Listening and Evaluating Unit 1 Section 3b. Vocabulary Analogy Bandwagon Begging the question Card-stacking Critical listening Critique Emotional appeals

Listening and EvaluatingListening and Evaluating

Unit 1 Section 3b

VocabularyVocabulary

• Analogy• Bandwagon• Begging the question• Card-stacking• Critical listening• Critique• Emotional appeals• False analogy• False premise

• Faulty reasoning• Hasty generalizations• Irrelevant evidence• Loaded words• Mnemonic devices• Name-calling• Propaganda• Signal words• Stereotype• Transfer

Factors that Affect ListeningFactors that Affect Listening

• Your physical and mental state

• The speaker

• Your prejudices

• The environment

Control Factors That Affect ListeningControl Factors That Affect Listening

• Be energetic and focused

• Focus on the message

• Keep an open mind

• Do what you can to adjust the physical environment.

HOW TO

Activity 1: Analyzing Your Listening Skills

Activity 1: Analyzing Your Listening Skills

• Over the next two days, identify five listening situations and determine whether or not you listened attentively in each situation.

• If so, what factors helped you to listen so well?• If you had trouble listening, what factors

hindered you?• Were you able to overcome those factors? How?• DUE FRIDAY.

Listening CriticallyListening Critically• Identify the speaker’s goals• Identify main ideas• Identify supporting details• Use context clues

– Synonyms– Comparisons or contrasts– Examples

• Take advantage of nonverbal cues– Emphasis– contradiction

Activity 2: Using Critical Listening Skills

Activity 2: Using Critical Listening Skills

• Read an editorial or feature article in your local newspaper.

• Identify the writers goal(s), main ideas, and supporting details

Evaluating a Speaker’s Reasoning


• Generalizations: general conclusions or opinions drawn from observations– Hasty generalizations: conclusions drawn from

a very few observations or ignoring exceptions

• Begging the question: assuming the truth of a statement before it is proven

• Premise: stated or implied starting point for an argument– False premise: premise that is untrue or

distorted



• Analogy: form of reasoning by comparison– False analogy: draws invalid conclusion from

weak or far-fetched comparisons

• Irrelevant evidence: information that has nothing to do with the argument being made

Activity 3: Analyzing Faulty Reasoning


• Evaluate each of the following items.

• Identify the form of faulty reasoning in each.

• Write a brief logical analysis to explain your answer.



1. Jackson was the lowest scorer in the game last night. He’s simply not a great player and not worth the big money they paid for him.

2. The people claiming doom from the green house effect are like the little boy crying wolf. It hasn’t happened and we shouldn’t respond.

3. The nation’s food companies are cheating their consumers—every one of us—by raising prices this year. After all, farmers had perfect weather and no shortage of workers.

4. The saleswoman said I looked terrific in the jacket—so I bought it.

5. Look at the year’s progress: five new downtown high-rises and not one new park. The manipulation of the city commissioners by real estate developers must be stopped.

Propaganda TechniquesPropaganda Techniques

• Propaganda: persuasion that deliberately discourages people from thinking for themselves.


• Transfer: method that builds a connection between things that are not logically connected.– Ex. Ad showing a prosperous, happy family

drinking a certain brand of milk. The goal of the transfer technique is to get the viewer to associate the brand of milk with prosperity and happiness.


• Bandwagon: encourages people to act because everyone else is doing it; substitutes peer or crowd pressure for analysis of an issue or action– Ex. Someone says that you should vote for a

proposal because all your friends are voting for him; no mention of why the proposal is worth supporting


• Name-calling: labeling intended to arouse powerful negative feelings. Its purpose is to represent a person or group as inferior or bad without providing evidence to support the claim.


• Card-stacking: based on half-truths. Presents only partial information in order to leave an inaccurate impression– Ex. A speaker might refer to a person who

has gained a fortune through illegal means as a “good breadwinner.” The negative methods of gaining the fortune have been ignored.


• Stereotypes: biased belief about a whole group of people based on insufficient or irrelevant evidence.

• Loaded words: words that draw out strong positive or negative feelings.– Connotation, denotation

• Emotional appeals: statements made to arouse emotional reactions

Activity 4: Identifying Propaganda

Techniques


Techniques1. Folks, the upcoming election is going to be a

landslide. Garver is carrying the entire West Side. Here’s your chance to support a winner the people really want!

2. Friends, my opponent is a fine woman, but she is over sixty. Can you afford a mayor without youth’s vigor—who might tire under the pressure, long hours, and huge workload?

3. Only fashionable, good-looking people buy Goodlook clothing. It’s the brand to try.


Techniques


Techniques4. Wilson must be a gangster; he comes from a

family of gangsters. A vote for Wilson will put the criminals in control.

5. They’re calling Wilson a mouthpiece of organized crime. But would a criminal treat his family in the loving way Wilson does? He is a devoted husband and father. Vote for Wilson.

6. At night, these refugees go to sleep with no food or shelter. In the morning, they wake up to face another day of hunger. Do not ignore the plight of these helpless people. Send money to fee them now.


Techniques


Techniques7. I might be thin, but Kelly is skinny. And Yolanda looks practically emaciated!

8. I want to tell you what a vote for me means. My roots are in a small, rural town. There the sick were always cared for. There the police were always friends, not adversaries.

9. The whole student council and the Athlete’s Forum are going to the school board meeting to protest the dress code. You’ll be part of the group that stands up and fights!

10. The all-wheel-drive Lion doesn’t just go up hills. It positively leaps. Stubborn and sure-footed, it is the king of the mountain. If your dream is to stand alone on the top, get one vehicle only: the Lion.


• The oral critique– Analyses and evaluations given out loud– Valuable because everyone in the class can

profit from analyzing the mistakes and successes of others

– Purpose is to help the speaker understand what went right and what went wrong

Give an Oral CritiqueGive an Oral Critique

• Give positive feedback

• When giving negative feedback, concentrate on only one or two criticisms.

• When making criticisms, mention what the speaker to could do to improve.

• Be specific.

HOW TO


• The Written Technique– More complete and detailed than oral critique– Develop a checklist of questions

• Organization?• Content?• Language?• Delivery?

Develop a Written CritiqueDevelop a Written Critique

• Think about the organization of the speech

• Consider the content of the speech

• Analyze the language the speaker used

• Comment on the delivery the speaker used

HOW TO

Activity 5:Giving an oral and written critique

Activity 5:Giving an oral and written critique

• Choose a speech from this website

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html• Practice evaluations with a partner• Deliver the speech as if you had written it. • Have your partner use the guidelines discussed

to give you an oral critique.• Let your partner deliver the speech and prepare

a written critique of content and delivery.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

REVIEW QUESTIONSUnit 3b

REVIEW QUESTIONSUnit 3b

1. How is listening different from hearing?2. What are the four reasons for developing good

listening skills?3. What are the four obstacles to effective listening?

Explain how to overcome each.4. List and explain the five strategies that allow a critical

listener to test the strength of what he or she hears.5. Name and explain each type of faulty reasoning.6. List the types of propaganda techniques. Explain three

of them.7. List the four guidelines for giving an oral critique.8. What are the four areas one needs to evaluate in

completing a written critique?

Documents

Listening and Evaluating Unit 1 Section 3b. Vocabulary Analogy Bandwagon Begging the question Card-stacking Critical listening Critique Emotional appeals