Facts and statistics can be a huge help in speeches. They are effective most of the time, if used properly and can easily be used to persuade and make the audience agree with oneself. The thing is, facts and statistics appeal to peoples logic; it's simple for most individuals to understand, hence they can buy into whatever is being told at them. Of course this is not always the case though. Statistics and facts can be most effective in a persuasive speech because one would state a stat or fact like this, "Because X shows X', you should become Y and do Y'." That's a terrible example, but hopefully you get the idea. Like our textbook mentioned, most people believe statistics and facts to be objective, which they should continue to strive to be, but they are also used for other means, for example manipulation. They can become distorted and misinterpreted, depending on the speaker's ability to persuade a crowd.
Stats and facts can be appropriate and very useful for persuasive speeches (which I'm looking forward to), but they aren't always useful or appropriate to use. Statistics wouldn't be good to use if they are wrong, meaning that the sampling method wasn't reliable (I'm in statistics now for math and it's definitely not a favored class of mine). Data can become misrepresented or skewed easily and the speaker must be ethical to report the information correctly. It would be wrong to use false data and facts.
The other thing worth mentioning is that you can present your data in a different view. Which isn't completely wrong, but could be questionable in an ethical sense. For example, taking a graph that shows little data change and messing with the x and y axis scales, to show a smaller portion that shows a great change ind data. This could be used to argue for your point or against, and it would be on the party you are lobbying to further investigate the data. Unless, you felt obligated to be as honest as possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think most people would buy into facts and statistics because they are logical so there is really nothing against a supported fact. I also think manipulation of a fact can be smelled a mile away (well you know what I mean). Whenever I start hearing my friends start like " did you know the sky is blue because it reflects off the sea?" I go why? and they don't give a response or say I don't know I suddenly judge their credibility and listen to them less often. This is why if your giving a fact you should always justify your credibility. (by the way the sky is blue due to light wave lengths not the ocean, just an example =P)
ReplyDeleteLOL. That is interesting about the sky, but thanks for sharing. I totally agree with you that people should be able to support what they say, although I don't do it often enough! :P
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