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3. The Target Audience
Unfortunately, no matter how carefully a speaker plots his/her speech, he/she will
seldom be able to persuade all of the audiences. Like most audiences, they will probably
contain some people who are hostile to the speaker’s position, some who favor it, some
who are undecided, and some who just don’t care. A speaker commonly would like to
make his/her speech equally appealing to everyone, but it is rarely possible. Most often

a speaker will have a particular part of the whole audience that he/she wants to reach in
the speech. This part is called target audience (the portion of the whole audience that
the speaker most wants to persuade).

4. Kinds of Persuasive Speeches

Below is the explanation of three major kinds of persuasive speeches and how to
organize them effectively.
a. Persuasive Speech on Questions of Fact
Here, the speaker acts as an advocate. The aim is not to be impartial but to
present one view of the facts as persuasively as possible. The speaker may
mention competing views of the facts, but only to refute them.
b. Persuasive Speech on Questions of Value
It will involve a person’s beliefs about what is right or wrong, good or bad,
moral or immoral, ethical or unethical. When speaking about question of
value, a speaker must justify his/her opinion by establishing standards for
the value judgment. The speeches do not argue directly for or against
particular courses of action.
c. Persuasive Speech on Questions of Policy
Once a speaker goes beyond arguing right or wrong to urging that something
should or should not be done, he/she moves to a question of policy. When a
speaker speaks on it, the goal may be to evoke passive agreement or to spark
immediate action. In either case, there will be three basic issues; need, plan,
and practicality. How much of the speech a speaker devotes to each issue
will depend on the topic and the audience.

C Speaking on Special Occasion

Speeches for special occasions are different from speeches that are already
discussed above. They may convey information or persuade, but that is not their
primary purpose. Rather, they aim to fit the special needs of a special occasion.

16 | Public Speaking