Credibility and Reasoning

Describing Credibility Credibility is the audience’s attitude toward or perception of the speaker. Components of Credibility –Competence Perceptions of the speaker’s intelligence, expertise –Character Perceptions of the speaker’s sincerity, trustworthiness –Dynamism Perceptions of the speaker’s energy, enthusiasm

3 Types of Credibility 3 Types of Credibility: –Initial –Derived –Terminal Stems from how the audience perceives: –you –cause(s) you represent –the group(s) you represent

Strategies to Enhance Credibility Explain your competence Establish common ground Deliver your speech fluently, expressively, and with conviction

Evidence Can be in the form of examples, statistics, & testimony Use Evidence that is specific, novel, from credible sources, and made clear (relevant to the point). Importance: –Especially when you’re not recognized as an expert –Or when target audience opposes your views

Reasoning Drawing a Conclusion Based on Evidence Reasoning from Specific Instances –Progress from a number of facts to a general conclusion –Beware of hasty &/or sweeping generalizations –Be careful with wording (don’t overstate facts) –Reinforce the argument with statistics or testimony

Reasoning from Principle Move from general principle to specific conclusion Make certain audience accepts the general principle Make sure audience will accept the minor premise

Causal Reasoning Tries to establish cause and effect relationship Avoid fallacy of false cause Avoid fallacy of misidentification of the cause (correlation NE causation) Avoid the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy Avoid the slippery slope fallacy

Analogical Reasoning Compares 2 similar cases to draw conclusion that what is true in 1 will also be true in the other Valid if the cases are essentially alike

Emotional Appeals Intend to make listeners feel sad, angry, guilty, fearful, reverent, etc. 3 ways to generate emotional appeals –emotionally charged language –vivid examples –sincerity and conviction Make sure they are appropriate to the topic Do not substitute emotional appeals for evidence and reasoning