Transcript Day Five: Supporting Your Speech: Materials & more

Day Six: Supporting Your
Speech: Materials & more
by
Yana Cornish
Hamilton College
Agenda:
Supporting Materials (Ch. 7)
 Types of supporting materials (Ch. 8)
 Activity

Homework:
Read chapters 7 & 8
 Do suggested activity p. 165
 Select a video speech and provide its
analysis.
 Perfect your introduction and conclusion
 Continue selecting supporting materials
for your first speech
 Continue putting together biographical
information

Supporting Material
Ideas, opinions, and information
that help to explain a
presentation’s main idea and
purpose.
 The best presenters use a mix
of many different kinds of
supporting material

What Materials to Use?
Facts
 Illustrations (verbal or visual)
 Descriptions & explanations
 Definitions
 Analogies
 Statistics
 Opinions
 Examples
 Stories
 Testimonies

What Materials to Use?

Fact - verifiable observation, experience,
or event known to be true


Most effective when the audience can accept
them as true
Illustrations (verbal or visual):
Brief illustration – a short example (a
sentence or two)
 Extended illustration – a detailed example

What Materials to Use?

Descriptions & explanations:
– detailed mental images of
people, concepts, or things.
 Explanation – a statement that makes clear
how something is done or why it exists.
 They offer causes, effects, characteristics, and
background information.
 Description

Definition – explanations or clarifications of
a word’s meaning.
What Materials to Use?

Analogy – a comparison of unfamiliar
concepts or objects with familiar ones.
 can

be alike or different
Examples:
 Alike: America
is like a quilt- many patches,
pieces, colors, and sizes, all woven and held
together by a common thread.
 Different: If a copilot must be qualified to fly a
plane, then a U.S. Vice President should be
qualified to govern the country.
What Materials to Use?

Statistics – systematically collected and
numerically classified information.
-only factual if analyzed correctly
Opinion – a statement made by an
individual
 Examples- provides a reference to a
specific case or instance in order to make
an idea understandable.

 can
be facts, brief descriptions, or detailed
stories
What Materials to Use?

Stories- accounts or
reports about things that
have happened.
 Can
have a great impact
on the audience
 Use stories to gain
attention, create a mood,
or reinforce an important
idea.
What Materials to Use?

Testimony- statements or opinions that
someone has said or written in magazines,
speeches, on the radio, books, etc.
 Believability
depends on the credentials of the
speaker or writer, so use testimony from famous
people and experts to enhance your credibility.
 Expert testimony – an opinion offered by
someone who is an authority on the subject.
 Lay testimony – an opinion offered by a
nonexpert who has firsthand experience.
How to choose good materials:
Magnitude – bigger is better!
 Proximity – the most relevant to the
listeners (‘closest to home’)
 Concreteness – use concrete
examples and statistics
 Variety – use a mix!
 Humor – audience will appreciate it!
 Suitability of material – to you, your
speech, your audience, and
occasion.

Search for Supporting materials


Start with your own knowledge
Internet/WWW:
 To supplement library sources, not replace them
 Directories
 Search engines
 Alta Vista www.altavista.com
 Google
www.google.com
 Yahoo!
www.yahoo.com
 Lycos
www.lycos.com
 Dogpile
www.dogpile.com
Search Engine
Directory:
Supporting materials:

Library resources:
Books
Periodicals
Full-text Databases
Government documents
Reference resources (maps,
encyclopedias, etc.)
Special services (interlibrary loan)
Supporting materials:
Interviews:
Needs to be set up
Requires planning
Can provide very
useful information
 Special
groups/organizations

Important Questions for Interviews
Why am I conducting this
interview? What do I hope to
learn?
 What do I know about the
person I’m interviewing?
 What do I want or need to
know for my presentation?
 In what order should I ask the
questions?

Evaluating Your Sources

Is the source identifiable and credible?
 Are
the author and publisher identified and
reputable?

Example: Which is more respected and
reputable?
 The
National Inquirer or
 The Wall Street Journal

Is the source biased?
 Is
the information slanted in one direction so
much that it isn’t fair?
Evaluating Your Sources

Is the information recent?
 When
was the information collected and
published? Use magazines, web sources, etc.
for current events.

Is the information consistent?
 Is
the information similar to other information on
the same subject?

Are the statistics valid?
 Use
sophisticated research methods to provide
valid statistics and information.
Questions for Determining Validity
Who collected and analyzed the data?
 Is the researcher a well-respected
expert?
 How was the information collected and
analyzed?
 Who is reporting the statistics: the
researcher or a reporter?
 Are the statistics believable?

Record Your Sources
Make a bibliography card,
recording all relevant
information for each source
you intend to use.
 Make copies of the material
you will use
 Save material you find
online by printing it,
emailing it to yourself, or
saving it to a disk.

Record Your Sources
Read the copies you
have made carefully
 Take careful notes on
information related to
your paper topic.
 Distinguish exact
quotations from
summaries and record
all page numbers.

Cite Your Sources
In writing (bibliography) and/or orally during
your speech
In Writing (bibliography):
 Must include author, title, publisher, and date
 There should be no question which words
are yours and which words belong to other
people.
 Not necessary for facts regarded as common
knowledge (available in many sources), such
as chronological events, author’s birth date...

Cite Your Sources (cont.)
If you are not sure,
cite your sources!
 Cite all supporting
material unless it is
common knowledge.
 Cite someone else’s
ideas and opinions,
even if you restate it
in your own words.

Citing Your Sources Orally
Provide sufficient
information to allow others
to find your source, don’t
read the whole citation.
 Provide the name of the
person, saying a word or
two about their credentials,
and mentioning the source
(or title) of the information.

Citing: Directly or Paraphrasing
Directly:
In a 1988 article
published by English
Journal, Dr. James
Stalker described the
absurdity of adopting an
official language for the
United States. He wrote:
“We cannot…”
Paraphrasing:
In a 1988 article
published by English
Journal, Dr. James
Stalker noted that in a
Democracy like ours,
we cannot pass laws
against the use of
other languages.
Supporting materials:

How to develop a bibliography:
 In alphabetical order at the end of the
speech outline
 Author’s name
 Title of the article (book)
 Title of the book/website
 Date of publication (date when
accessed if it is a web site)
 Publisher (books only)
Outline Review (see pp. 32-33):
Topic
 General and Specific Purposes: at the
end of the speech…
 Central idea
 Description:

 Introduction
(write your statement)
 Body (structure only)
 Conclusion (write your statement)
Homework:
Read chapters 7 & 8
 Do suggested activity p. 165
 Select a video speech and provide its
analysis.
 Perfect your introduction and conclusion
 Continue selecting supporting materials
for your first speech
 Continue putting together biographical
information
