.
--The more realistic and detailed the vision, the better it will create the desire to do
what you recommend.
--Your goal is to motivate the audience to agree with you and adopt similar behaviors,
attitudes, and beliefs.
--Help them see what the results could be if they act the way you want them to.
--Make sure your vision is believable and realistic.
Make sure your visualization step reflects the needs you established in Step 2.
You can use three methods to help the audience share your vision:
1) Positive method – describe what the situation will look like if your ideas are adopted.
2) Negative method – describe what the situation will look like if your ideas are
rejected (dangers and difficulties caused by not acting).
3) Contrast method – Develop the negative picture first, and then reveal what could
happen if your ideas are accepted.
How does the situation look down the road if they use your satisfaction steps or if
they do nothing?
Step Five: Action/Actualization (This is part of your conclusion)
Conclusion needs to include:
1) a review of the importance of the problem.
2) restatement of the main points with emphasis on how they solve the problem
3) reminder of visualization (how it solved problem or problem got worse due to lack
of action
4) Call to action
--Final job is to leave your audience with specific things they can do to solve the
problem.
--You want the audience to take action NOW to solve or change the problem (need).
--What do you want the audience to do?
--Be specific.
--Don’t overwhelm them with too much information or too many expectations.
--Be sure to give them options to increase their sense of ownership of the solution.
Memorable closing?
(Make sure this ties back to attention step – Please remember the
speech about the special Olympics we watched or the speech about school lunches – both
tied these 2 together so speech comes FULL CIRCLE)