The art of persuasion

This week and next we will be learning about debate and public speaking.

We will learn about political traditions in some english speaking countries, try out  different persuasive techniques, and use debate as a tool to explore the ideas you have learned about in class this term.

Remember:

  • Be brave – speak up, test out new ideas, don’t be embarrassed. We learn from our mistakes.
  • Be supportive – listen attentively to your classmates, show respect for their ideas and opinions (even when you don’t agree).

Political debate in the English-speaking world

Debate in the British House of Commons is often aggressive.

Some people think this is a very democratic tradition. Others say that it gets in the way of serious argument, and turns politics into an upper class sport.

American politicians use a lot of patriotic rhetoric and often talk about their life story.

This is the speech that made Barack Obama a star:

How similar do British and American conventions compare to political debate in Sweden?

Hearts and minds

I muntliga framställningar i olika genrer kan eleven formulera sig varierat, tydligt, sammanhängande och strukturerat… med anpassning till syfte, mottagare och situation.

This is not a bad recipe to have in mind:

 

  • Varied
  • Clear
  • Structured
  • Adapted to the audience, purpose, and context.

 

 

If you want to capture your audience’s imagination, logical reasoning and evidence are not usually enough. You need to speak to their hearts as well as their minds. One way to do this is to tell a story.

Some of you have been preparing arguments for a manned mission to Mars. What story would you tell to get an audience of your classmates interested?

Here is a clip of the speech US president John F Kennedy gave in 1961 declaring his intention to put a man on the moon within a decade. This would be one of the most expensive government projects in American history. How does he sell his vision?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25G1M4EXrQ

14 reaktioner till “The art of persuasion”

  1. My great great (and so on) grandfather was Leif Eriksson. He set out to explore the world, and later, he discovered America. Just as he had the courage to explore the world, we should have the courage to explore our solar system. This is why we should fund more missions to mars.

    Gilla

  2. My great grand parents came to Sweden, at their time no one knew what was on the red planet and ever since they have dreamed of going to Mars. It has been the dream of many for centuries and it is time to fulfill that dream.

    Gilla

  3. The epilogue of world war 2. Europe is in ruins, people are starving our people. We dreamt of an Europe. Were WE, the people shared everything. A Europe without borders, taxes, where anyone no matter their background could travel live and buy goods as they like. What happened? Were did this dream go? We got our borders and taxes but what happened with the currency and with the dream? The dream of a united europe. A europe with the same currency!

    Gilla

  4. Travel to mars

    Hello, My name is Victor and i will take a moment to talk about why we should go to Mars and why it´s so imported for our people. I will talk about thats our planet are duying, that it will upgrade our technologies and why it will bring our countries together.

    Our planet’s resources are coming to an end. We see every day that the planet i s growing warmer. There is pollution and wars about resources like oil and water. We must find a new planet for us to survive.

    When we go to mars it will give us ideas and new science that can help us here on earth, right now and in the future. The old space program gav eus inventions and spin off technologies like cochelar implants, the dust buster, and freeze dried foods and many, many other technologies. A mission to mars will give us new ideas and experience so we can survive better here and we will also learn how to make mars our new home.

    A mission to Mars will require cooperation between countries. This will lead to better relationships between countries and cultures. When we realize that our survival requires us to go to Mars, we will be forced to cooperate and will be able to live in peace.

    When I was little I loved to explore things, So I have dreamed about going to space and find new places there no one have ever been on. And I know im not the onley one with that dream so let´s stop the dream and make it to a reality. Let´s go to Mars shall we?
    To sum up everything, I talked about thats we should go to space becuase that our planet are duying and our resources are coming to its end. We will upgrade our tecknologi here on earth and help us on earth. That countries will haft to cooperat and thats means that it will be better between the countries.

    Gilla

  5. As far back as I can remember I have always heard of the world ending, like in books, movies. The mayns thougt the earth would die in 2012.
    So we need to keep exploring the universe and mars is only a small step. Because we will probably destroy that one too and then we might need to move to a new star. So we need to start now because it’s only a matter of time.

    Gilla

  6. When i was young i used to go out and look at the stars and the time would just fly away. One star would stand out from the rest and that was mars. From that moment and on, i have always dreamed of going to mars.

    Gilla

  7. When I was young, I admired Ice Hockey players and my older brother was one of them. So ever since I was a little kid, I have been dreaming of the ground and ice. But one day, all changed when my older brother quit Ice Hockey and started playing video games. I was quickly drawn to video games too and all my thoughts about the ground completely disappeared. My favourite game was a space simulator. It was at that moment, and from that moment on, that I started dreaming about that which is above the sky.

    Gilla

  8. Ever since I was little boy I have always loved exploring, and exploring has always been essential in the human life. I used to lay down at night in the grass and look at the stars and the moon and always wanted to go there, and thought of new places and new environments to be in and live in, that is why i think we should travel to mars and see if some day we can live there!

    Gilla

  9. * introduction of changing currency to Euro

    * I understand every since I was born that national hatred is nothing to laugh at. Because my after name is Adolfsson every person in the neighborhood thought that we were helping the nazis and we suffered of even tho Sweden were suppose to be neutral.

    * WW2
    * Sweden being neutral
    * Changing currency to euro we can join EU
    * We can help the EU of making World Peace
    * Swedens reputation is at stake
    * Fatality

    Gilla

  10. I’ve always had the desire to explore, when i was young i used to walk around exploring the woods and looking for new places that i’ve never seen before.
    Now when I’m older i feel like the earth is a small place and there is nothing new to find and I’m sure that a lot of you also feel that way. We want to do that our earlier generations got the chance to do. Explore. And since the earth is limited I want us to look to the stars….bla bla bla….

    Gilla

  11. Climate change is real, we’ve known it is for so long and still have done nothing about it, disbanding it as a myth, and now the earth is getting warmer and we dont know what to do, as a species we have an obligation to keep on living and our options is halt climate change really fast and that is possible but what if it fails? Then we have to have a backup plan, that plan should be to fund a mission to mars or anywhere in space and over the time that we are trying to stop climate change we can build up on mars as fast as we can.
    If earth fails the human race needs another option.

    Gilla

  12. Hello, My name is Victor and i will take a moment to talk about why we should go to Mars and why it´s so imported for our people. I will talk about thats our planet are duying, that it will upgrade our technologies and why it will bring our countries together.

    Our planet’s resources are coming to an end. We see every day that the planet i s growing warmer. There is pollution and wars about resources like oil and water. We must find a new planet for us to survive.

    When we go to mars it will give us ideas and new science that can help us here on earth, right now and in the future. The old space program gav eus inventions and spin off technologies like cochelar implants, the dust buster, and freeze dried foods and many, many other technologies. A mission to mars will give us new ideas and experience so we can survive better here and we will also learn how to make mars our new home.

    A mission to Mars will require cooperation between countries. This will lead to better relationships between countries and cultures. When we realize that our survival requires us to go to Mars, we will be forced to cooperate and will be able to live in peace.

    When I was little I loved to explore things, So I have dreamed about going to space and find new places there no one have ever been on. And I know im not the onley one with that dream so let´s stop the dream and make it to a reality. Let´s go to Mars shall we?
    To sum up everything, I talked about thats we should go to space becuase that our planet are duying and our resources are coming to its end. We will upgrade our tecknologi here on earth and help us on earth. That countries will haft to cooperat and thats means that it will be better between the countries.

    Gilla

  13. My dad was an astronaut. He was suppose to go explore Moon. Whole my family was watching the launch. Clock was counting down. 5…4…3… and when it was suppose to go 2.. BOOM! The space shuttle exploded. In under a second my dad was gone. And the last words he said to me was: ”It’s going to be a safe trip to Moon and back.” Well it wasn’t…

    Gilla

  14. Imagine a world just like ours. Overpopulated and polluted. Imagine children restrictions and all the families that will be torn apart by the police that are confiscating their children and putting them down. This is a problem we must face, and we must face it NOW!!

    By Johan, Eskander and Gabriel.

    Gilla

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