Fallacies in arguing

So far in our book, we have covered good persuasion techniques and the different ways to present the evidence. Another thing to take into consideration is avoiding using flawed arguments, or fallacies. It is very important to not use fallacies in trying to persuade someone. Although it may convince someone who is uninformed, it will leave a very bad impression on someone if they catch your bad logic and will prevent them from trusting you in the future.  There are four different kinds of fallacies: Faulty assertions, flawed evidence, defective reasoning, and erroneous responses. Faulty assertions are where the speaker tries to convince the audience that there is only two choices. Flawed evidence is where the speaker's evidence is used inappropriately or deceptively to try to influence the audience. Sometimes when someone doesn't have enough evidence to support their claim, they throw in some "filler" evidence to try to impress the audience to sway them in their favor. The next fallacy is the fallacy in responding. This is where one makes an error when responding to someones idea, mainly by throwing false accusations to discredit the person. The last fallacy is through reasoning. This is where the speaker is missing the link between his evidence and the conclusion. I found the table in the book was extremely helpful, and plan on using it to prevent myself from using them in my own speech.

Question #2

One of the most recent times that I tried to persuade someone actually happened on facebook about a very controversial topic. One of the first reasoning types that I used was an analogy, comparing a point that he had made to an exact same situation (that he agreed with me on) to show that his point was not reasonable. The analogy type of reasoning was one of the reasoning types that I used the most, but I also used the inductive reasoning in a few situations. One example was that  he pointed to someone else (scientists) saying that those people believe the same way he did, so he must be right. I then pointed out that on another issue that he believed in, those same people have "proved" that his side of the issue is wrong, so either he was wrong on the second issue or there was a possibility that those scientists are wrong on the first issue, just as he believes that they were wrong on the second issue.
We were both strongly set in our opinions, and even though my family and friends said my reasoning and persuading techniques were very good, the guy that I was debating with would not be persuaded in any way.

Speech Buddy

For this week, I found the speech buddy videos really caught my attention since it is an issue that I am familiar with. I have been homeschooled almost all of my life, so naturally I wanted to start on the video about the pros of homeschooling. One of the things that I probably would have changed about this speech was to add some statistics about the success rates of homeschoolers or to include a small narrative from someone that was homeschooled. I did like how she included a couple of quotes in her speech (this would qualify as the logos type of appeal). The second type of appeal that the speaker used would have been ethos, as she stated in the very beginning of her speech that she had studied the topic thus helping her credibility.
 Listening to her speech, I completely agree with all of her points. I and my siblings spent less hours on school material than most schooled students and we did a lot better than most California students on the end of the year star testing. One of my brothers was constantly being picked on and even had his tooth punched out in the first grade in public school; homeschooling solved this problem for him. Also, the flexibility of homeschooling was incredible! We had our school curriculum program on our laptops, and this allowed us to be able to bring our school with us when we visited family or went on a trip. It also allowed my younger brother to complete two years of school in one.
Now looking at the speech with the cons of homeschooling, I feel that the speaker did not research homeschooling too well. His first point addressed parents being the teachers, and he made a statement about how the parents could never be as qualified, if not more qualified, than a teacher. First off, the parent knows the child better than a teacher ever could. The parent knows the child's strengths and weaknesses, they know the learning techniques that help the child learn better, and they also know what motivates their child to learn. Almost all of the charter schools that I have been to have offered classes to their students that include all of the classes from math and english, to digital photography, cosmetology classes, and web design and golf classes. All of these classes are taught by certified teachers, so if a parent has trouble in a certain subject, they can sign their child up for that class, for free (as long as you stay in the budget per child amount which could be from $1000 - $2000 a year. You can also use this money for curriculum or other school supplies). And as I mentioned before, me and my homeschooled siblings were scoring advanced on almost every subject area in the star testing, so clearly my parents were doing as good, if not better, than most teachers. Yes, there is the occasional parent that doesn't take their child's education very seriously, but there are teachers in schools that feel the same way about their students. I know because my brother had a teacher like that in public school. One of the last points that the speaker makes is the need for parental involvement for the student success, I totally agree with that point since the main reason that my parents homeschooled me was to be more involved in my education and my life.

Monroes Motivation Sequence

Monroes Motivated Sequence is a series of six steps that are used to help persuade the audience and stir them to action. The first part of Monroes Motivation Sequence is using a great attention getter, like a shocking statistic or a story that will grab the hearts of the audience so they are hooked on the topic and want to hear more. After you have their attention, you want to give proof of the problem existing using statistics or facts. Now you will have the audience wondering what they can do to fix the problem, so listing some possible solutions is the next step. Then explain what will happen if these solutions aren't initiated, and how the solutions will make the problem better. The next step is then listing some actions that the audience can do personally. And finally, review the main points and conclude the speech so that the audience will leave with those main points on their mind. Although I think that this is a good speech organizational pattern, I think the topic that I will be doing for my persuasion speech would do a little better with the problem-solution pattern since I will be using a lot of statistical information.

Wherever I go I am surrounded by people trying to persuade me. When I am on facebook, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper in print and online, and even when I am talking with my coworkers, family, and friends. For every decision that we have to make, there will be something there trying to persuade us, even something as simple as trying to decide what to wear. There are even times when we go looking for someone to persuade us what to buy, like when I am trying to decide what camera I want to get next. I will go to a professional reviewer or even go to amazon or another online store that sells the camera that I am looking at and try to read the reviews to determine what the pros and cons of the camera are, if there is anything that I haven't already considered, whether they think that the camera is worth the money or if another model is better, and if I there is any issues with the camera. If persuasion wasn't a part of our day to day lives we would end up making a lot of uninformed decisions, or even not caring about something that should be important to us.

Persuading different audience types

While reading through chapter 14, one thing that I found to be very useful to me was how the book listed out the different audience types for a persuasive speech and what strategy to use for each situation. The book listed five different types of audiences: Informed and negative about the speaker's standpoint, informed and positive about the speaker's standpoint, informed and divided, uninformed, and apathetic. When the audience is informed and negative against your stand on the topic, some of the best ways to persuade them is to establish credibility, find common ground, focus on the positive, and anticipate the audiences objections.
When the audience is positive towards your standpoint, reinforcing the topic to the audience would be a great strategy. Incorporate narratives when you can and suggest ways that they can take action.
When dealing with an audience that is divided on the issue, try to address both sides of the argument. Establish your credibility with the audience, and try to find common ground.
If the audience is not informed on the topic, first explain to them why it is relevant to them and be subtle in persuading them, and also show your expertise on the topic.
And finally, when your audience is informed and just does not care about the topic, start with a great attention getter and really hit the audience with why the topic is important to them. If you can get them interested in the topic, you'll be more likely to get them to think about your side of the topic.

Gender neutral language

After reading a little into the discussion of using gender neutral language, I would have to say that I tend to agree with some of the participants on the flickr post. If we worry too much about making something gender neutral or politically correct, in the end we won't have very many words left in the dictionary to say. I do agree that we should be careful about what we say and how we say it. Even when writing on the internet how something is written can make me cringe, kind of like how "eye eye eye" uses texting language when writing his or her posts. It is important to know what words to avoid when preparing a speech, since one does not want to upset the audience especially when trying to persuade the audience to his or her opinion. But we don't have enough time in our life to be able to worry too much about making sure everyone says police officer instead of saying police man or woman. And about calling a woman a girl, I don't really see too many situations where that would be inappropriate. I don't think complete strangers should call a woman that they dont know a girl, but there are several situations where the people that we know very well will call us a girl. For instance, women call their friends "the girls" sometimes. There are instances where a guy friend might greet his female friends with "hey girl!" I think for the most part what I'm trying to say is, I don't think that we should worry too much about gender neutrality or political correctness, but in a speaking setting, it probably wouldn't hurt to make sure our language is less likely to offend someone.

Different speaking styles

In chapter 12 of this week's reading, one of the topics was the different speaking styles and the uses, pros, and cons of each. I found this section interesting since I never thought of there being different speaking styles. I've always thought of public speaking as preparing an outline and then giving the speech.

One of the first types of speaking styles includes extemporaneous, which is the style that we have been using for this class. It involves the most research and preparation, since you are expected to be an expert on the topic that you are speaking about so that you can give the speech several different times and having it be different each time. This is the speaking style most commonly used in the workplace, since it is used for meetings and classroom and community presentations.

The next type is impromptu. This speaking style involves no preparation time, and thus no practice in giving the speech. Unless one is an excellent speaker, Impromptus are usually disorganized and choppy. This is usually used for most question and answer types of speeches.

The third type is the manuscript speech. With this speaking style, the speech is prepared word for word, sometimes so that the speaker can time something perfectly within the speech. One can also plan out exactly what they want to say, so they don't leave out anything important. This speaking style is used mostly by politicians when they are speaking to their constituents.

The last speaking style is the memorized style. This is the style that requires the most preparation time since the speaker must memorize every aspect of the speech. Unfortunately the words used in this style will seem flat and artificial to the audience. One of the advantages include being able to give the speech without notes, and the speaker will know how the speech is organized and will not have any problems remembering what to say. This speaking style is used mostly for speeches given during ceremonies.

Speech Buddy

While watching the speech buddy videos for this week, one of the topics mentioned was using audience centered speech. Audience centered speech is where you use language that helps make the audience feel included, thus making them more attentive to the speech. Some of the words that help include are we us you and I. Another way of helping to keep the attention of the audience includes using humor, as long as it doesn't offend the audience, and language that helps the audience to use their imagination. I especially liked the "Effective uses of vocal delivery". Making sure you have the proper voice projection is important. If the audience can't hear what you are saying they will strain their ears and will be the only thing that they remember about your speech. Pitch is the next item in vocal delivery. A lower pitched voice is easier on the human ear, making listening to your speech more pleasant. Rate is something that you need a lot of variety in. If you keep to one rate for too often, you will appear monotonous and will lose and bore the audience. Vocal variety is when you take volume, pitch, and rate and mix a veriaty of all three into the speech, and is important to do when you want to keep your audiences attentio. Articulation is also very important since it is important to make sure what you say is clear to the audience.

I liked how there was several different examples for each chapter. It definitely makes it easier for me to learn from and apply to my own speech. :)

Self Evaluation: Informative speech

Looking back at my speech on Monday, I would have to say that I was very pleased with how it went. I usually have a lot of trouble with my mind going blank on me when I am up front, but it only happened to me once and even then it only lasted for a brief moment. I felt more confident than the last two speeches, with my only nervousness happening while I was waiting to give my speech and as I was walking up. Some of the ways that I feel that this speech went better than last speech include saying "umm" a lot less, being more prepared to give my speech, I felt less nervous while giving the speech which allowed me to think more clearly, I transitioned better between topics, I feel like my introduction went better, I did not have to use my notecards at all, I did not have any of the nervous gestures of tucking my hair behind my ears, I went less over the time limit than the last speech, and I was more clear to the audience. One of the reasons that I think I did better this time was the fact that I practiced a lot more and was constantly reviewing, in my head, about what I should say and how to transition. Before, I just thought that all I needed to do was go through my speech once or twice to show that I knew how to do my speech, but what I didn't account for was the fact that I would be nervous and shaking which would cause me to blank out and my speech to fall apart. I also think that the powerpoint helped a lot with keeping me on track. I feel that my powerpoint was fairly well put together so that it helped the audience with visual aid. Using the laser pointer that I had brought with me also allowed me to direct my audiences eyes towards the area of my powerpoint that I was currently talking about. Some of the ways that I feel my speech did not go as well as the previous speeches? I had a lot less eye contact with the audience since I was using the pictures on my powerpoint to explain some things, and I talked a lot faster. I also feel that my conclusion could have used a little more work. This was the one area where I blanked, which would not have happened if I had remained in the time limit that we were given. I had looked up and saw the five minute card displayed which caused me to panic and then blank out. Two things that I would have done differently If I could redo my speech would have been to practice the conclusion more and maybe shave off a little bit of info in the speech so that I could have stayed in the time limit. I would have also practiced my speech a little more while using the powerpoint in order to be as comfortable as I could be with the information presented on the powerpoint so that I could focus more on making eye contact with the audience.