【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 ics and other evidence acpanied by visual aids as you discuss your argument. The Selection of a Topic Obviously, selecting a subject about which you feel very strongly will enable you to better municate your position with confidence and credibility. Remember that in a speech to persuade, nothing is more essential than transmitting credibility, because you are not only presenting your audience with accurate information but you are striving to do the following three things as you discussed above:l l Convince them to take a form of action.l l Reinforce or strengthen their existing attitudes, beliefs, behaviour, opinions, or values.l l Change their attitudes or opinions to agree with your position. Selecting the SubjectHow to get started on deciding on a topic to persuade? Try to use these guidelines to help select a subject that is appropriate to the rhetorical situation: l l Select a subject about those areas in which you have already spent considerable time developing expertise and insight or simply already know something and can find out more。 l l Select a subject that interests you and will interest your audience (the reasons for a topic may interest listeners are: it concerns their health or security, etc. It offers a solution to a recognized problem. It is surrounded by controversy or conflict of opinion. It provides information on a misunderstood or little understood issue.)。 l l Select a topic appropriate to the occasion. Narrowing the SubjectA general subject will be of little value until it is narrowed down to a manageable size. Narrowing a subject to a more precise speech topic involves three primary considerations which are important for an effective persuasive performance: l l Narrow your subject so you can discuss it adequately in the time allotted for the speech。l l Narrow your subject to meet the specific expectations of your audience。l l Measure your subject to the prehension level of the audience.Part Ⅱ Charisma of a Persuasive SpeakerThis part focuses on the municator—a key feature of persuasion. The concept of charisma es to mind when you think about the municator. Charismatic speakers are likely to magnetize audiences, influencing attitudes in benevolent or malevolent ways.Charisma is also one of those “greatterms” in persuasion. Consider the examples of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”, captivating the audience with his exclamation, repeated time and again.What is charisma? Coined over a century ago by German sociologist Max Weber, charisma is “a certain quality of the individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least exceptional powers and qualities”. Charismatic individuals, after all, are not superhuman, but are seen in this light by their followers. There is the interplay between leader and followers that helps to build a strong union between them.Just as there is not one type of charismatic leader, there is not one defining characteristic of effective municators. Communicators have different attributes and influence audiences through different processes. There are three fundamental municator characteristics: authority, credibility, and social attractiveness. Authorities, credibility, and social attractiveness cause the attitude change of audiences through different mechanisms. Authority Authority frequently influences others’ behaviour through a process of pliance. Individuals adopt a particular behaviour not because they agree with its content, but because they expect “to gain specific rewards or approval and avoid specific punishments or disapproval by conforming”[2] Kelman, 1958,p. 53[2]. In other words, people go along with authoritative figures because they hope to gain rewards or avoid punishment. Credibility Credibility is one of the “Big 3” municator factors—along with authority and social attractiveness. Credibility, a distant cousin of authority, is a critical municator factor, the cornerstone of effective persuasion. It traces back to Aristotle, who coined the term “ethos” to describe qualities of the source that facilitated persuasion. Nowadays, consultants offer pointers to clients who want to improve the credibility of their mercial websites. Dr Joel Whalen, in a book on persuasive business munication, says that credibility is “the single biggest variable under the speaker’s control during the presentation”. Jay A. Conger, writing about the role persuasion plays in business, observes that “credibility is the cornerstone of effective persuading。 without it, a persuader won’t be given the time of day”.Credibility refers to the degree to which your audience sees you as a believable spokesperson. If listeners see you as petent and knowledgeable of good character, they will think that you are credible. As a result you will be more effective in changing their attitudes or in moving them to do something. Credibility is not something you have or do not have in any objective sense。 rather, it is what the audience thinks of you. Research suggests that expertise, trustworthiness, and goodwill are the three core dimensions of credibility. (Expertise and trustworthiness have emerged with greatest regularity, and goodwill has been uncovered in more recent research.) Each of these factors is important in its own right, and can interact with contextual factors, such as audience size, municator role, and historical epoch. Expertise is the knowledge or ability ascribed to the municator. It is the belief that the municator has special skills or knowhow. You see experts are used all the time in mercials. Lawyers pay for experts to testify for their side in court