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University of Washington

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

University of Washington via Coursera

Overview

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.

Taught by

Dr. Matt McGarrity

Reviews

3.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

Start your review of Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language

  • Ajinkya Kolhe

    Ajinkya Kolhe completed this course, spending 2 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.

    Some parts of the course are very useful. Especially how to approach debates. Study of of some speeches is also insightful.
    Didn't provide very actionable plan to improve persuasion skills. May be it was a course just to give broad overview & history of rhetoric, but I was expecting something more practical and actionable.

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