ACTION STEP 2 Speaker Credibility rhetorical ques ons: Credibility is the confidence that an audience places in the truthfulness of what a speaker says. The impact of credibility on speaker success has been a fundamental concept in public speaking since Aristotle described it as ethos more than 2,000 years ago. Having been understood as a key concept for so long, it is no wonder that several theories exist about how speakers develop credibility. You can read a summary of these theories by going to your CourseMate for Challenge to access Web Resource 5.2: Holistic Theory of Speaker Credibility. Some people are widely known as experts in a particular area and have proven to be trustworthy and likable. When these people give a speech, they don’t have to adapt their remarks to establish their credibility. For example, in November 2008 Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, spoke to fellow physicians on the subject of standing up for patients when health plans don’t—no one listening would have questioned her credibility. However, most of us, even if we are given a formal introduction that attempts to acquaint the audience with our credentials and character, will still need to adapt our remarks to build audience confidence in the truthfulness of what we are saying. Three adaptation techniques can affect how credible we are perceived to be: demonstrating knowledge and expertise, establishing trustworthiness, and displaying personableness. ques ons phrased to s mulate a mental response rather than an actual spoken response from the audience credibility: the percep on that you are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and personable Demonstrate Knowledge and Exper se When listeners perceive you to be a knowledgeable expert, they will perceive you as credible. Their assessment of your knowledge and expertise depends on how well you convince them that you are qualified to speak on this topic. You can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise through direct and indirect means. You establish your expertise directly when you disclose your experiences with your topic, including formal education, special study, demonstrated skill, and your “track record.” For example, in a speech on DWP, J. J. explained: knowledge and exper se: how well you convince your audience that you are qualified to speak on the topic I became interested in the issue of driving while phoning (DWP) after being involved personally in an accident caused by a driver who was talking on the phone. Since then, I’ve done a great deal of research on the subject and am involved in a grassroots organization devoted to passing legislation to ban driving while phoning in our state. SPEECH SNIPPET Of course, to make claims like this, you must have had experiences that give you “standing” to speak on your topic. This is why it is critical for you to choose a topic you know something about. When you can demonstrate your personal involvement with your topic, your audience begins to trust that you understand the material you are presenting. Audience members will also assess your expertise through indirect means, such as how well prepared you seem and how much you demonstrate firsthand involvement by using personal examples and illustrations. Audiences have an almost instinctive sense of when a speaker is “winging it,” and most audiences distrust a speaker who does not appear to have command of the material. Speakers who are overly dependent on their notes or who hem and haw fumbling to find ways to express their ideas undermine the confidence of the audience. On the other hand, when your ideas are easy to follow and clearly expressed, audience members perceive you to be more credible. Similarly, when your ideas are developed through specific statistics, highquality examples, illustrations, and personal experiences, audience members Chapter 5 Demonstra ng Direct Exper se Tiffany demonstrated direct exper se with her topic when she declared, “About five years ago, I made a decision to stop ea ng meat, which has changed my life in several ways. Living a vegetarian lifestyle is an important aspect of who I am today.” | Adap ng to Audiences | Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 81 SPEECH SNIPPET Establishing Trustworthiness Tiffany established trustworthiness in her speech by framing it as an explana on about why she chose to live a vegetarian lifestyle rather than trying to persuade her listeners to make that same choice: “In the next few minutes, we’ll talk about how I made this choice to live meat-free, some of the family issues I’ve dealt with as a result of this choice, and some of the specific ways this choice con nues to affect my life today.” trustworthiness: the extent to which the audience can believe that what you say is accurate, true, and in their best interests are more likely to view you as credible. Think about how impressed you are with instructors who always seem to have two or three perfect examples and illustrations and who are able to recall statistics without looking at their notes. Compare this with your experiences with instructors who seem tied to the textbook and don’t appear to know much about the subject beyond their prepared lecture. In which instance do you perceive the instructor to be more knowledgeable? Establish Trustworthiness Your trustworthiness is the extent to which the audience can believe that what you say is accurate, true, and in their best interests. The more your audience sees you as trustworthy, the more credible you will be. People assess others’ trustworthiness by judging their character and their motives. So you can establish yourself as trustworthy by following ethical standards and by honestly explaining what is motivating you to speak. As you plan your speech, you need to consider how to demonstrate your character—that you are honest, industrious, dependable, and a morally strong person. For example, when you credit the source of your information as you speak, you confirm that the information is true—that you are not making it up—and you signal your honesty by not taking credit for someone else’s ideas. Similarly, if you present the arguments evenly on both sides of an issue, instead of just the side you favor, audience members will see you as fair-minded. How trustworthy you appear to be will also depend on how the audience views your motives. If people believe that what you are saying is self-serving rather than in their interests, they will be suspicious and view you as less trustworthy. Early in your speech, then, it is important to show how audience members will benefit from what you are saying. For example, in his speech on toxic waste, Brandon might describe how one community’s ignorance of toxic waste disposal allowed a toxic waste dump to be located in their community, which led to serious health issues. He can then share his motive by saying something like this: “My hope is that this speech will give you the information you need to thoughtfully participate in decisions like these that may face your community.” Display Personableness From Wall Street Journal, permission Cartoon Features Syndicate. We have more confidence in people that we like. Personableness is the extent to which you project an agreeable or pleasing personality. The more your listeners like you, the more likely they are to believe what you tell them. We quickly decide how much we like a new person based on our first impressions. This fact is actually based on a concept we refer to in the communication field as impression formation and management, which is rooted in the theory of symbolic interactionism.2 These first impressions are based on what we infer about people from what we see, such as how they dress, how physically attractive we find them, how well they speak, whether they smile and appear friendly, and even how they carry themselves. Although first impressions are not always correct, we still use them. That’s why a successful business professional 82 | Part 2 | Principles Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. might wear an oversize graphic T-shirt, baggy shorts, and a backward ball cap when hanging out with his friends; put on khakis and a polo shirt to go to the office; and dress in a formal blue suit to make a major presentation at a professional conference. In each case, he is adjusting his look to convey appropriate personableness in different settings. As a speaker trying to build credibility with an audience, you should look for ways to adapt your personal style to one that will help the audience like you and perceive you as credible. Besides dressing appropriately for the audiEthical speakers are fair in that ence and occasion, you can increase the chances they present all sides of an issue, that the audience will like you by smiling at not just the one they favor. Would individual audience members before beginning you describe Stephen Colbert as ethical in this regard? your remarks and by looking at individuals as you speak, acknowledging them with a quick nod. You can also demonstrate personableness by using appropriate humor. By appropriate humor, we mean humor that demonstrates respect for diverse listeners by not potentially offending a particular group (e.g., sexist, ageist, racist) or the values held by them. AP Photo/Jason DeCrow ACTION STEP 2 personableness: the extent to which you project an agreeable or pleasing personality Informa on Comprehension and Reten on Although audience analysis helps you select a topic that is appropriate for your audience’s current knowledge level, you will still need to adapt the information you present so that audience members can easily follow what you are saying and remember it when you are through. Six guidelines that can aid you are (1) appealing to diverse learning styles, (2) orienting the audience with transitions, (3) choosing specific and familiar language, (4) using vivid language and examples, (5) personalizing information, and (6) comparing unfamiliar ideas with those the audience recognizes. Appeal to Diverse Learning Styles learning style: a person’s A learning style is a person’s preferred way of receiving information. Because people differ in how they prefer to learn, you should present your ideas in ways that make it easy for all audience members to understand and remember what you are saying. Models for understanding learning styles have been developed by a number of scholars across many disciplines.3 One prominent model, called Kolb’s cycle of learning, conceptualizes these preferences along four dimensions: feeling, thinking, watching, and doing.4 Kolb’s model is actually rooted in John Dewey’s experiential learning theory.5 Exhibit 5.1 illustrates the cycle. Some people prefer to learn by “watching” and easily understand and remember things they see and hear. People who prefer to learn by watching relate to well-designed visual aids and vivid examples that they can picture. Others prefer to learn by “doing.” For these people, hands-on activities aid their comprehension and memory. People who prefer to learn by doing relate well when speakers provide real-life applications and clearly state how the speech topic is relevant to their personal or professional lives. Some people find it difficult to understand and remember factual material and learn better if their feelings are engaged. These people learn well from stories and other supporting material that appeals to their emotions or senses. Other people learn well by absorbing and considering factual material. People Chapter 5 preferred way of receiving informa on | Adap ng to Audiences | Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 83 Exhibit 5.1 Kolb’s cycle of learning who prefer to learn by thinking connect well when your ideas are supported with detailed definitions, explanations, facts, and statistics. Exhibit 5.1 depicts how the watching– doing and feeling–thinking dimensions of the cycle of learning theory result in four types of learners. Although each of us has a favored learning style, research reveals that all people learn most effectively when ideas are presented in ways that “round” the entire cycle of learning.6 So as you consider what information you will provide, adapt to diverse learning styles by presenting new information in ways that appeal to watching and feeling and doing and thinking. For example, suppose you are trying to make the point that, for the large numbers of Americans who are functionally illiterate, understanding simple directions can be a problem. Here’s an illustration that develops this idea: SPEECH SNIPPET For instance, a person who is functionally illiterate might not be able to read or understand a label that says, “Take three times a day after eating.” Rounding the Cycle of Learning Now look at how much richer this illustration becomes when we develop the statement by using supportive material that appeals to different learning styles: In her speech about hurricanes, Megan appealed to both feeling and watching by showing photos of her own hometown a er it was ravaged by a hurricane She appealed to both watching and thinking by explaining hurricane categories with the help of a scale chart visual aid. And she appealed to doing by having the audience look through a box of hurricane tossed ar cles to search for a baby ring. transi on: a sentence or two that summarizes one main point and introduces the next one 84 | Part 2 | A significant number of Americans are functionally illiterate. That is, about 35 million people, 20 percent of the adult population, have serious difficulties with common reading tasks (thinking). That means that one of every five people you see today may struggle with basic reading tasks. They cannot read well enough to understand how to bake a frozen pizza, how to assemble their children’s bicycle from the printed instructions, or which bus to catch from the signs at the stop (feeling). Many functionally illiterate people don’t read well enough to follow the directions on this bottle [show an enlarged image of the label on a medicine bottle that reads, “Take three times a day after eating”] (watching). So the directions on a prescription bottle like this [show visual aid of enlarged prescription bottle with directions written in garbled nonsense words] are basically meaningless (doing). Orient the Audience with Transi ons When listeners become confused or forget basic information, they lose interest in what is being said. If your speech is more than a couple of minutes long, you can use transitions to orient your audience. A transition is a sentence or two that summarizes one main point and introduces the next one. Suppose your goal is to explain the three phases of clinical trial a cancer drug must pass through to earn FDA approval. After explaining the goals of the first phase, you might use a transition like this: “So the goal of the first phase is to see whether a drug that is safe in animals is also safe in humans. Phase I trials are not designed to determine whether or not the drug works; that is actually the goal in Phase II trials.” Principles Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
