The Motivated Sequence: Organization from the Perspective of the Listener
When I took my first speech course, I entered a speech
contest open to all freshman in the course. My teacher didn’t tell us about the
motivated sequence, but another kid got it from his teacher and showed it to
me. “Our teacher said this is the way we should do our persuasive speech.” I
used it. I made it to the finals (I’m still hacked that I didn’t win, but
that’s another story). My teacher admitted that my content was the best in the
contest.
Since then, I’ve paid attention to how often effective
business speakers use this same structure in their messages, whether they
realized it or not. I’ve seen it in sales pitches for everything from annuities
to steak knives to vacuum cleaners. I’ve seen a version of it in sales training
courses.
This sequence is perhaps the most effective way of
organizing a persuasive message—and it can help clarify the structure of any
message, even those that are not overtly persuasive.
You may choose to use the Motivated Sequence for every
message you construct, but you should learn it well and keep it ready.
This material is largely from Ehninger, Douglas, et al.
Principles and Types of Speech Communication. 9th Ed. Glenview, IL: Scott,
Forseman and Co., 1986.
1.
The nature of motivation and communication
a.
Human beings:
i.
generalize and anticipate.
ii. search for coherent structures in our environments.
iii. fill in missing pieces of a structure.
iv. make ideas coherent in a number of different ways—with many
different patterns.
v. systematically examine and then follow up on their own
motivations. We tend to follow our own motives-to-act in one of two ways:
1.) We
may tend toward a world- or problem-orientation.
a.) Early
in this century the American philosopher John Dewey recognized this tendency
when he devised his “psycho-logic”—a pattern for thought he called “reflective
thinking.”
i.) In
Dewey’s view, individuals tend to (and sometimes do) follow a systematic
procedure for solving problems.
(1.)
People become aware of a specific lack or
disorientation-some situation with which they are, for one reason or another,
dissatisfied.
(2.)
They examine this difficulty to determine its
nature, scope, causes, and implications.
(3.)
They search for new orientations or operations
that will solve the problem or satisfy the need.
(4.)
They compare and evaluate the possible solutions
that have occurred to them.
(5.)
They select the solution or course of action
which, upon the basis of their foregoing reflections, seems most likely to put
their minds at rest and to handle the real-world dimensions of the problem.
2.) Our
other tendency is to be self-centered, motivation-centered.
a.) Salespersons
and advertisers began recognizing this principle in the 1920s. They realized
that you and I buy a particular automobile not simply to get from here to
there, but also to create a certain image; we buy this or that style of clothes
to identify ourselves with others who wear certain sorts of trousers and coats;
we buy furniture that is both functional and decorative. In other words, our
personal motivations, hopes, fears, and desires often control the ways we act
and the goods we consume.
b.) James Oliver Robertson, American Myth, American
Reality, p. 192.
In the period following World War I, the transformation of American mythology
from emphasis on the productive worker with a full dinner pail to the consumer
with a high standard of living became both self-conscious and obvious. Neither
advertising as a business nor aggressive salesmanship were inventions of the
1920’s, but in combination the two became primary agents in the burgeoning of
American consumption from the twenties on. Advertising in the expanding mass
media began to provide the mass markets of consumers necessary to the economic
growth and continuing survival of the great industries. Advertising men and
women could, it was discovered, “scare up” consumers, and, quite possibly, keep
them scared—and buying. Bruce Barton, the twenties’ most eminent advertising man
and author, made clear what economic leaders in the consumer world had come
to recognize: “We speak of the law of ‘supply and demand,’” he wrote, “but the
words have got turned around. With anything which is not a basic necessity
the supply always precedes the demand.” With increasingly conscious effort,
advertising people began to create demand. Barton wrote a popular best seller, a
life of Jesus called The Man Nobody Knows, in which he explained how to
create demand. Jesus was portrayed in the book as a great salesman. Christians
were the consumers of the religion Jesus produced. Christianity, Barton wrote,
had “conquered not because there was any demand for another religion but because
Jesus knew how, and taught his followers how, to catch the attention of the
indifferent, and translate a great spiritual conception into terms of practical
self-concern.” The slogans, campaigns, symbols, and myths of modem
advertising were efforts to translate the products of big business into
individual “practical self-concern” for Americans: “Blondes have more fun”—“More
pain-reliever faster”—“More for less.” The secret to the creation of
demand was to make the potential consumer feel deprived [emphasis added].
b.
Monroe
combined these two tendencies
i.
Alan
Monroe (1903-1975) knew Dewey’s work well and had himself worked in the 1920s
training sales personnel.
ii. As
he thought about Dewey’s “psycho-logic” and the various sales techniques he had
taught people to employ, Monroe
discovered he could unite both sets of procedures—one set based on the
personalized scientific method, and the other rooted in an understanding of
human motivation—to form a highly useful organizational pattern.
iii. Since
1935, that structure has been called “Monroe’s
Motivated Sequence.”
c. Even though Monroe may not have been thinking of Kenneth
Burke's description of form when he developed the Motivated Sequence, his
pattern does make use of Burke's "psychology
of form."
i. "Form
is the creation of an appetite in the mind of the auditor, and the adequate
satisfying of that appetite. This
satisfaction—so complicated is the human mechanism—at times involves a
temporary set of frustrations, but in the end these frustrations prove to be
simply a more involved kind of satisfaction, and furthermore serve to make the
satisfaction of fulfilment more intense. If, in a work of art, the poet says
something, let us say, about a meeting, writes in such a way that we desire to
observe that meeting, and then, if he places that meeting before us—that is
form. While obviously, that is also the psychology of the audience, since it
involves desires and their appeasements" [emphasis added].
ii. Burke talks here about creating a temporary set of frustrations
and then fulfilling them. This creation of desire is critical to the psychology
of the Motivated Sequence.
2.
Five
Basic Steps of the Motivated Sequence
a.
The motivated sequence derives its name
i.
partly because it follows Dewey’s problem-solution format
for thinking. It is problem-solution oriented.
ii. partly because it makes attractive analyses of those
problems and their solutions by tying them to human motives. It is
motivation-centered.
|
Step
|
Audience response
|
|
Attention:
Getting attention
|
I want to listen
|
|
Need:
Showing the need:
describing the problem
|
Something needs to be done
|
|
Satisfaction:
Satisfying the need:
presenting the solution
|
This is what to do to satisfy the need
|
|
Visualization:
Visualizing the results
|
I can see myself enjoying the benefits of such an action
|
|
Action:
Requesting action or approval
|
I will do this
|
b.
The
steps in brief:
i.
Attention:
the creation of interest and desire
ii. Need:
the development of the problem, through an analysis of things wrong in the
world and through a relating of those wrongs to individuals’ interests, wants,
or desires
iii. Satisfaction:
the proposal of a plan of action which will alleviate the problem and satisfy
the individuals’ interests, wants, or desires
iv. Visualization:
the verbal depiction of the world as it will look if the plan is put into
operation
v. Action:
the final call for personal commitments and deeds
c.
Examples
i.
A
speech urging your classmates to join a blood donors’ association:
1.) (Attention)
“If you had needed an emergency blood transfusion in Johnson
County on December 17, 1984, you probably would not have
gotten it.”
2.) (Need)
“Blood drives seldom collect enough blood of all types to meet emergency needs
in an area such as this one.”
3.) (Satisfaction)
“A blood donors’ association guarantees a predictable, steady supply of blood
to the medical community.”
4.) (Visualization)
“Without a steady supply of blood, our community will face needless deaths;
with it, emergencies will be met with prompt treatment. “
5.) (Action)
“You can help by filling out the blood donors’ cards I am passing out.”
ii. Sell
insurance to a friend:
1.) (Attention)
“For pennies a day, you can gain considerable peace of mind and a solid
background for future financial security.”
2.) (Need)
“Life insurance can protect your family from the impact of an untimely death,
guarantee you future security, give you a source of emergency loans, educate
your children, and supplement other forms of investment.”
3.) (Satisfaction)
“Here’s how we can tailor your insurance coverage to meet particular aspects of
your own situation.”
4.) (Visualization)
“Consider the following situations and what a life insurance program can do to
get you out of them.”
5.) (Action)
“Get a routine physical examination today, and tomorrow we can start your
coverage for as small or as large an investment as you care
to make.”
a.
As a speaker, your first task is to gain attention.
Your ideas must tap their sense of interest and personal motivation to force
them to listen.
b.
See
the previous list of things that get attention.
c.
This is a critical step in persuasion. They must first
pay attention to the message if it is to be effective.
d.
An
otherwise well-designed message without a solid attention step will be wasted.
The audience may not begin to attend to the message until it is well underway.
e.
Use your delivery, ethos, language and content to get
attention.
f.
Keep attention throughout the message. Some media, such
as certain types of television programs, must have attention elements
interspersed throughout the message since viewers do not receive the message in
a linear, serial order.
a.
Why is the information vital to the well-being of the
audience and why is the problem an urgent one?
b.
A
need step should do the following: (In short give them a clear and vivid
picture of how big and bad the problem is.
i.
Statement—Offer
a clear, concise statement of the need. This can be in the form of a central
idea or claim, depending on your speech purpose. The statement of the need
orients the listeners to your specific message; presumably, what you go on to
say will be related to this statement.
ii. Illustration—Present
one or more illustrations to give listeners a clear idea of the nature of the
problem you are discussing.
iii. Ramification—Utilize
supporting materials to clarify your statement of need,
or to justify the urgency of the problem which you wish to have resolved.
Additional examples, statistical data, testimony, and other forms of support
can supplement the illustrative examples already used.
iv. Pointing—Impress on the audience the seriousness of the issue, its
scope, and its significance to them. Provide, at this stage of the need step, a
convincing account of how the issue or problem directly affects the people
addressed-their health, happiness, security, or other interests.
c.
This step is one in which you relate your subject to
the vital concerns and interests of your audience.
d.
Note:
The need step is critical to persuasion.
i.
It
is not “why the audience needs this product or solution.”
ii. Instead
it is creating a need in them that you will later fill in the satisfaction
step.
1.) You
have to dig the whole before you fill it.
2.) The
need step is the engine of persuasion. Like a rubber-band powered airplane, how
much you wind up the need determines how far you’ll propel them into your
solution.
3.) Like
the Coyote’s lever contraptions to catch the Road Runner, how big a boulder of
need you drop on the audience determines how far they’ll fly to your solution.
iii. In
certain situations where the need is obvious, you may be able to allude to it
or mention it briefly. However, you should always structure your persuasive
appeals around the audience’s needs, even when you do not elaborate them.
a.
Let the audience understand the information you are
presenting or to get them to agree that the belief or action you propose is the
correct one.
b.
The Satisfaction Step in Speeches to Inform.
i.
The
satisfaction step usually will constitute the bulk of your message and will
present the information that was specified as necessary in the need step.
1.) Initial
summary—Briefly state in advance the main ideas or
points you intend to cover.
2.) Detailed
information—Discuss in order the facts or explanations pertaining to each of
these ideas or points.
3.) Final
summary—Restate the main points or ideas you have presented, together with any
important conclusions you have drawn from them.
c.
The Satisfaction Step in Speeches to
Entertain.
i.
The
satisfaction step will constitute the major part of your speech.
1.) Initial
statement of theme—Briefly indicate the sentiment or
idea that you will discuss.
2.) Humorous
elaboration—Develop the theme with particular attention to hypothetical and
factual illustrations and specific instances that will convey a light-hearted,
yet meaningful, message to the audience.
3.) Final
summary—Restate your main theme by drawing the connection between your
illustrations and the point you wish to make.
d.
The Satisfaction Step in Speeches to Persuade.
i.
Statement—Briefly state the attitude, belief, or action you wish the
audience to adopt.
ii. Explanation—Make
sure your proposal is understood. Diagrams or charts are often useful here.
iii. Theoretical
demonstration—Show how this belief or action logically meets the problem
pointed out in the need step.
iv. Practical
experience—Give actual examples showing that this proposal has worked
effectively or that this belief has been proved correct. Use facts, figures,
and the testimony of experts to support your claims.
e.
You do not need to include all of these elements or
parts in the satisfaction step of every persuasive speech, nor in the same
order.
*
Parallel Development of the Need and Satisfaction Steps.
a.
Outline I: Normal
Order
i.
Attention
Step
1.) While
working for the local hospital’s emergency ambulance unit this past summer, I
responded to several automobile accidents in which the driver was severely
injured.
a.) Vivid
description of how the accident occurred.
b.) Vivid description of the injuries sustained by the driver.
ii.
Need
Step
1.) In
many of these accidents, the primary cause was either drinking or falling
asleep at the wheel.
a.) The
driver was unable to react properly due to the effect of the alcohol.
b.) The
driver awoke too late to take corrective action. Satisfaction Step
2.) In
order to combat these two causes of highway accidents, you must do two things
above all others.
a.) Do
not drive under the influence of alcohol.
b.) Do
not drive when you are tired; if you have been driving for a long time, stop
and rest.
iii. Visualization
Step
1.) You
will actually enjoy driving more when you have the assurance that these actions
will bring.
iv. Action
Step
1.) Resolve
right now to do two things when you drive.
a.) Don’t
drink and drive.
b.) Don’t
drive tired.
b.
Outline
II: Parallel Order
i.
Attention
Step
1.) While
working for the local hospital’s emergency ambulance unit this past summer, I
responded to several automobile accidents in which the driver was severely
injured.
a.) Vivid
description of how the accident occurred.
b.) Vivid description of the injuries sustained by the driver.
ii.
Need
and Satisfaction Steps (First Phase)
1.) In
some cases the driver was unable to react properly.
2.) To
assure yourself that you can react properly, don’t mix drinking with driving.
iii. Need
and Satisfaction Steps (Second Phase)
1.) In
some cases the driver awoke too late to take corrective action.
2.) To
assure yourself that you can take corrective action, do not drive when tired.
iv. Visualization
Step
1.) You
will actually enjoy driving more when you have the assurance that these actions
will bring.
v.
Action
Step
1.) Resolve
right now to do two things when you drive.
a.) Don’t
drink and drive.
b.) Don’t
drive tired.
a.
Used only in the speeches to persuade or to actuate.
b.
The
function of the visualization step is to intensify desire: to help motivate the
listeners to believe, feel, or act.
c.
Might also be called the “projection” step, for its
effectiveness depends largely upon the vividness with which it pictures the
future or potential benefits of believing or acting as the speaker proposes.
i.
The Positive Method of Developing the Visualization Step.
1.) Describe
conditions as they will be in the future if the belief you advocate is accepted
or the action you propose is carried out.
2.) Provide
vivid, concrete descriptions.
3.) Select
some situation which you are quite sure will arise in the future, and in that
situation picture your audience actually enjoying the safety, pleasure, pride,
and so on which the belief or proposal will produce.
ii. The Negative Method of Developing the Visualization Step.
1.) Describe
the adverse conditions that will prevail in the future if the belief you
advocate is not adopted or the solution you propose is not carried out.
2.) Graphically picture for your audience the danger or unpleasantness
which will result.
3.) Select
the most striking problems or deficiencies you have pointed out in the need
step and demonstrate how they will continue unless your recommendations are
adopted.
iii. The Contrast Method of Developing the Visualization Step.
1.) Combines the positive and negative approaches.
2.) Use
the negative development first, visualizing the bad effects that are likely to
occur if your listeners fail to follow your advice; then introduce the positive
elements, visualizing the good effects of believing or doing as you urge.
3.) By
means of this contrast, both the bad and the good effects are made more
striking and intense.
d.
The
visualization step always must stand the test of reality.
i.
The
conditions you picture must seem probable.
ii. In
addition, you must to the fullest extent possible put your listeners into the
picture.
iii. Use
vivid imagery: make them actually see, hear, feel, taste, or smell the things
and benefits you describe.
iv. The
more real you make the projected situation seem, the stronger will be their
reaction.
e.
Example:
i.
Whether we like it or not, then, as these facts show, nearly all of
our towns and cities are going to continue to grow and expand in the years
ahead. How your town grows, however, is going to be entirely up to you.
ii. As
new suburbs are developed and annexed, one of two policies can be followed.
First, this growth may be haphazard and unplanned, and may occur without strict
zoning ordinances to regulate it. In this case, it is likely that paved
streets, if they are present at all, will be cheaply constructed without storm
sewers or attention to traffic flow. Houses will be crowded together on tiny
lots and will vary widely in value and in architectural style. Filling
stations, business establishments, and even light industries-with their odors
and noises-may appear in the middle of residential neighborhoods. In short, if
you were to buy a home in such an area, it is altogether likely that you would
soon be faced with huge bills for new streets and sewers, and that your
property, instead of appreciating in value, would decline rapidly in the years
ahead. As a home buyer you would be a loser all around-a loser not only because
of the poor quality of life you and your family would experience, but a loser,
and a big loser, in hard dollars and cents, and a big loser, in hard dollars
and cents.
iii. On
the other hand, if additions to your town are properly planned and zoned, as a
home owner you will be assured of clean air and adequate living space, will
enjoy a house that increases rather than decreases in value, and will be
assured that you are not paying for new streets and sewers a few years after
you move in. Isn’t it worthwhile requiring that your town annex only
subdivisions that have been properly planned and zoned-that it insist on
orderly responsible growth? Remember, buying a home is very probably the
largest single purchase you will make during the course of your entire life.
Remember, too, that a healthy, attractive environment is perhaps the greatest
gift you can give to your family.
a.
Only in the speech to actuate
b.
At
times, however, as a speaker you may use something resembling an action step to
urge further study of the topic dealt with in an informative speech or to
strengthen the belief or attitude urged in a persuasive one.
c.
Use the following conclusion techniques
i.
challenge or appeal,
ii. summary,
iii. quotation,
iv. illustration,
v. statement of inducement,
vi. statement of personal intention.
d.
Keep
the action step short.
See three Motivated Sequence
samples.
See a full
presentation using the Motivated Sequence.
Adaptation of the
Motivated Sequence to the General Purposes of Messages
|
General
End
|
TO
INFORM
|
TO
ENTERTAIN
|
TO
PERSUADE
|
TO
ACTUATE
|
|
Reaction
Sought
|
UNDERSTANDING
CLARITY
|
ENJOYMENT
|
BELIEF
INTERNAL
|
SPECIFIC
ACTION
OBSERVABLE
|
|
Attention
Step
|
Draw
attention to the subject.
|
Draw
attention to the theme.
|
Draw
attention to the need.
|
Draw
attention to the need.
|
|
Need Step
|
Show why
the listeners need knowledge of the subject; point out what problems this
information will help them meet.
|
Show why
the theme is worthy of consideration.
|
Present
evidence to prove the existence of a situation which requires that something
be decided and upon which the audience must take a position.
|
Present
evidence to prove the existence of a situation which requires action.
|
|
Satisfaction
Step
|
Present information to give them a satisfactory knowledge
of the subject as an aid in the solution of these problems; begin and end
this presentation with a summary of the main points presented. (Normal end of
the speech.)
|
Elaborate
on theme through numerous illustrations that will elicit a pleasurable
reaction from the audience.
|
Get the
audience to believe that your position on this question is the right one to
take, by using evidence and motivational appeals.
|
Propose
the specific action required to meet this situation; get the audience to
believe in it by presenting evidence and motivational appeals (as in the
speech to persuade).
|
|
Visualization
Step
|
Sometimes:
briefly suggest pleasure to be gained from this knowledge.
|
Sometimes:
briefly suggest what is to be gained through humorous examination of the
theme.
|
Briefly
stimulate a favorable response by projecting this belief into imaginary
operation. (Normal end of the speech.)
|
Picture
the results which such action or the failure to take it will bring; use vivid
description (as in the speech to persuade).
|
|
Action
Step
|
Sometimes:
urge further study of the subject.
|
Sometimes:
implore audience to consider lighter side of life.
|
Sometimes:
arouse determination to retain this belief (as a guide to future action).
|
Urge the
audience
to take definite action proposed.
|
C. The
Motivated Sequence and Traditional Patterns
See a discussion of the traditional structure patterns.
1.
Motivated Sequence=Traditional Patterns
a.
Attention=Introduction
b.
Need/Satisfaction=Organized
Main Points
c.
Visualization/Action=Conclusion
2.
The application of the traditional patterns to
the main points of the speech should satisfy five general criteria for the
structure of any speech:
a.
The structure of the speech must be easy for the
audience to grasp and remember.
b.
The
pattern must provide for a full and balanced coverage of the material under
consideration.
c.
The structure of the speech should be appropriate to
the occasion.
d.
The
structure of a speech should be adapted to the audience’s needs and level of
knowledge.
i.
Some
of the patterns we will describe are particularly well suited to times when
listeners have little background on some subject, while others are useful in
situations where the audience is interested and knowledgeable about the subject
under discussion.
e.
The speech must move forward steadily toward a complete
and satisfying finish.
i.
Repeated
backtracking to pick up “lost” points will confuse your audience, and you will
lose the sense of momentum your structure intended to convey.
ii. Throwing
out facts in what appears to be a random, thoughtless pattern will not allow
you to clarify a point or to amass data that justifies a position you have
taken.
