Using language to persuade
The Using Language to Persuade component of your course requires you to demonstrate an awareness of the effectiveness of language techniques (and how their manipulate their audience) in two ways : written and verbal. At CGS, we require you to do an oral presentation on an issue of your choice which demands you to argue a point of view of a recent issue.
Here are my notes from class to introduce how to go about starting to do an oral presentation:
Here are my notes from class to introduce how to go about starting to do an oral presentation:
Outcome 3, Presenting a Point of View: Oral Presentation.
Year 12
LJL
You are to choose an issue that has been in the media both internationally or nationally in the last 12 months. You are to be presenting an argument in regards to this issue. For example:
Issue: Teen Drink Driving, as seen in the Mill Park Crash.
Argument/contention: There needs to be tougher lawsimplemented to stop these types of accidents occurring with teenagers in modern day Australian Society. Changes needed to be implemented not only legally but also socially and educationally. There needs to be a greater awareness and accountability in all levels of society to stop these tragedies from occurring.
This speech is to be 5 minutes maximum. You will be penalized if you exceed 6 minutes.
Tips:
Choose an issue of interest to you. You will find it easier to research and deliver to your audience if you have a genuine interest/passion/conscience about the issue. Doing something you perceive to be ‘intellectual’ may come across as contrived and not believable (and perhaps a little boring for your audience!).
Make sure there is depth within your issue and that it is not single facetted. The more contentious the issue, the more ‘mileage’ you will get out of it.
Essential elements checklist:
1) Show that you have a thorough knowledge of the issue and understand the main arguments around it.
2) Develop your argument logically and coherently.
3) Substantiate your argument with up to date evidence.
4) Acknowledge your sources of evidence.
5) Consider the counter arguments to your position, state them clearly and indicate why you reject these alternative views.
6) Demonstrate your fair-mindedness and the fact that you have thoughtfully researched the issue from several perspectives.
Structurally:
Your speech should be set out in these forms:
Intro – start with a hypothetical, rhetorical, personal anecdotes, etc to grab the audience’s attention. Then state your main contention, outlining the main points that will be discussed. But as always, don’t LIST!
Ist argument: Your strongest point, consolidated by evidence and arguments, persuasive techniques.
2nd argument: Your next strongest point, evidence,arguments, persuasive techniques to push your contention.
3rd argument: Your third strongest point, evidence,arguments, persuasive techniques to push your contention.
4th – counter argument: present other side of issue to demonstrate a well rounded perspective. Eg ‘However, there are people who believe…..’ ‘Despite overwhelming evidence, there are still are individuals who….’.
5th – Rebuttal of counter argument, firmly reinstating your contention with your 4th argument.
Conclusion – reinforce main contention, end with a bang! Quote? Pun? Leave a resounding effect on your audience.
This structure is flexible, but essentially you are looking at around 3 to 4 main arguments with a counter argument.
Below is an example of a speech from a few years ago that received high marks:
It is the day of your netball grand final. You have spent weeks preparing for this game and the whole team has been training hard and eating well. The entire team has arrived and your coach calls you over to begin a warm up. As you finish the warm up, you rest to regain your breath only to inhale the toxic fumes of what seems to smell like tobacco smoke. To your shock and amazement, a father on the near-by caught has begun smoking. While he moved away from his owns daughters court and stands in an open grass area by the canteen, the strong and obnoxious smell flies through the wind right onto the court where we are warming up. The rest of your team mates begin to also notice the smell and everyone begins to question if his behaviour is actually necessary. Does this father have the right to light up his cancer stick directly in front of us? As a matter of fact according to the law he does. Smoking should be banned in all public places, especially when the young vulnerable people of society are involved.
On 9 December 2010 new laws were put in place in the ACT to ban smoking in public outdoor eating and drinking areas. The new smoke-free outdoor eating and drinking laws have been made to protect the health of hospitality workers and the community in general from harmful tobacco smoke. But, there are flaws in this new law. The new laws only ban smoking at seated outdoor areas where food and drink are served. There is no law banning smoking in children’s sporting event, playgrounds, picnic areas and public benches. However, the government does advise that there is no safe level of tobacco smoke, smokers should remain mindful of others’ health and avoid exposing others to harmful tobacco smoke. Is this advice really enough to cease smoking while the children play and does a stricter law need to be put in place to ban smoking in these places? I say yes and I say something needs to change now. Children are particularly vulnerable to the harms of tobacco smoke and for the sake of children’s health; people should not smoke in these areas. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in the Western World and with each cigarette containing over 4000 chemicals, you can see why.
We all know that the more cigarettes a person smokes the greater the risk of harm to their body but what is worse is when a non-smoker is exposed to passive smoke. Passive smoking is harmful to a person because unlike smoking an actual cigarette, a passive smoker does not have a filter to restrict some of the harmful chemicals entering their body. So being around a person who is smoking is very detrimental to one’s health. Many of you have probably noticed that is very rare for a smoker to be concerned about the impact of their smoke on a non-smoker; does the sudden intake of nicotine into the bloodstream somehow affect their ability to empathise with others? Smokers would probably argue that they have every right and all the freedom to smoke to their heart's content. But it should be emphasized to them that their killer second-hand smoke inhibits the rights and freedoms of people to live a healthy life. And whilst it is a choice to smoke, non-smokers have no choice as to whether or not they are exposed to the smokers harmful smoke..
Passive smoking also known as involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers inhale other people’s tobacco smoke or “second-hand smoke”. The risks are the same for second hand smokers as for smokers themselves. Any person exposed to passive smoking may experience short-term symptoms such as a headache, a cough, wheezing, an eye irritation, a sore throat, nausea or dizziness. Adults with asthma may also experience a significant decline in lung function when exposed to secondhand smoke. Under these conditions it can take as little as half an hour for an individual's coronary blood flow to become reduced. Why should we risk our lives for others who choose to harm themselves every time they light up a cigarette? This is not fair! And as tougher laws have been put in place about indoor smoking, smokers have largely been forced to populate the great Aussie outdoors. And that’s a big place, but when you step outdoors in this city of famously fine dining one would wish to smell the abundant fragrances of garlic and tomato, yet drifts of cigarette smoke now beset the streets of Melbourne. Ironically, smokers now tend to get the best seats in the house during warm weather: ocean views, cooling breezes, summer sights and (if they could smell them) the fragrances of jasmine, or salty sea spray. The state's Tobacco Act allows smoking in outdoor dining areas unless they are roofed and have walls that cover more than 75 per cent of the ''notional'' wall area. Yet smoke seeps, annoyingly and it can foul your Angus steak, pollute your pannacotta. ''Would you like some tobacco with that?'' wait staff might as well inquire as you order a Caesar salad.
I am not suggesting that smoking is to be banned altogether, just highlighting the necessity that there must be a ban for smoking in public places, like outdoor restaurant areas and childrens playground’s, not only for the health of the smoker but for the health of society as a whole. There are around 19,000 tobacco caused deaths each year. That's 52 a day- we do not need to increase this statistic by creating passive smoking deaths too. Conversely, we all live in a free country and hypothetically absolute restriction of the banning of smoking in public places would be irrational, we do need to get along and live together harmoniously. However, the health of the nation is of a major concern and if we can eliminate smoking in public places it will be further unseen to the younger generation and in turn will hopefully create a positive message of not beginning to smoke at all. So next time you are at netball and a parent on the opposing caught decides to light up in front of you and your team, go up and ask them if it is really necessary. Make a point that you don’t mind if they choose to smoke but ask them if the feel it is essential to get their nicotine hit for the hour and if they could take it elsewhere, away from you and away from your teammates.
Every time a cigarette is lite, the thought of cancer reverberates through the smoky air for not only the smoker but for the innocent victims around, who wish to live a healthy life, free of the 4,000 chemicals cigarettes contain. At the end of the day we all want to live in a healthy care-free world and I believe the banning of smoking in the public places is the next step.
On 9 December 2010 new laws were put in place in the ACT to ban smoking in public outdoor eating and drinking areas. The new smoke-free outdoor eating and drinking laws have been made to protect the health of hospitality workers and the community in general from harmful tobacco smoke. But, there are flaws in this new law. The new laws only ban smoking at seated outdoor areas where food and drink are served. There is no law banning smoking in children’s sporting event, playgrounds, picnic areas and public benches. However, the government does advise that there is no safe level of tobacco smoke, smokers should remain mindful of others’ health and avoid exposing others to harmful tobacco smoke. Is this advice really enough to cease smoking while the children play and does a stricter law need to be put in place to ban smoking in these places? I say yes and I say something needs to change now. Children are particularly vulnerable to the harms of tobacco smoke and for the sake of children’s health; people should not smoke in these areas. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in the Western World and with each cigarette containing over 4000 chemicals, you can see why.
We all know that the more cigarettes a person smokes the greater the risk of harm to their body but what is worse is when a non-smoker is exposed to passive smoke. Passive smoking is harmful to a person because unlike smoking an actual cigarette, a passive smoker does not have a filter to restrict some of the harmful chemicals entering their body. So being around a person who is smoking is very detrimental to one’s health. Many of you have probably noticed that is very rare for a smoker to be concerned about the impact of their smoke on a non-smoker; does the sudden intake of nicotine into the bloodstream somehow affect their ability to empathise with others? Smokers would probably argue that they have every right and all the freedom to smoke to their heart's content. But it should be emphasized to them that their killer second-hand smoke inhibits the rights and freedoms of people to live a healthy life. And whilst it is a choice to smoke, non-smokers have no choice as to whether or not they are exposed to the smokers harmful smoke..
Passive smoking also known as involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers inhale other people’s tobacco smoke or “second-hand smoke”. The risks are the same for second hand smokers as for smokers themselves. Any person exposed to passive smoking may experience short-term symptoms such as a headache, a cough, wheezing, an eye irritation, a sore throat, nausea or dizziness. Adults with asthma may also experience a significant decline in lung function when exposed to secondhand smoke. Under these conditions it can take as little as half an hour for an individual's coronary blood flow to become reduced. Why should we risk our lives for others who choose to harm themselves every time they light up a cigarette? This is not fair! And as tougher laws have been put in place about indoor smoking, smokers have largely been forced to populate the great Aussie outdoors. And that’s a big place, but when you step outdoors in this city of famously fine dining one would wish to smell the abundant fragrances of garlic and tomato, yet drifts of cigarette smoke now beset the streets of Melbourne. Ironically, smokers now tend to get the best seats in the house during warm weather: ocean views, cooling breezes, summer sights and (if they could smell them) the fragrances of jasmine, or salty sea spray. The state's Tobacco Act allows smoking in outdoor dining areas unless they are roofed and have walls that cover more than 75 per cent of the ''notional'' wall area. Yet smoke seeps, annoyingly and it can foul your Angus steak, pollute your pannacotta. ''Would you like some tobacco with that?'' wait staff might as well inquire as you order a Caesar salad.
I am not suggesting that smoking is to be banned altogether, just highlighting the necessity that there must be a ban for smoking in public places, like outdoor restaurant areas and childrens playground’s, not only for the health of the smoker but for the health of society as a whole. There are around 19,000 tobacco caused deaths each year. That's 52 a day- we do not need to increase this statistic by creating passive smoking deaths too. Conversely, we all live in a free country and hypothetically absolute restriction of the banning of smoking in public places would be irrational, we do need to get along and live together harmoniously. However, the health of the nation is of a major concern and if we can eliminate smoking in public places it will be further unseen to the younger generation and in turn will hopefully create a positive message of not beginning to smoke at all. So next time you are at netball and a parent on the opposing caught decides to light up in front of you and your team, go up and ask them if it is really necessary. Make a point that you don’t mind if they choose to smoke but ask them if the feel it is essential to get their nicotine hit for the hour and if they could take it elsewhere, away from you and away from your teammates.
Every time a cigarette is lite, the thought of cancer reverberates through the smoky air for not only the smoker but for the innocent victims around, who wish to live a healthy life, free of the 4,000 chemicals cigarettes contain. At the end of the day we all want to live in a healthy care-free world and I believe the banning of smoking in the public places is the next step.
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