Question

Perception of credibiility,

!. How does the speaker attempt to develop common grounds with her audience?

2. Explain how she explores topic relivence?

3. Describe 3 ways she endeavors to develope speaker credibility. Is she sucessful? Why or why not?

4. Finally, comment on how you plan to develope relevance and credibility in your demonstration speech

I need help and ideas to do this excerise (On public speaking). Thank you

Answer 1

Credibility can be defined as the speaker's quality, which makes him reliable, believable and capable of developing confidence in him or her.

To develop common grounds with the audience, it is essential to concentrate on the requirements of the audience. It is important to note that the needs of all the audience may not be the same. The speaker is exposed to an audience with 'varying levels of knowledge', 'different perspectives' and 'mixed expectations'. But, on a positive side, the audience also has things in common, and these common aspects have to be searched by the speaker, to develop credibility and rapport with the audience. The first attempt should be to know the potential audience. One should, therefore, get in touch with a few individuals, who will be attending the demonstration or the presentation, and try to understand them, to make an impression about the larger audience. To develop common grounds with the audience, one has to identify false assumptions. This is because the interests or issues of the people as the audience may be inapt, primarily due to incorrect or erroneous information. So, one should be well-researched and have in store, correct facts. Lastly, the speaker should develop a rapport with the audience and connect with it. The speaker should have the ability to get the audience involved in his demonstration. The speaker's content should be such that the audience remains engaged. For this, the speaker can use humour as a medium to amuse the audience and indulge in a lighthearted conversation with them. He can speak in a 'confident conversational tone' and use 'common language'.

Topic relevance can be explored by knowing the common aspects of the audience. One should know, which are the topics holding relevance among the public in general and the potential audience. One can search online for current affairs and notable issues and problems of the society or a cultural community. One can search for what problems are bothering the targeted audience. For this, a speaker can again get in touch with a few individuals, who will be attending the presentation and try to understand them. The speaker can ask them about issues, which are bothering them or interfering with their normal day-to-day living.

Some speakers already possess 'perceived credibility', before the commencement of their presentation or demonstration. To regain credibility, they only need to be present on the stage, so that they can be identified. They only need to give a brief introduction about themselves like telling their full name and title. For example, if the person is a celebrity and a well known and established public speaker, the audience will have perceived credibility about him. The listeners will be keen to lend their ears to the speaker, due to his presence, attractiveness, and the potential to confidently speak out his mind. But if a speaker lacks perceived credibility, then he or she would have to create it, but winning his or her audience. For this, the person would have to choose a 'relevant topic' to engage the audience in the conversation. He or she can introduce the 'element of humour', which is much enjoyed by the audience. The speaker should have a 'confident tone of presentation of ideas and demonstration'. The presentation or demonstration should be conducted in a 'comprehensible language'. The speaker should also 'speak clearly'. The above-mentioned ways can help the speaker to be a successful public speaker. If she will choose an irrelevant topic that will possibly disengage the audience, if she will speak ambiguously or in an incomprehensible language and will lack confidence in her speech deliverance, then she will end up being unsuccessful in convincing the listeners of her viewpoint and will be considered unworthy of their time and money.

I plan to develop relevance and credibility in my demonstration speech by following all my above-mentioned techniques and ways. If they will be followed, I will be successful in public speaking, or else I will end up in making the audience lose confidence in me.