Improve Your Public Speaking -

4 Tips for Using Evidence

Many tools can be implemented for success in delivering your speech, whether you are giving a speech to a public audience, talking with members of a company board meeting, or simply offering a sales presentation. Such tools comprise explaining detailed examples, designing statistical charts, in addition to providing influencing testimony. Below, we will add another public speaking skill to the list and explain four special tips for using “evidence” in a influential speech.

• Use Evidence From Genuine Sources: There is a good deal of research to show that listeners find evidence from competent, credible sources more influential than evidence from less qualified sources. In particular, listeners are doubtful of evidence from sources that appear to be prejudiced or self-interested.

In assessing the current state of airline safety, for instance, they are more likely to be influenced by testimony from impartial aviation experts than by statements from the president of American Airlines. In judging the conflict between a corporation and the union striking against it, they will typically be leery of statistics offered by either side. If you wish to be persuasive particularly to careful listeners - you should put your faith in evidence from objective, non-partisan sources.

• Spell Out The Point of Your Evidence: When speaking to influence, you use evidence to prove a point. Yet you would be surprised how many novice speakers present their evidence devoid of making clear the point it is supposed to prove. A number of studies have shown that you cannot count on listeners to draw, on their own, the conclusion you want them to reach. When using evidence, ensure listeners understand the point you are trying to make.

• Use Exact Evidence: No matter what kind of evidence you employ - statistics, examples, or testimony - it will be more influential if you state it in exact rather than general terms.

• Use Novel Evidence: Evidence is more likely to be persuasive if it is new to the audience. You will gain little by mentioning facts and figures that are already famous to your listeners. If those facts and figures have not persuaded your listeners already, they will not do so now. You must surpass what the audience already knows and present striking new evidence that will get them to say, “Hmmm, I didn’t know that. Maybe I should rethink the issue.” Finding such evidence is not always simple. It typically requires hard digging and resourceful research, but the rewards can be well worth the effort.

Discover the Art of Conversation

It may be a cliché, but it is nevertheless true that the key to successful conversation is good listening - this is what makes other people enjoy talking to you. But good listening isn’t only about asking related questions. The constant non-verbal signals of your interest are in fact more vital than your infrequent verbal queries, however well phrased.

The best way to send the right signals is, of course, genuinely to listen, blocking out your own thoughts and focusing on what your companion is telling you. If you do this, you’ll impulsively offer the body language that a good listener does: you’ll look at your companion; you’ll naturally verge on them and angle your head slightly to one side so as to hear them better. You won’t fidget or fiddle; your body will remain still and attentive, except for any slight matching of posture or gesture.

For extra impact, you can also ‘raise the volume’ on your body language signs of attentiveness. Humans are biologically programmed to feel good when they get a reaction from someone else, so the more feedback you give to someone who is talking, the more appreciated they’ll feel. Begin by angling your body toward the person who’s talking and you will be offering a nonverbal invitation to speak.

From Selfhelpzone

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