Persusasive Speeches Are Bad Assignments

5 Pages 1307 Words

There is no logical reason to write a persuasive speech for an
English class. Persuasive speeches definitely do not need to be a
requirement for high school students.

The definition of “persuade” in The Macquarie Dictionary is: To induce one to believe or do something; to argue into an opinion or procedure; to plead with, urge. I have always thought that someone who let his own opinion be changed by someone else is a person who lacks a strong will. I understand that some people have a certain talent for convincing other people, but I personally would not change my mind about a subject unless I was unsure about that subject in the first place.

I became aware of one personal trait when writing this paper that is I do not really care about much. I have no intention of letting other people know about the few things that I do care about either. I found it pointless to try to write a persuasive speech about a subject for which I do not care. The only thing I could think to try to convince people to do was to refuse to write a persuasive speech ever again. I faced a kind of moral paradox with this, though. If I wrote a persuasive speech telling people not to write persuasive speeches, what kind of example would I be? I was convinced that I was not going to do this paper, but in a showing of my own lack of will. I realise that teachers would be angry about this somewhat counterproductive speech, but nevertheless students should refuse to write persuasive speeches unless their own will convinces them to do so.

People of my age do not really have many reasons to complain. Most persuasive essays written by adolescents are fluff in the eyes of authority anyway. Sure, you could write a persuasive essay about plenty of subjects. For example, “Kids should be allowed to skateboard anywhere they want.” It's a perfectly fine essay for someone who really cares about it. The problem is that most of the authorities who would decide where...