Persuasion Speech Quality Guide
This guide describes a persuasive speech for a live audience for a specific group who can act on the argument. It is formative: use it to plan, self-check, and give peer feedback. It contains no scores, bands, levels, or confidential marking material.
How to use this guide. Read the whole guide before you draft. Choose one criterion to work on in each revision pass. A useful self-check names a specific sentence or choice, not a general feeling.
1. A clear claim
What strong work does. The speech makes one arguable claim that the audience can understand in the first thirty seconds.
Ask your draft. Can a listener repeat my claim after the opening?
Revision move. Rewrite the opening so the claim is a single sentence.
2. Reasons that build
What strong work does. Each reason advances the argument and is supported by evidence, example, or experience.
Ask your draft. Does each reason add something new, or repeat the last one?
Revision move. Cut one reason and deepen another with a concrete example.
3. Evidence the audience can trust
What strong work does. Sources are named, relevant, and used honestly. Numbers are explained rather than sprayed at the audience.
Ask your draft. Where did this evidence come from, and would my audience accept it?
Revision move. Add the source and date in plain language.
4. A fair counter-argument
What strong work does. The speech acknowledges a real objection and responds to it without caricature.
Ask your draft. What is the strongest reason someone might disagree?
Revision move. Write the counter-argument in the opponent’s best words, then answer it.
5. Structure for listeners
What strong work does. Signposting, repetition, and a purposeful close help an audience follow a spoken argument.
Ask your draft. Where might a listener lose the thread?
Revision move. Add one signpost and cut one aside.
6. Delivery and presence
What strong work does. Pace, volume, emphasis, eye contact, and pauses support meaning. The speaker adapts to the room.
Ask your draft. Which sentence needs a pause before it?
Revision move. Rehearse the opening and close three times, then mark the pauses.
Peer feedback protocol
- Read or view the whole draft once without writing anything.
- Name one strength using the language of the guide: “The … works because …”.
- Ask one genuine question about a choice you could not follow.
- Offer one specific next move that the maker can complete in the next lesson.
Do not give a score, a band, or a level. The purpose is to help the maker see their own draft more clearly.
Draft checklist
- My claim fits in one sentence.
- Each reason has evidence or a concrete example.
- I answer one real objection.
- The close asks the audience to do or think something specific.
- I have rehearsed the opening and the close aloud.
Teacher note
Use this guide formatively. Select two criteria for a feedback lesson rather than all of them. Model the difference between a general comment (“make it better”) and a specific one (“the second paragraph names a technique but does not say what it makes the reader notice”).
This page is not an assessment instrument. It contains no scores, bands, or confidential marking material.