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Illustrating a concept with personal anecdotes (brief stories) can help you further build credibility and reassure your listeners that you’re not judging them. Adam, a sophomore in a speech class, used the following personal anecdote in a speech about phobias:
Phobias come in many different forms—and most, if not all, can be cured with therapy, medication, or a combination of the two. I know this because I’ve lived with one of these myself. Although you would not know it to look at me today, I once had a horrible fear of flying. Just the thought of getting near a big jet used to give me the shakes, sweaty palms, the works. It was a real problem. But a half year of therapy—which included taking some flights with someone I really trusted—cured me of the fear.
Adam illustrated one type of phobia in a way that gave him credibility (he spoke from experience). His personal anecdote also helped demonstrate that he took his subject seriously. Finally, it enabled him to avoid offending audience members who may have struggled with similar fears.
You can achieve similar effects with anecdotes about events your listeners may have experienced personally. In a speech on credit card debt, a freshman student named Jackson sought common ground through the following anecdote:
You really have to be careful about these credit cards. You get on somebody’s mailing list right out of high school. Suddenly your mailbox is filled with offers for free credit cards. And they don’t have a service charge for the first three months. You can get credit up to five thousand dollars. Just a minimum payment each month. Hasn’t that happened to most of you in this room? It happened to me, too. And we all know how fast that credit card debt can pile up!