2 reality checks

Why is it important to establish credibility and use quality evidence in

your speech presentation?

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Chapter 11: Being Credible and Using Evidence

Pearson, Human Communication, 6e

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Objectives • Explain the importance of source credibility

• Use four dimensions of credibility to improve audiences’ perception of you

• Develop research strategy for finding support

• Identify eight types of supporting materials

• Correctly attribute information to sources, both verbally and in writing

• Ground your use of research materials in core ethical principles surrounding honesty

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Source Credibility • Audience perception

of speaker’s effectiveness

• Earn right to speak on topic

© Europa Newswire/Alamy

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Dimensions of Credibility

• Competence • Trustworthiness • Dynamism • Common ground

© Peter Hvizdak/The Image Works

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Common Ground

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Strategies for Improving Credibility (1)

• Use high-quality arguments • Use the sleeper effect

– Arguments that stay with audience counteract low credibility

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Strategies for Improving Credibility (2)

• Use self-disclosure • Dress professionally • Use referent and expert power

– Referent power built through rapport – Expert power built through sources

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Strategies for Improving Credibility (3)

• Speak with fluency • Use evidence and show topic’s

importance • Plan for being introduced

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Research in Speech Preparation Preparation Step Benefit of Research 1. Selecting a topic Research helps you discover and narrow

topics. 2. Organizing ideas Research helps you identify main and

subordinate points. 3. Researching support materials

Research provides facts, examples, definitions, and other forms of support to give substance to your points.

4. Preparing an introduction and a conclusion

Research may reveal interesting examples, stories, or quotes to begin or end the speech.

5. Practicing and delivering the speech

Because your speech is well researched, you will feel more confident and will seem more credible.

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Information Sources

• Personal experience

• People resources

• Written and visual resources

© Photo-Alto/Sigrid Olsson/Getty Images RF

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Principles for Effective Research (1)

• Refine topic • Think of research as process • Use variety of sources

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Principles for Effective Research (2)

• Evaluate sources carefully – Is it clear? – Is it verifiable? – Is the source competent? – Is the source objective? – Is the material relevant? – Is the material current?

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Heuristics in Evaluating Research Heuristic Used by College Students to Evaluate Research

Description

1. Reputation Trusting a source because it has a recognizable name or brand (For example, you might trust CNN because it is a large media organization.)

2. Endorsements Believing information because others say it is believable (For example, you might trust a source because reader comments attached to a story are positive.)

3. Consistency Trusting one source because it says something similar to what other sources say (For example, you might believe one website because another website says the same thing.)

4. Expectancy violation

Mistrusting a source because it says something contrary to what you thought or contrary to what other sources say

5. Persuasive intent Mistrusting a source because it makes an obvious attempt to be persuasive

6. Aesthetic appeal Trusting a source because it is well designed and visually appealing

Items 1–5 are adapted from Metzger, M. J., Flanagan, A. J., & Medders, R. B. (2010). Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evaluation online. Journal of Communication, 60, 413–439.

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Locating Sources of Information • Personal experience • Other people • Written and visual library resources • Internet

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Types of Sources Source Uses

Fiction books Some plots or characters can be used to illustrate points you are making in your speech.

Nonfiction books

Nonfiction books include historical, political, social, and scientific studies. Research reported in books tends to be very detailed but can also be somewhat out of date.

Academic journal articles

Most academic journal articles undergo careful editorial review and blind peer review, which can help ensure high-quality information. Academic articles tend to report the results of very specific studies.

Government documents

The federal government produces publications ranging from compilations of congressional testimony to the results of million-dollar scientific studies. Many university libraries have a separate department for government documents.

Trade journal articles

Trade journals are targeted toward professionals in a particular profession or discipline. Trade journals tend to be practical but based on solid research.

Reference books

Your library reference department will have a number of reference books ranging from dictionaries and biographies to atlases. Depending on your speech topic, such sources can be very useful.

Encyclopedias Encyclopedias are excellent places to start researching topics about which you know absolutely nothing. Encyclopedia entries provide short, easy-to-read explanations but tend to be dated and too general.

Magazine articles

Magazine articles provide timely information and tend to provide more in-depth coverage. The disadvantage of magazine articles is that they are typically written by journalists with little or no expertise on the topics they write about.

Newspaper articles

Newspaper articles are among the timeliest sources of print information. Although they are up to date, they are written by journalists who may have little or no expertise on the topics they write about. They also tend to provide few details.

Webpages Webpages are hard to describe because they come in so many variations. Later you will learn about how to locate effective websites. For now, understand that, although websites provide easy access to current information, the quality of information on the web must always be verified

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Web Search Tools Search Narrowing Tool

Description Example

Exact-word searching

By default, browsers return any webpage containing the word you asked it to search for. For example, if you want to search for the informal speech abbreviation inform, the search engine would return sites with the words informative, information, informal, informing, and so forth. To prevent this problem, type your search term enclosed in double quotations marks.

"inform"

Exact- phrase searching

If you are looking for a phrase, put the phrase in quotation marks. For example, simply typing in public speaking would return all sites that contain the two -words anywhere on the site. Placing the phrase in quote marks will return only sites using the phrase.

"public speaking"

Excluding terms

Sometimes you may want to search for a word or phrase but, because it is used in multiple contexts, you need to exclude some types of pages. Suppose you wanted to search for the word apple with the intention of finding out about the fruit, not the company. One way of accomplishing that search is to type in apple followed by words you want to exclude, preceded by minus signs.

Apple – computer – iPhone –iPad

Using wildcards

Wildcards, or symbols (usually an asterisk) that stand in for an unknown character, can expand your search. For example, suppose you wanted to search for state laws pertaining to voter registration. You could search for each state separately (e.g., state of Alaska voter registration laws), or you could combine the wildcard with quotation marks to search for all states, simultaneously, while keeping your search narrowed to documents containing the exact phrase you are interested in.

"state of * voter registration laws"

Adapted from Google (www.google.com/support/websearch/?hl=en).

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Web Addresses

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Supporting Materials (1)

• Examples • Narratives • Surveys

© Image Source/Getty Images RF

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Supporting Materials (2)

• Testimony – Lay testimony – Expert testimony – Celebrity

testimony

© Evan Yee/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

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Supporting Materials (3)

• Numbers and statistics

• Analogies • Explanations • Definitions

© Taxi/Getty Images

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Think About the Mix

• Balance supporting material

• Match support to topic

• Match supporting material to purpose

• Tie supporting material together

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Citing Sources of Information

• Bibliographic references

• Internal references

• Verbal citations

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Verbal Citations Type of Source Example Magazine article “According to an article by Hannah Beech in the April 13,

2009, edition of Time magazine, scores of people have been injured during antigovernment protests in Bangkok, Thailand."

Research study “Erika Kirby, a communication researcher, found in a 2006 study that businesses are starting to take on more family- like roles that blur the separation between family life and work life.”

Webpage “According to a statement on the American Red Cross website, which I visited on April 13, 2009, that organization had to battle three simultaneous disasters—tornadoes, wildfires, and floods—during the week of April 9th.”

Graphic or picture

“As you can see in this picture, taken from the ESPN website yesterday, fans ridiculed players for what they tweeted prior to their game.”

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Ethical Considerations • Source credibility • Use of supporting material

– Plagiarism – Incremental

plagiarism – Two-sided

argument

© Image Source, all rights reserved.

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Can you? • Explain the importance of source credibility

• Use four dimensions of credibility to improve audiences’ perception of you

• Develop research strategy for finding support

• Identify eight types of supporting materials

• Correctly attribute information to sources, both verbally and in writing

• Ground your use of research materials in core ethical principles surrounding honesty

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Appendix: Image Long Description

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Web Addresses (Appendix) For the web address www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml, www.nws.noaa is the server, .gov is the server extension, and om/hazstats.shtml is the exact location on the server.

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Extension Description Example

.edu Primarily college and university websites www.ohio.edu website for Ohio University

.com Primarily commercial or for-profit websites

www.mhhe.com website for McGraw- Hill Higher Education

.gov Government websites www.ed.gov website for the U.S. Department of Education

.net Primarily Internet service provider public sites, sometimes used as an alternative when a “.com” name has already been taken

www.maui.net website for Island of Maui Tourism Bureau

.org Primarily not-for-profit organizations www.helping.org resource site for volunteerism and nonprofit organizations