Supporting Your
Ideas
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Explain why speakers need strong supporting materials for their ideas.
2. Distinguish among extended examples, brief examples, and hypothetical examples.
3. Explain how to use examples effectively in a speech.
4. Identify three questions for judging the reliability of statistics.
5. Discuss how to use statistics effectively in a speech.
6. Distinguish between peer testimony and expert testimony and explain the proper
use of testimony in a speech.
8
CHAPTER 8—SUPPORTING YOUR IDEAS 131
Chapter Outline
I. Speeches need strong supporting materials to bolster the speaker’s point of view.
A. A speech composed of unsupported assertions may leave an audience skeptical and
unconvinced.
B. Specific and credible details are more convincing than are unsupported
generalizations.
II. Examples are the first major kind of supporting material.
A. Examples are an excellent way to get an audience involved with a speech.
B. There are three types of examples—brief, extended, and hypothetical.
1. Brief examples are specific instances that a speaker refers to in passing.
2. Extended examples are longer and more detailed than brief examples.
3. Hypothetical examples describe an imaginary situation.
C. There are several tips for using examples effectively.
1. A speaker should use examples to clarify ideas.
2. A speaker should use examples to reinforce ideas.
3. A speaker should use examples to personalize ideas.
4. A speaker should use extended examples that are vivid and richly textured.
5. A speaker should practice delivery to enhance the impact of extended examples.
III. Statistics are the second major kind of supporting material.
A. When used properly, statistics are an effective way to support a speaker’s ideas.
B. Because statistics can be easily manipulated and distorted, speakers should evaluate
their statistics carefully.
1. Speakers need to make sure their statistics are representative of what they claim
to measure.
2. Speakers need to understand the differences among basic statistical measures
such as the mean, the median, and the mode.
3. Speakers need to determine whether their statistics come from reliable sources.
C. There are several tips for using statistics effectively.
1. Statistics should be used to quantify ideas.
2. Statistics should be used sparingly.
3. The source of statistics should be identified in the speech.
4. Statistics should be explained and made meaningful to the audience.
5. Complicated statistics should be rounded off.
6. Statistical trends should be clarified with visual aids.
132 CHAPTER–BY–CHAPTER GUIDE TO THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
IV. Testimony is the third basic kind of supporting material.
A. Testimony can be highly effective when used in a speech.
B. There are two kinds of testimony—expert testimony and peer testimony.
1. Expert testimony comes from people who are acknowledged authorities in their
fields.
2. Peer testimony comes from ordinary people who have firsthand experience with
a topic.
C. Testimony can be presented by quoting or by paraphrasing.
D. There are several tips for using testimony effectively.
1. Speakers should quote or paraphrase accurately.
2. Speakers should use testimony from qualified sources.
3. Speakers should use testimony from unbiased sources.
4. Speakers should identify the people being quoted or paraphrased.
V. Speakers need to identify orally the sources of their supporting materials.
A. Unlike written citations, oral citations do not follow a standard format.
1. The content of an oral citation depends on the topic, the audience, the speaker’s
claim, and the kind of supporting material being used.
2. Most citations will include some combination of the document title, the author or
sponsoring organization, the author’s qualifications, and the date on which the
document was published.
B. Regardless of which elements are included, oral citations should be integrated
smoothly into the speech.
Exercises for Critical Thinking
(from text page 157)
1. Each of the following statements violates at least one of the criteria for effective supporting
materials discussed in this chapter. Identify the flaw (or flaws) in each statement.
a. In the words of one expert, “the prevalence of online multi–tasking is reducing the ability
of people to concentrate on a single task, no matter how important the task might be.”
Discussion: The speaker does not identify “one expert” or present the expert’s creden-
b. Figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the median salary for petro-
leum engineers in the United States is $128,230. This shows that petroleum engineers av-
erage more than $128,000 a year.
CHAPTER 8—SUPPORTING YOUR IDEAS 133
Discussion: The speaker is confusing the median salary with the mean, which is popularly
called the average. The median is the middle figure in a group once the numbers are ar-
ranged from highest to lowest and may differ considerably from the average.
c. According to a poll conducted for AT&T, most people prefer AT&T’s cellular service to
that of Sprint or Verizon.
Discussion: Because AT&T is a cellular–service provider, it can hardly be considered an
d. It’s just not true that media violence has a strong influence on violent crimes. All my
friends watch television, go to the movies, and play video games, and none of us has ever
committed a violent crime.
Discussion: The example cited here cannot be taken as representative of consumers of
e. As Katy Perry stated in a recent interview, increasing offshore drilling for oil will harm
the environment far more than it will help the economy.
Discussion: Although a concerned citizen, Katy Perry is not a highly qualified source on
f. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California has the largest Native American popula-
tion of any state in the union—723,225. Oklahoma is second with 482,760 and Arizona is
third with 353,386.
Discussion: This is an instructive set of statistics from a reliable source, but the speaker
g. In a survey conducted last month among members of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, 99 percent of respondents opposed using animals for medical experiments.
Clearly, then, the American people oppose such experiments.
134 CHAPTER–BY–CHAPTER GUIDE TO THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Discussion: Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are likely biased
when it comes to using animals for medical experiments. Also, the sample is too restricted
to be considered representative of the opinion of “the American people.”
2. Analyze “The Living–Wage Solution” in the appendix of sample speeches following Chapter
20 of the textbook. Identify the main points of the speech and the supporting materials used for
each. Evaluate the speaker’s use of supporting materials in light of the criteria discussed in this
chapter.
Discussion: By analyzing the use of supporting materials in a speech, students often get
CHAPTER 8—SUPPORTING YOUR IDEAS 135
a law would operate (paragraphs 12–15), the speaker defends its practicality by an-
swering objections to it (paragraph 16–17).
Conclusion: The conclusion consists of paragraphs 18–19. In paragraph 18, the speaker
signals that her speech is coming to an end, summarizes her main points, and rein-
Supporting Materials: Because this speech deals with a technical topic, and because
most students are likely unaware of what the living wage is, the speaker needs to
back up her claims with strong evidence. For the most part, she does this effective-
ly, citing a wide range of studies and experts in support of her position.
Testimony, especially expert testimony, plays a crucial role in this speech. Be-
Statistics appear throughout the speech, and they are at times interwoven with
examples and testimony. A statistic from economist Robert Pollin in paragraph 2 clari-
fies the benefits to José Morales when he received the living wage. Paragraph 6 of-
fers a wealth of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to quantify the number of
Americans working full time yet stuck below the poverty line. Statistics about the min-
136 CHAPTER–BY–CHAPTER GUIDE TO THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
speech to an effective close. Brief examples can be found in paragraphs 12–15,
where the speaker explains how a living–wage law would work in three major cities
across the United States—Dallas, New York, and Chicago. (Because these exam-
ples revolve around economic data, some students may overlook them here and
discuss them as part of the speaker’s use of statistics.)
Overall, the speech provides an excellent illustration of how testimony, exam-
ples, and statistics can work together to support a speaker’s ideas, even when
those ideas are technical and potentially controversial.
Additional Exercises and Activities
1. Have students prepare and present a one–point speech in which they state their point, support
it with three pieces of supporting material, and then summarize the point. The speech should
be 1 to 2 minutes in length and should be accorded the same weight in grading as a home-
work assignment.
Discussion: If done properly, this can be an excellent way to give students an extra oral
2. Evaluate the use of supporting materials in the following speech excerpt. Be sure to deal with
all the supporting materials in each paragraph, and be specific in assessing their strengths and
weaknesses.
According to emergency medicine specialist Dr. Randall Sword, emergency rooms
will handle more than 160 million cases this year alone. This means that one out of
every 16 Americans will spend time in an emergency room this year. Unfortunately,
the National Academy of Sciences states that “emergency medical care is one of the
weakest links in the delivery of health care in the nation.” In fact, medical researchers
estimate that 5,000 deaths annually from poisoning, drowning, and drug overdoses,
as well as 20 percent of all deaths from automobile accidents, would not have hap-
pened if the victims had received prompt and proper emergency room care.
One cause of this problem is that many doctors are not properly trained in emer-
gency care. According to U.S. News and World Report, fewer than 50 percent of
emergency room physicians have completed special emergency training courses. A
survey by Frey and Mangold found that untrained emergency room physicians felt
CHAPTER 8—SUPPORTING YOUR IDEAS 137
they were unsure how to diagnose or treat many of the extreme abdomen, chest, and
cardiac disorders that often appear in hospital emergency rooms.
Another cause of the problem is that precious time is often wasted on useless pa-
perwork before vital emergency treatment begins. Several years ago, a man driving
by an elementary school in my hometown had a heart attack and crashed into a
schoolyard. Seven children were taken to the emergency room three blocks away, but
the real tragedy had not yet begun. Once in the emergency room, the children were
denied treatment until their parents were contacted and the admitting forms were
filled out. By the time the forms were completed, two of the children had died.
3. Have students analyze one of the persuasive speeches from Part Five of this manual. Have
students focus their analysis on the speaker’s use of supporting materials.
Discussion: Every persuasive speech in Part Five deals with a question of policy and pro-