Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Module: Week 12 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions + one weekly Speech Workshop
Objective covered: Objective 7 — Compose and deliver a persuasive speech that employs the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), credible cited evidence, a sound organizational pattern (e.g., Monroe's Motivated Sequence), and an ethical approach to audience persuasion.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 12 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Week 12 Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday pattern with Week 12 meeting Tue Nov 3 and Thu Nov 5, a Speech Workshop that same week, and end-of-week work due Sunday Nov 8, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 12 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 12: Persuasive Speaking & the Rhetorical Appeals

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This is the persuasion week — and one of the term's most practically useful. You've spent eleven weeks building the toolkit: researching, organizing, outlining, styling, delivering. This week you put it all to work on the hardest kind of speech: a message that asks an audience to believe or do something they weren't already convinced of. That's persuasion — and it has a 2,400-year-old roadmap. Aristotle identified the three ways any message can reach an audience: ethos (your credibility), pathos (genuine emotional connection), and logos (logic and evidence). Master those three, combine them with a clear organizational pattern like Monroe's Motivated Sequence, and you have the framework for every persuasive message you will ever give — in class, in a job interview, at a community meeting, or at a dinner table.

We'll also take the ethics of persuasion seriously — because the line between persuading and manipulating is real, and a communicator who can't see it is a danger to themselves and their audience.

The week's big question

"How do I design a message that genuinely moves an audience — ethically?"

By Sunday you'll be able to identify the three appeals and their sub-dimensions, select a persuasive organizational pattern, build a non-partisan persuasive speech with credible cited evidence, and explain where persuasion ends and manipulation begins.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all five out loud, you're ready for the quiz and the speech.

• [ ] Identify and describe the three rhetorical appeals — ethos (competence, character, goodwill), pathos (emotional connection, used ethically), logos (logic: evidence and reasoning) — and match each to a described example in a speech.
• [ ] Distinguish questions of fact, value, and policy and explain what claim type a persuasive speech makes.
• [ ] Apply Monroe's Motivated Sequence (attention → need → satisfaction → visualization → action) and explain why its five steps work for a persuasive speech.
• [ ] Explain the ethics of persuasion — where honest emotional appeal becomes manipulation; how to use evidence honestly; why fabricating or exaggerating evidence is both unethical and counterproductive.
• [ ] Deliver a persuasive speech (recorded) with a clear claim, at least one appeal from each of the three categories, at least one cited source for logos, and Monroe's structure or another sound pattern.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the persuasive speech: this is the headline graded speech for the week — like the informative speech last week, but now your goal is to move the audience, not just inform them. Pick a non-partisan or everyday topic (see suggestions in the assignment), build your three appeals, and verify any statistics you use. The AI coach will check for fabricated sources — and so will Prof. Marchetti.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Pick a topic that doesn't divide the room politically. Campus topics (bike parking, first-aid training, sleep, meal prep, recycling) are excellent; everyday well-being topics work perfectly. The assignment gives a list. If you want to use a contested civic issue, argue it evenhandedly — acknowledge the opposing view, weigh the evidence, and let the logic do the work.
• Build all three appeals — don't skip logos. A speech that's all emotion and no evidence can move an audience in the wrong direction. Logos is the anchor. Find one real, verified statistic or study. The Workshop drills this.
• Know the Monroe's sequence cold. Five steps: attention → need → satisfaction → visualization → action. That's the spine of most effective persuasive speeches. Apply it to your topic this week.
• Ethics is not a decoration. Manipulating an audience — exploiting fear, suppressing counter-evidence, fabricating sources — is a real harm. We teach the line explicitly this week because the line matters.
• Treat the chatbot as a sloppy research assistant. When the AI coach suggests evidence or statistics, verify them. This week's AI-critique moment in the Workshop is specifically about catching fabricated stats — because chatbots invent them constantly.

This week's speech is the hardest assignment you've had. It's also among the most useful. See you Tuesday.

(B) Week 12 Announcement

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Nov 3, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Nov 3."

Subject: Week 12 — Persuasion, the three appeals, and your most useful speech of the term

Hi everyone,

This is the week you've been building toward since we talked about organizational patterns and research: persuasive speaking. This week's headline is the Persuasive Speech — a recorded, cited, fully-structured speech designed to genuinely move an audience.

Here's what's at the center of the week: Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals. Ethos — the credibility you bring (are you prepared? trustworthy? do you have the audience's interests at heart?). Pathos — the genuine emotional connection that makes an argument matter to a real human being, used honestly. Logos — the logic and evidence that give an argument its backbone. These aren't just ancient Greek vocabulary; they're the three levers every effective communicator uses, every time. We also add the organizational framework that makes persuasive speeches move: Monroe's Motivated Sequence — attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, action — which you'll apply to your own speech.

And we address the ethics head-on: what's the difference between persuasion and manipulation? That question is this week's discussion topic, and it's genuinely worth your thinking time.

Three things not to miss:
1. Pick a non-partisan or everyday topic for your persuasive speech — campus or well-being issues work great. The assignment has a list. The goal is to practice the craft of persuasion on a topic everyone can engage with.
2. Verify your evidence. When you build the logos appeal, find a real, current, verified statistic or study. The Workshop specifically drills catching fabricated stats (chatbots are notorious for inventing them). Don't build your speech on a made-up number.
3. Speech Workshop 12, Quiz 12, Discussion 12, and Assignment 12 all close Sunday Nov 8 — plan ahead, because the speech takes more lead time than any other assignment this term.

By Sunday, you'll have delivered a persuasive speech with real rhetorical structure, real cited evidence, and a genuine ethical stance. That's a skill you'll use for the rest of your life.

See you Tuesday,
Prof. Marchetti