Imagine, you are about to give a presentation to an auditorium full of onlookers. You have practiced your speech, perfected your outline, and arranged your information well to be presentable to the audience. The sensation of stage fright creeping in can grip your body if you haven’t considered the importance of tone to what you are about to present. Even the most practiced speakers will feel as though something is amiss right before giving the initial introduction to a talk if they are undecided on which type of atmosphere to promote. The most important aspect of any speech is to keep the tone conversational.

Knowles (1978) proposed Andragogy to make a distinction between how children learn, known as pedagogy, and how accountable adults tend to pursue learning. Knowles (1984) states that adult learners are self-directed. As functioning adults, adult learners seek out information that benefits their ability to improve their lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is compounding through self-directed knowledge gathering and practical application of learned skills that result from seeking new information. Lifelong learning refers to the ability of learning experiences to combine with what was previously known. In addition, lifelong learning refers to the ability of experiences to inform intellectual growth through the compounding of self-directed, motivated information gathering with life experiences (Knowles, 1984). Adult learners seek directly applicable information, persuasion, and examples that can be immediately applied to real-world scenarios that the learner will inevitably interact with. Practicality and applicability enhance the salience of learning to make listeners more receptive to new information. When the information is relevant to the listener’s life, they will want to intake and adapt to the new information. Finally, direct connections to the inherent value of information must be made. Value can take shape contextually, through repeated practice, or in direct practical application. Adult learners are problem-centered and find value in solving real-world problems.

Knowles (1978) proposed Andragogy to make a distinction between how children learn, known as pedagogy, and how accountable adults pursue learning. The agency inherent in the accountability assumed from adulthood allows adult learners a distinct advantage in setting their own learning goals. Adult learners can guide learning journeys based on what has motivated and catalyzed other adults to learn, grow, improve, and create meaningful change. Knowles (1984) states that adult learners function through five distinct assumptions: self-concept, experiential learning, readiness to learn, orientation to learning, and motivation to learn.

All communication is persuasion; it is either well-placed or it’s misplaced. I use this statement to exemplify that even the most mundane statement is an attempt to get others to listen, at the least, and be prompted to act or change their views at the most. In my college courses, I offer ten points of extra credit to the person who can disprove the idea that all communication is ultimately an attempt to persuade. I have yet to award those extra credit points after roughly fifteen years of teaching similar courses. The value of information and informative speaking structures are important in the sense that they allow an audience to feel relatively less pressure to act. Persuasive speaking should influence people positively to take actions that will bring positive outcomes to individuals, groups, companies, communities, states, or globally.