Lesson Summary
Welcome to the first lesson in “How to Write and Speak Persuasively”! This course is divided into three main sections: things you need to know before writing a speech, things you need to know while writing a speech, and things you need to know after writing a speech.
This first lesson starts where any course should—at the beginning! The art of “persuasion” has been studied for over 2,000 years, dating back to the Ancient Greek Empire. The first person recorded to formally study persuasion was Aristotle, commonly referred to as the “Father of Rhetoric.”
The word “persuasion” comes from three Latin roots. The first is “Per” meaning “thoroughly and strongly,” the second “Suadere” meaning “to urge, persuade, convince,” and finally “Swād” which means “sweet, pleasant.” These roots tell us that persuasion is a sweet, pleasant means of communication—not simply being correct or telling someone how they are wrong. It is drawing them to your perspective in a way that is winsome.
This is a crucial skill set today because there are only two ways to influence others: persuasion or coercion. Persuasion seeks to work with people voluntarily, while coercion attempts to force cooperation through fear, control, and manipulation.
We can see this all throughout history as great orators have shaped the world for the better, ushering people into eras of peace, prosperity, and abundance. Men like Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela all helped bring about powerful reform to their countries during trying times, leaving the world better than they found it.
But sadly, history books also show the danger of persuasive speaking in the hands of evil men. Men such as Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong, whose passionate speeches ushered in times of great division, suffering, and even death.
