1. Using Supporting Materials for Your Speech
Chapter 8
Using Supporting Materials for Your Speech

2. Using Supporting Materials: Introduction
Supporting materials are all the different types of information you use during your speech.
Select the best supporting materials for your main points.
Include materials that show you have done research and know the topic well.
Use clear and understandable language.

3. Using Supporting Materials: An Overview
To get a better understanding of using supporting materials consider:
Why use supporting materials?
Types of supporting materials
Guidelines for using supporting materials I

4. Why Use Supporting Materials? Building Audience Interest
Use supports that:
Relate to your audience
Motivate them to listen to what you are saying

5. Why Use Supporting Materials? Enhancing Audience Understanding
For new or complicated topics be sure to use:
Accessible examples
Easy-to-understand definitions

6. Why Use Supporting Materials? Winning Audience Agreement
Give audience reasons to agree with you by:
Quoting an expert
Presenting a demonstration
Providing examples

7. Why Use Supporting Materials? Evoking Audience Emotion
Try tapping into audience emotions.
It’s easier to keep interest during the speech if you get the audience to feel something:
Humor
Empathy
Anger
Commitment to act

8. Types of Supporting Materials: Examples
Samples or instances that support or illustrate a general claim
Brief examples are small pieces of information (one sentence).
Extended examples give more detail and provide a richer picture.

9. Types of Supporting Materials: Definitions
Dictionary definitions provide the meaning of a term as it appears in a dictionary.
Expert definitions come from a person who is a credible source of information.
Etymological definitions explain the linguistic origin of terms.
Functional definitions explain how something is used or what it does.

10. Dictionary Definition

11. Types of Supporting Materials: Testimony
Information provided by others:
Expert testimony: Comes from professionals who have in-depth knowledge of a topic
Lay testimony: Comes from people who have no subject-matter expertise

12. Tips for Using Testimony
Tip: Be sure your expert is someone who has credibility with your audience.
Tip: Use lay testimonies to provide evidence of how regular people would react to something.

13. Types of Supporting Materials: Statistics
Information presented in numerical form

14. Tips for Using Statistics
Tip: Limit the number of statistics to the best few.
Tip: Use visual aids like charts or graphs if you can.
Tip: Provide a context for your statistics that your audience can understand.

15. Types of Supporting Materials: Narratives
Brief (real or imaginary) stories that support your main point
Use them as attention-getters.
Use them as illustrations of how something plays out.
Use short narratives to recapture the audience’s attention.
Anecdotal evidence does not replace credible proof.

16. Types of Supporting Materials

17. Types of Supporting Materials: Analogies
Comparison based on similarities between two things, one of which is familiar to the audience.
Literal analogy: Compares two things in same category
Figurative: Compares two different things, using traits of one to explain the other
Draw analogies:
To other material previously presented
From common experiences or traditions

18. Tips for Using Analogies
Tip: Be sure the audience is familiar with the comparison phenomena.
Tip: Try using concepts from previous speeches in your class, that way you know they are familiar.

19. Guidelines for Supporting Materials: Choose the Most Credible Proof
Give priority to supporting materials that are backed by credible evidence.
Examples are more credible when they can be proven.

20. Guidelines for Using supporting Materials: Use a Variety
Use different types of supporting materials to clarify, elaborate on, or substantiate different points in your speech.

21. Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials: Appeal to Different Learning Styles
Incorporate visual aids for visual learners.
Have active learners do something with the supporting materials.
Have reflective learners think about the supporting materials being presented.
Ask verbal learners to read or listen to the materials.

22. Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials:
Appeal to Different Learning Styles

23. Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials: Avoid Long Lists
Strings of facts, examples, or statistics with no elaboration are difficult for listeners.
Select a smaller number of supporting materials, each taking about seconds.

24. Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials: Consider Your Audience
Your audience’s knowledge and interests should guide your selection of supporting materials.
Listeners will respond more effectively to interesting and informative materials to which they can relate.

25. Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials: Respect the Available Time
Choose supporting materials that fit into your speech’s time frame.
Short speeches should have supporting materials that require little time to present.

26. Tips for Supporting Materials
Tip: Always consider your audience by using supporting materials that will get your audience’s attention and keep it.
Tip: Variety is the spice of life—and a good speech. No one wants to see a speech with only statistics, but one with only funny stories would be weak as well.