Mary is giving a persuasive speech about the benefits of adoption over abortion and wants to engage her audience early on. Which
of the following supporting materials would probably be the most effective choice to use during the introduction of her speech? a. “A total of 820,151 legal induced abortions were reported in 2005, the abortion ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) was 233, and the abortion rate was 15 per 1,000 women aged 15--44 years.” - (www.cdc.gov) b. According to Lisa M. Koonin, M.N., M.P.H. and Jack C. Smith, M.S., “Legal induced abortion is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures in the United States. Abortion rates for teenagers are much higher in the United States than in most Western European countries and in some Eastern European countries.” c. “My name is Allie J. A few years ago I was working as an outreach worker in Vancouver, BC, Canada. One of my clients asked me to go with her while she got an abortion. I sat holding her hand wondering how I ever thought that this was not going to affect me. I was ashamed to think I had condoned this. Never will I encourage abortion over adoption again. There is a better way.” d. A young teenage girl who becomes pregnant and is faced with the choice of whether to give her child up for adoption or to have an abortion.
First of all, in this statement the speaker introduces herself and immediately lets the audience know why this topic is so important to her. Audiences are more likely to be invested in a speech if they know the speaker is personally invested in the cause. It also begins with an example of pathos--an emotional appeal to the audience--which is effective in drawing an audience in.
You want to avoid throwing a lot of numbers or other researchers' names at the audience immediately upon starting (even though you will definitely want to use those things within the speech) because they will make the tone seem too formal or fact-based before the audience has a chance to become invested.
