Persuasive speech evaluation - Assignment Example

Commentary on “Sex, Drugs and HIV-- Lets Get Rational” Elizabeth Pisani is a leading HIV speaker who goes around the world discussing how “People dostupid things. That is what spreads HIV”. Her main point was that there are 2 things that always lead people to do something stupid, “an erection and drugs”. Her point is that people do not think logically and rationally when they are faced with a decision pertaining to their addictions. If people had a choice between a dumb action and an even dumber action, that person will opt for the dumber action because it seems rational to him at the time.

However, there is a method by which a person can recover from his stupidity. Provided that he wants to correct his mistakes in the first place. Ms. Pisani was definitely an engaging speaker as she knows how to lighten a serious discussion with humor and anecdotes that allows the people to feel relaxed and understand the seriousness of the topic without being as serious as heart attack. What is amazing about the talk that Ms. Pisani gave is that the was able to combine both the informative and persuasive patterns of speech.

She managed to stay on topic while persuading people to believe in her position about sex, drugs, and HIV. She was quite effective in delivering her speech because she actively engaged her audience by using slide presentations, props such as her public health glasses, and other gimmicks that worked in her favor. Most specially, the fact that she used lighthearted words in presenting her topic, made the people more interested in hearing what she had to say. The fact that the audience was laughing while she was talking shows hos successful her speech was.

She was definitely able to relate with her audience because she spoke from personal experience and the experience of friends, even giving actual condoms away in order to deliver her message of safe sex. The audience positively responded to her by clapping and laughing along with her.