Speaking and Listening Terms
Basic Terms
Inductive Reasoning:
Organizing ideas from specific to general
Deductive Reasoning:
Organizing ideas from general to specific
Ethos:
Establishing credibility
Pathos:
Emotional appeal
Logos:
Logical appeal
Point of View:
The subject, occasion, audience, purpose, and speaker of a speech
Rhetoric:
Refers to a use of any devices or techniques to persuade the audience
Credibility:
Degree to which the audience can believe what the speaker states
Types of flawed evidence
False Evidence:
Refers to incorrect information that the speaker uses as support
Distorted Evidence:
Refers to selectively choosing information that misleads the audience as to the original intent of the author.
Exaggerated Evidence:
Refers to overstating or stretching the truth to emphasize a point
Assumption:
A thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen without proof.
Incomplete Information:
Refers to information that the speakers uses that may not be fully explained or cited completely.
Types of Good Evidence
Credible Statistics:
Presents significant numerical information about a chosen topic.
Facts and numbers that are supported or explained throughout the speech.
Reliable Examples:
Individual samples that illustrate a main point.
Stories or specific examples that provide ethos and pathos to the speaker’s point.
Research-based facts:
Details that can be proven and these details remain constant.
Citing sources, the speaker explains research that has been done to help prove a point. The research is fully explained and is not taken out of context.
Experts:
Similar to research-based facts, the speaker finds papers/studies written by experts and uses those secondary/primary sources to help prove a point.
SOAPS
Speaker-The voice that tells the story/gives the speech.
Why is this person delivering this speech? Are they the right person?
What tone does the speaker have? Sarcastic? Presence of Anger? Guilt?
Occasion-The time and place of the piece; the context that prompted the speech
What is the larger occasion? An environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl around a broad issue.
What is the immediate occasion? An event or situation that catches the speaker’s attention and triggers a response.
Audience-The group of listeners to whom the speech is directed.
What is the makeup of the audience? Are they naturally bias against an issue that may or may not be brought up? What evidence could change based on the audience?
Purpose
What is the speaker’s goal? Is it to educate, to motivate, to persuade, or to entertain?
Was the objective achieved?
Subject
What is the primary message being delivered?