How long is a persuasive speech for school?

Most class assignments are 3 to 7 minutes. Follow your teacher's limit and aim to finish 15 to 20 seconds under it.

What are good persuasive speech topics?

Topics close to your audience work best: school rules, local issues, habits your classmates have. Pick something you actually believe so your delivery sounds real.

How many sources do I need?

Check your assignment. As a guide, one credible source for each main reason is enough for a short class speech.

Can I use emotion in a persuasive speech?

Yes. A short story or example that makes people care is often what moves them. Pair it with evidence so it doesn't feel like manipulation.

What's the difference between a persuasive and an informative speech?

An informative speech teaches; a persuasive speech asks the audience to believe or do something. See our informative speech guide for the other kind.

How to Write and Deliver a Persuasive Speech (With Outline)

Choose a claim you can defend

The topic matters less than the claim. "Social media" is a topic. "Our school should ban phones during lunch" is a claim. A good class claim:

Is arguable. A reasonable person could disagree. "Exercise is good" isn't persuasive; it's obvious.
Is specific. It asks for one change, by one group.
Fits your time. In five minutes you can argue for a later start time at your school. You can't fix the national education system.
Matters to your audience. Classmates care about lunch, homework, the canteen and the bus. Pick something they feel.

The outline

Section	What it does	Time (5-minute speech)
Hook	Makes the audience feel the problem	20–30 seconds
Claim	One sentence: what you want and who should do it	10–15 seconds
Reason 1 + evidence	Your strongest point, with a fact, example or source	60–75 seconds
Reason 2 + evidence	Your second point	60 seconds
Objection and answer	The best argument against you, and why it doesn't win	45–60 seconds
Call to action	The specific thing you want the audience to do	30 seconds
Close	Return to the hook	15 seconds

If your teacher asks for a named structure, Monroe's motivated sequence is a common alternative: attention, need, satisfaction, visualisation, action. The outline above is simpler and works for most class assignments.

Example outline: "Our school should have a 30-minute reading break each week"

This is a made-up outline to show the structure. Your own speech needs real sources for any fact you use.

Hook. "Raise your hand if you've finished a book this term that wasn't assigned. Keep it up if you finished it during school hours."
Claim. "Our school should give every class 30 minutes a week to read anything they choose."
Reason 1: we don't have time otherwise. Evidence: a quick survey of your own class (state how many people you asked), or a source your teacher accepts.
Reason 2: it costs almost nothing. The library already exists; the time could come from the existing tutor period.
Objection. "Some teachers will say we can't lose 30 minutes of lessons." Answer: it replaces tutor time, not lessons, and a trial term would show whether it works.
Call to action. "Sign the petition at the back of the room today, and I'll take it to the student council on Friday."
Close. "Next term, when I ask who finished a book, I want more hands."

Evidence that persuades a class

Type of evidence	Example	Use it when
A statistic from a source	A figure from a government or research report, with the source named	You need to show size or scale
A real example	A school or town that already does it	You need to show it's possible
Your own data	"I asked 40 students in Year 10…"	The audience is your peer group
A story	One person affected by the problem	You need the audience to care
Expert opinion	A named organisation's position	The audience trusts authority

Say where each fact comes from, out loud: "According to the city council's 2025 transport report…". Naming the source is part of what makes the audience believe you. This is the "logos" and "ethos" side of ethos, pathos and logos.

Why the objection section wins arguments

Most students skip it, which is why including it stands out. When you raise the other side yourself:

You sound fair, which makes people trust the rest of your argument.
You answer the doubt before it settles in their heads.
You show you've thought about it, not just repeated what you already believed.

Use the strongest objection, not a weak one you can knock down easily. Start with "Some of you are probably thinking…" and answer it calmly.

The call to action

End with something specific the audience can do, ideally today. Vague endings ("we should all think about this") lose the energy you built.

Weak	Strong
"We need to care more about the environment."	"Bring one empty bottle to the refill station tomorrow instead of buying a new one."
"Phones are a problem."	"Vote yes on the phone-free lunch proposal at Thursday's assembly."
"Think about volunteering."	"Write your name on the sheet by the door for one Saturday at the food bank."

Delivery that convinces

Slow down for your claim and your call to action. Say them once, pause, then say them again in slightly different words.
Make eye contact on your key facts, not while reading them. Look down, read the number, look up, say why it matters.
Use your hands for your structure: one finger for reason one, two for reason two.
Sound sure, not loud. Drop hedges like "I kind of think" and "maybe". Our list of filler words includes the hedges that weaken an argument.
Pause before the ask. Two seconds of silence makes people look up.

Practise the speech out loud and ask someone to argue back afterwards. In the Speaking Coach app you can describe your topic and have the AI partner play a sceptical classmate who questions your claim, which is a good way to test your objection section.