Chapter 25: The Persuasive Speech

• Persuade my audience that hate speech should/should not be protected by the First Amendment


• Persuade my audience that the legal drinking age or voting age should be raised/lowered


• Persuade my audience that universal health care for all Americans shoud/should not be a priority


• Persuade my audience that voting is/is not an important obligation for American citizens


• Persuade my audience that it is/is not necessary to participate in a recycling or conservation program


• Persuade my audience that is/is not crucial for people to develop a career before marriage


• Persuade my audience that the death penalty is/is not an ethical punishment.


• Persuade my audience that Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s) should/should not be more strictly regulated at the federal level


• Persuade my audience that Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, or any other U.S. president is the best president


• Persuade college students that they should/should not join a particular campus political organization


• Persuade my audience that large federal budget deficits are/are not an economic disaster


• Persuade my audience that marijuana should/should not be legalized in the U.S.


• Persuade my audience that Americans should/should not make sacrifices in order to lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil


• Persuade my audience that college students should/should not be required to take a multicultural education class


• Persuade my audience that elementary and high schools should/should not post the Ten Commandments in every classroom


• Persuade my audience that they should/should not be concerned about global warming


• Persuade my audience that torture is/is not an acceptable means of getting information from suspected terrorists


• Persuade my audience that drug offenders should/should not receive mandatory prison sentences


• Persuade my audience that Title IX has/has not been good for high school and college athletics programs


• Persuade my audience that human life begins/does not begin at conception


• Persuade my audience that creationism should/should not be taught in the classroom


• Persuade my audience not to buy clothes from manufacturers that use sweatshop labor


• Persuade my audience that solar power is/is not a realistic alternative to fossil fuels


• Persuade my audience that we should/should not drill for gas and oil in natural wildlife preserves


• Persuade my audience that clean needles should/should not be given to drug addicts to prevent the spread of AIDS and other diseases


• Persuade an audience of Americans that they should/should not switch to the metric system


• Persuade my audience that a U.S. strategy of military pre-emption will/will not encourage other countries to follow suit


• Persuade my audience that the president of the U.S. should/should not sign a national hate crimes bill


• Persuade my audience that grade school students should/should not have to wear uniforms


• Persuade my audience that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is/is not relevant to today’s society


• Persuade my audience that the Cleveland Indians or other teams should/should not replace their ethnic mascots


• Persuade my audience that U.S. colleges should/should not be allowed to consider race and ethnicity when making admissions decisions


• Persuade my audience that the government should/should not fund school vouchers for parents who want to send their children to private schools


• Persuade my audience that prostitution should/ should not be legalized


• Persuade my audience that third-party presidential candidates should/should not be allowed to participate in televised debates


• Persuade my audience that citizens should/should not be notified if a former sexual offender moves into their neighborhood


• Persuade my audience that the Ku Klux Klan or Neo-Nazi groups should/should not be allowed to march in African-American or Jewish neighborhoods


• Persuade my audience that campaign finance reform is a good/bad idea


• Persuade my audience that the U.S. should/should not continue to have an embargo against Cuba


• Persuade my audience that the space shuttle program should/should not be discontinued


• Persuade my audience that there should/should not be a constitutional amendment to outlaw flag-burning


• Persuade my audience that a culture of greed is/is not pervasive at major American corporations


• Persuade my audience that constitutional rights and liberties have/have not been threatened by measures designed to increase American security


• Persuade my audience that increasing teachers’ pay would/would not attract the best candidates to the teaching profession


• Persuade my audience that there is/is not a liberal bias to stories reported by major U.S. media


• Persuade my audience that tenure for teachers is a good/bad practice


• Persuade my audience that they should attend a particular college or university