From Source to Speech: Demonstrating Your Sources’ Reliability and Credibility

Demonstrating Your Sources’ Reliability and Credibility

How Can I Lead the Audience to Accept My Sources as Reliable and Credible?

  • If the source is affiliated with a respected institution, identify that affiliation.
  • If citing a study linked to a reputable institution, identify the institution.
  • If a source has relevant credentials, note the credentials.
  • If the source has relevant real-life experience, mention that experience.

In the following excerpt from a speech about becoming a socially conscious consumer, the speaker omits information about key sources that would help convince the audience that his evidence and sources are trustworthy:

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Below we see a much more convincing use of the same sources.

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  1. image The speaker states the date of the study.
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  1. image The speaker directly quotes from the source instead of paraphrasing; this adds to the credibility of the evidence and strengthens the argument.
  2. image The speaker describes enough detail about the scope of the study (“worldwide”; “28,000 survey participants from 56 countries”) to convince the audience of its credibility and reliability.
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