Credibility

Credibility—Authors

What is credibility?

Author credibility refers to the credentials and other qualities that indicate whether or not a source is reliable. An author’s credibility helps support the ideas and arguments in an essay or research paper. (—study.com)

Credibility is fundamental. In the previous blogs, I mentioned that the author’s purpose is to change the readers’ view. So an article with credibility can help to persuade the audience.

       So, how to build credibility as a writer?

First is to know who is your audience. Different types of audience need the writer to use different ways or use different types of sources to build his/her credibility. It is similar to what Miller said in “How Do I Make Myself Believable?” in the real world reader. He said “We all have biases. The challenge is to figure out what those biases are and to think about the way they influence both what we are told and what we want to say.”

       The second is to build the author’s own credibility. It can be built by showing the author’s degree or the results of some researches the author has done. Also, the author can write about his/her true experience which means use facts to show his/her view. Or the author can prove how credible the sources he/she uses so that it can prove that what the author writes is credible. This is an important point that when I looked over some websites about building credibility, citing sources appears many times.

       Thirdly, “Show, don’t tell.” (printwand) In my opinion, this point is important. It decides whether the audience have the patience or whether they are willing to read the whole article. And even you have credibility, the audience can choose to not trust you if you just tell the fact you think and do not give some specific evidence. The audience need to be persuaded instead of being taught and told.

       What’s more, I think, authors can regard themselves as readers so that they can discover where their articles are weak. Or authors can show their articles to their friends or families and ask for their advice as readers.

Credibility —Audience/Readers

       How about the time we are the audience? At that time, we need to pay attention to distinguishing correct and false information. A few days ago, I was thinking about how can I distinguish the pictures that are fake. As we know, with the development of technique, we cannot totally believe what we see. The pictures online can be beautified by photoshop and the articles online can have many hidden meanings so that the author can earn more benefits. I have seen a website that discloses some attractions that different from their description. For example, “The setting of Shakespeare’s tragic love story is one of Italy’s most beloved attractions, but unfortunately, Juliet’s isn’t real. Aside from the fact that balconies didn’t even exist in Shakespearean England, Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters, so the balcony you see just belongs to one business-savvy Italian!” (Alex O’Brien, Oversixty) So, how to distinguish information deserves people’s attention.

       The most reliable way is to choose websites that have a reputation and there are many people choosing to use them. So, when it comes to choosing authors, judging an author’s credibility can be from his/her degree and the comments to his/her previous articles.

       Another advice is to try to find the author’s tone in writing. It is a way to judge if the author is reliable or how to understand his/her meaning. As for me, if the author is confident and modest, I would trust him/her more. But, when I find the author is overconfident, I will be careful about the level of severity he/she describes.

Also, we can pay attention to the sources that the author uses. “where they come from, the credential of those being cited and so on” (Miller) If the sources he/she uses are credible and reasonable, the author’s credibility can be more reliable.

       Last but not least, don’t totally trust it even the author is usually credible. When reading articles, using your critiques to judge whether the author’s opinion and the explanation are reasonable and where is the vulnerability. If the drawbacks are serious and cannot be described, the credibility of the author should be doubted.

       So, credibility for authors should be a principle in writing and a tool to help strengthen the articles. When it comes to audience, credibility is a criterion to judge whether the article is reliable. The communication between authors and readers should base on credibility so that human’s mental world can be better and richer.

       Above are my thinking about credibility after reading some materials. If you have some opinions or advice, welcome to talk to me!

Sources:

1. https://study.com/academy/lesson/author-credibility-definition-examples-quiz.html

Author Credibility: Definition & Examples

• https://www.printwand.com/blog/establishing-credibility-in-business-writing-and-advertising

Establishing Credibility in Business Writing and Advertising

printwand staff November 7, 2012

• https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-tips/5-fake-tourist-attractions-that-have-everyone-fooled/

5 fake tourist attractions that have everyone fooled

Alex O’Brien Thu, 9 Jun 2016

• The real world reader, James S. Miller