Plato believed you could arouse a person's soul with your words and they would believe in what was being presented. Plato also believed that a speaker should have high moral character and only persuad

Persuasive Speech

Persuasive Speech: Audience Assessment

Specific Goal: My audience will agree that we need to increase the budget on space exploration.

Type of Claim: This is a claim of Policy.

Ethos: Primary Ethos:

a) Competence: I am an advocate for space exploration.

b) Fairness: I will give unbiased information on why the budget has dropped.

Secondary Ethos: I will cite 5 references in my speech.

Audience Assessment: Most of my audience members will probably have an attitude toward my proposition that is uninformed.

Adaptation to Audience Attitude:

Common ground: I will explain our needs as a human race.
Latitude of acceptance: My proposition lies within the audience’s latitude of acceptance because this is for the advancement of the human race.

Baby Steps: I have gone from having my audience support companies that will take us to space to just having my audience write a letter to their state rep to request for an increase on the budget for space exploration.

Pattern of Organization: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

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Persuasive Speech: Outline

Increase Budget for Space Programs

Introduction

I. Hook: Did you know that NASA’s budget only counts for less than half of one percent of the U.S. Federal budget?

II. Ethos: I’ve been interested in space exploration since I was a kid and I’m an advocate for it as well.

III. Proposition: I’m going to speak to you today about why we should support space exploration.

IV. Preview: Just so you can have a better understanding of what I’m going to talk about, I’ll be going over the following with you:

1. Why do we need space programs?

2. History of the budget on space exploration.

3. What could happen if we met NASA’s budget needs.

Transition: Now, let’s start from the beginning.

Body

Why do we need space programs?
1. It influences advancement in technology.
  1. Because of space programs we’ve been able to improve communications. (Air & Space Power Journal)
  2. Because of space programs we’ve been able to improve weather forecasting.
2. Another reason is it will help with the prosperity of human beings
  1. Earth’s resources will eventually run out.
    1. We can look for resources that will help sustain life, outside of Earth.
  2. Space exploration can help with economic and societal issues. (Mechanical Engineering)

Transition: Let’s now talk about how much spending has gone into this?

History of the budget on space exploration.
1. The space race had a great influence on the budget.
  1. We were in a race with Russia to see who can get to the moon first.
  2. At that time, NASA’s budget peaked at 4.5% of the Federal budget. –(Business Insider)
2. The decline in the budget happened later.
  1. After landing on the moon the budget has plummeted to below 0.5% of the Federal budget.
  2. Every now and then the budget still gets cut.
    1. The Federal budget is always under review and certain programs get cut based on priority.
    2. Last year, NASA’s budget faced a cut of about $270 million (New Scientist)

Transition: Lastly, lets discuss…

What could happen if we met NASA’s budget needs.
1. In a hypothetical situation what could happen if NASA were to get as much funds as the U.S. military.
  1. NASA predicts it will cost $450 billion to send humans to Mars.
  2. The military budget this year was just under $700 billion.
  3. NASA’s budget for their mission to Mars would be met in a year if their funds were replaced by the military budget.
2. NASA will no longer need to outsource projects to other companies.
  1. Companies like SpaceX have only emerged because they are trying to fill the void that NASA has left. (Inverse)
  2. Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources Inc. are also companies that have been helping NASA (New Scientist)

Transition to close: Looking back at…

Conclusion:

Summarize main points/thesis: The needs for space programs, what the NASA budget has gone through, and the potential of NASA if we were to meet it’s budget needs should give you an idea of what our space program is in need of.
Bookend: The budget’s plummet to less than half of 1% should draw some concern.
End the speech memorably: You may think that this is probably not a priority right now. I ask the question, “When should it be a priority?” Should we wait until humans have exhausted all of nature’s resources before we look back and think, “Hey, maybe we should have spent more money on finding resources outside of Earth.”
Challenge the audience to respond: The need for advancement is calling to us and we need to answer it. You can do this by reaching out to congress through letters. I plan on doing it and I admonish you to do the same.

References:

Fernando Marinho and Jessica Orwig (2017) https://www.businessinsider.com/what-nasa-do-with-us-military-budget-2017-7

Mike Brown (2018) https://www.inverse.com/article/46362-spacex-elon-musk-reveals-why-humanity-needs-to-expand-beyond-earth

NASA funding cuts. (2016). New Scientist, 229(3061), 7. Retrieved from https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mat&AN=113048395&site=eds-live

Ruzic, N. P. (2013). Why Are We in Space? Air & Space Power Journal: Afrique et Francophonie, 125-126. Retrieved from https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=94331000&site=eds-live

VEDDA, J. A. (2014). BUILDING THE NEXT SPACE AGE. (cover story). Mechanical Engineering, 136(1), 32–37. Retrieved from https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=voh&AN=94985159&site=eds-live