Public Speaking Chapter 8 - Supporting Ideas and Building Arguments

The second way to use support in building your credibility is to

cite authoritative sources

numerical support

citing data and numbers within a speech.

The first reason to use support in a speech is to

clarify content.

Literal analogies

compare two objects or ideas that clearly belong to the same class.

summary

condensing or encapsulating the entire text as a form of support.

some questions to ask yourself to help assess a source's accuracy:

1. Does the information within one piece of supporting evidence completely contradict other supporting evidence you've seen? 2. If the support is using a statistic, does the supporting evidence explain where that statistic came from and how it was determined? 3. Does the logic behind the support make sense?

To avoid misusing statistics when you speak in public, do three things

1. be honest with yourself and your audience. 2. run a few basic calculations to see if a statistic is believable. 3. evaluate sources

analogy

a figure of speech that compares two ideas or objects, showing how they are similar in some way. Analogies, for public speaking purposes, can also be based in logic

support

a range of strategies that are used to develop the central idea and specific purpose by providing corroborating evidence

setup

a sentence or phrase in which you explain to your audience where the information you are using came from 1. you need to tell your audience the name of your source 2. if your source comes from a larger work, you need to include the location of the source. 3. you need to specify the date of the source.

examples

a specific situation, problem, or story designed to help illustrate a principle, method, or phenomenon

conclusion

a statement that can be clearly drawn from the provided premises.

premise

a statement that is designed to provide support or evidence

reverse outline

a tool you can use to determine the adequacy of your speech's support by starting with your conclusion and logically working backward through your speech to determine if the support you provided is appropriate and comprehensive.

A good piece of support should be

accurate, authoritative, current, and unbiased.

Another important reason to use support is because it

adds to your credibility as a speaker. - At the same time, you could hurt your credibility if you use inadequate support or support from questionable sources. Your

Pictographic support

any drawn or visual representation of an object or process.

Narratives are similar to examples except

are generally longer and take on the form of a story with a clear arc (beginning, middle, and end)

stipulative definition

definition assigned to a word or term by the person who coins that word or term for the first time.

Persuasive definitions

designed to motivate an audience to think in a specific manner about the word or term. - to take terms that people don't like and repackage them into persuasive definitions that give the original term a much more positive feel ( Oil drilling → energy exploration Estate tax → death tax School vouchers → opportunity scholarships)

When selecting the different types of support for your speech, you need to make sure that

every claim you make within the speech can be supported within the speech.

analysis

explaining to an audience how they should interpret it. 1. Summarize the support in your own words (unless you started with a summary). 2. Specifically tell your audience how the support relates to the argument. 3. Draw a sensible conclusion based on your support. We cannot leave an audience hanging, so drawing a conclusion helps complete the support package.

expert testimony

expresses the attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors recommended by someone who is an acknowledged expert on a topic

all six types of support:

facts and statistics, definitions, examples, narratives, testimony, and analogies.

argument

goes back to the ancient Greeks, who saw arguments as a set of logical premises leading to a clear conclusion.

The goal of a definition is to

help speakers communicate a word or idea in a manner that makes it understandable for their audiences.

In addition to clarifying content and enhancing credibility, support

helps make a speech more vivid.

The third consideration in using support to build your credibility is

how current the information is.

Paraphrasing

involves taking the general idea or theme from another speaker or author and condensing the idea or theme in your own words.

Eyewitness testimony

is given by someone who has direct contact with the phenomenon of your speech topic - however, to verify you should 1. consider how you received the testimony 2. consider whether your witness' account was recent or something that happened some time ago 3. the more detail you can give about the witness and when the witness made his or her observation, the more useful that witness testimony will be when attempting to create a solid argument.

best example

it is held up as the "best" way someone should behave within a specific context.

When using support

make sure there is variety, Choose Appropriate Forms, Check for Relevance, Don't Go Overboard, and Don't Manipulate Your Support

A fourth form of support are

narratives

Direct quotations

occur when Speaker A uses the exact wording by another speaker or writer within his or her new speech.

all arguments are based on a series of statements that are divided into two basic categories

premises and conclusions

the forms that support can take in a speech

quotations, paraphrases, summaries, numerical support, and pictographic support.

execution

s actually reading a quotation, paraphrasing a speaker or author's words, summarizing a speaker or author's ideas, providing numerical support, or showing pictographic support.

a three-step process in using support within a speech is

setup, execution, and analysis.

lexical definition

specifically states how a word is used within a specific language.

Entertaining narratives

stories designed purely to delight an audience and transport them from their daily concerns

informative narratives

that provide information or explanations about a speaker's topic.

Statistics

the mathematical subfield that gathers, analyzes, and makes inferences about collected data.

Bias

to a predisposition or preconception of a topic that prevents impartiality.

Vividness

to a speaker's ability to present information in a striking, exciting manner.

three primary reasons to use support

to clarify content, to increase speaker credibility, and to make the speech more vivid.

positive example

to clarify or clearly illustrate a principle, method, or phenomenon.

Theoretical definitions

to describe all parts related to a particular type of idea or object. - the definitions attempt to create an all-encompassing theory of the word itself.

testimony

to expert opinion or direct accounts of witnesses to provide support for your speech.

support-manipulation

to find support that says exactly what they want it to say despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of evidence says the exact opposite.

expertise

to have considerable knowledge on a topic or considerable skill in accomplishing something.

Persuasive narratives

to persuade people to accept or reject a specific attitude, value, belief, or behavior.

nonexample

used to explain what something is not.

Negative examples

used to illustrate what not to do.

Figurative analogies

when the two cases being compared are from completely different classifications

The last question you should ask yourself when examining support is

whether the person or organization behind the information is objective or biased.

When discussing the author

you need to clearly explain not only who the author is but also why the author is an expert (if appropriate).