Jill

In my Fundamentals of Oral Communication class we were taught these exact methods in giving speeches. To fully relate this to Aristotle’s tactics, I will tell of my persuasion speech. I gave a speech on eating disorders and how the media encourage eating disorders in women. In my invention or construction of my argument, I showed how statistics of eating disorders have risen from the past to now. I also showed examples of advertisements with skinny models which the women of our day expect themselves to look like. With these examples, I failed to show a contrast of advertisements of the past or possible advertisements of the future. I did show that through using perfect bodies in advertisements, we have glorified this part of our nature over other more important things. In my arrangement, I gave an interesting story to catch the audience’s attention, then I shared that I had credibility because I had struggled with an eating disorder as well as had my sister and best friend. I stated my purpose was to make my audience aware of the effect of the media and to stop the glorification of perfect bodies. I did not wait to the end of my speech to reveal my main point. Rather I ended with examples of what we could do. My style contained vivid examples with the actual advertisements and stories of those who had suffered. I spoke in everyday language, but failed to create fresh metaphors. I spoke candidly, which made it easier not to memorize my speech, which may have been at odds with Aristotle’s encouragement of memory. It’s amazing that Aristotle’s speech techniques are still being taught in classrooms today.