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COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

Topic Selection and Development

Goal: To guide students through the process of selecting topics and researching supporting

materials for their speeches

Overview: This chapter starts the public speaking section. It discusses how students can

select a specific speech goal that is adapted to a particular audience and occasion, and how

they can gather and evaluate supporting material for their speeches.

Learning Outcomes

11-1 Determine a speech topic and goal that is appropriate for the rhetorical situation.11–2

Locate and evaluate information sources.

11-3 Identify and evaluate different types of evidence.

11-4 Record information and sources.

11-5 Cite sources effectively in your speeches.

Key Terms

Abstract

Accurate sources

Anecdotes

Annotated bibliography

Audience adaptation

Audience analysis

Audience diversity

Comparisons

Concept mapping

Contrasts

Credentials

Demographics

Examples

Exigence

Expert

Expert opinions

Factual statements

Fieldwork observations

General goal

Hypothesis

Interview

Marginalizing

Narratives

Occasion

Oral footnotes

Periodicals

Plagiarism

Primary research

Reliable sources

Research cards

Rhetorical situation

Secondary research

Skimming

Specific goal

Statistics

Stereotyping

Subject

Survey

Topic

Uncertainty reduction

theory

Valid sources

Figures and Tables

Figure 11.1 The Rhetorical Situation

Figure 11.2 Audience Analysis Questions

Figure 11.3 Sample Survey Questions

Figure 11.4 Holly’s Subject Lists

Figure 11.5 Holly’s Endangered Birds Concept Map

Figure 11.6 Informative and Persuasive Speech Goals

Figure 11.7 Sample Research Card

Figure 11.8 Oral Footnotes

Chapter Outline

I. The rhetorical situation

A. The rhetorical situation is a state in which you (and your knowledge and intentions),

the audience (and their knowledge and expectations), and the occasion (and the

constraints of it) overlap

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B. Because audience is so crucial to a successful speech, your specific speech goal must

be based on audience analysis, the study of the intended audience for your speech,

and audience adaptation, the process of tailoring your speech to their needs,

interests, and expectations

C. Uncertainty reduction theory: explains the processes we go through to get to know

strangers

Action Step 1

Select a specific speech goal that is adapted to the rhetorical situation

D. Because addressing the specific needs and expectations of your intended audience is

integral to the rhetorical situation, you need to examine who they are by collecting

both demographic and subject-related data. This information will help you select and

tailor your topic and goal to meet their needs, interests, and expectations

E. Data-gathering methods

1. Gather subject-related audience data, including their level of knowledge, initial

level of interest in, and attitude toward the potential topics you are considering2.

You can use several different methods to gather data about your audience

a Conduct a survey

b. Observe informally

c. Question a representative

d. Make educated guesses

F. Adapting to your audience means creating a speech that all audience members can

relate to

1. Marginalizing is the practice of ignoring the values, needs, interests, and subject-

specific knowledge of some audience members, leaving them to feel excluded

2. Stereotyping is assuming all members of a group have similar knowledge,

behaviors, or beliefs simply because they belong to that group

3. Audience diversity is the range of demographic characteristics and subject-

specific differences represented in an audience

G. The occasion is the expected purpose for the speech and the setting where it will be

given

II. Selecting a speech topic

A. List subject areas that are important to you and that you know something about

(subject: a broad area of knowledge)

B. Brainstorm and create a concept map for topic ideas, utilizing an uncritical, non-

evaluative process of generating associated ideas (topic: specific aspect of a subject,

more narrowly focused)

C. Select an appropriate topic, eliminating topics that are too simple or too difficult for

your audience

D. Consider the occasion, as some topics are inappropriate for the time-frame and

context

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III. Writing a speech goal statement

A. Identify your general goal: the intent of your speech

B. Phrase a specific goal statement: a single statement of the exact response the

speaker wants from the audience

1. Write a first draft of your specific speech goal statement

2. Make sure the goal statement contains only one central idea

3. Revise the statement until it clearly articulates the desired audience response

Action Step 2

Gather and evaluate information to develop your speech

IV. Locating and evaluating information sources

A. Personal knowledge and experience

1. If you have personal knowledge and experience about the topic, however, you

should also share your credentials—your experiences or education that qualifies

you to speak with authority on a subject

B. Secondary research: the process of locating information about your topic that has

been discovered by other people

1. Encyclopedias

2. Books

3. Articles

4. Newspapers

5. Statistical sources

6. Biographies

7. Quotation books and web sites

8. Government documents

10. The validity, accuracy, and reliability of secondary sources vary widely

a. Authority: test the expertise of the author and the reputation of the

sponsoring organization

b. Objectivity: test the impartiality of the presentation

c. Currency: test the timeliness of the source

d. Relevance: test whether information is directly related to your topic and

supports your main points

C. Primary research: the process of conducting your own study to acquire information

for your speech

1. Fieldwork observations

2. Surveys

2. Interviews

3. Original artifact or document examinations

4. Experiments

V. Identifying and citing information

A. Factual statements: statements that can be verified

1. Statistics

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a. Use only statistics you can verify to be reliable and valid

b. Use only recent statistics so your audience will not be misled

c. Use statistics comparatively

d. Use statistics sparingly

e. Remember that statistics can be biased

2. Examples: specific instances that illustrate or explain a general factual statement

B. Expert opinions: interpretations and judgments made by authorities in a particular

subject area

C. Elaborations

1. Anecdotes and narratives

a. Anecdotes are brief, often amusing, stories

b. Narratives are accounts, personal experiences, tales, or lengthier stories

2. Comparisons and contrasts

a. Comparisons illuminate a point by showing similarities

b. Contrasts highlight differences

3. Quotations: may come from a book of quotations, article, or interview

D. It is important to seek information from a variety of cultural perspectives by drawing

from sources with different cultural orientations and by interviewing experts with

diverse cultural backgrounds

E. As you find information to use in your speech, you need to record it accurately and

keep a careful account of your sources so you can cite them appropriately during

your speech

1. An annotated bibliography is a preliminary record of the relevant sources you find

as you conduct your research that includes a short summary of information in

that source

2. Research cards are individual 3 × 5 or 4 × 6-inch index cards or electronic

facsimiles that record one piece of information relevant to your speech along with

a key word or main idea and the bibliographic information identifying where you

found it

F. Specifically mentioning sources helps the audience evaluate the content of your

speech and enhances your credibility. Oral footnotes are references to an original

source, made at the point in the speech where information from that source is

presented

Technology Resources

Analyzing Information Sources

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26.htm Visit this site to read about

criteria you can use to evaluate the credibility of your sources.

Brainstorming

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/brainstorming/ For ideas about how to use

brainstorming for developing speech topics, check out this handout, “Brainstorming,”

prepared by the University of North Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences Writing Center.

Conducting Surveys

http://www.infotoday.com/online/sep02/Plosker.htm If you want to conduct your own

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survey, this site features important tips for collecting information.

Government Publications Online

http://guides.lib.washington.edu/federalThis site features links to several frequently used

U.S. federal government documents.

Online Biographical References

http://www.libraryspot.com/biographies/ LibrarySpot.com provides numerous links to online

biographical references.

Online Encyclopedias

http://www.libraryspot.com/features/encyclopedia.htm LibrarySpot.com also provides

numerous links to online encyclopedias.

Quotations Online

http://www.bartleby.com/reference/ This site features links to Web-based sources of

quotations. Scroll down to the Quotations section.

Statistics Online

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ The Statistical Abstract of the United States

contains a summary of social, political, and economic statistics on the United States.

Other Media Resources

1. Toastmasters District One: Speech Topic

http://www.tmdistrictone.org/ideas.asp

2. Searching and Researching on the Internet and World Wide Web

http://www.webliminal.com/search-web.html

Discussion and Assignment Ideas

I. What is the difference between an audience analysis and stereotyping?

II. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, questions perspectives, or gain

individual opinion. Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or

reflect on their personal feelings about the quote can help to spark discussion and

interest. Suggested prompts may include “Define this concept in your own words”; “Do

you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be used to support or

refute this idea?”

When one person calls you a donkey, don’t worry. When four people do, go out and

buy a saddle.

—Anonymous

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve

them.

—Isaac Asimov

III. Is it more difficult to select a topic that does not directly relate to your classmate

audience? Why or why not? How much impact should your audience’s interest have on

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your speech?

IV. How might a thorough audience analysis guide your choice of information types (e.g.,

examples, statistics, narratives, comparisons, quotations)? Explain with an example.

V. How can you determine the credibility of a website’s information? If material is on the

Internet, is it necessarily fact? Recall the discussion of how to separate facts from

inferences in Chapter 7 of your textbook. Apply this discussion to a hypothetical web

search that results in a great quote on your topic but has no name or source attached to

it.

Chapter Activities

11.1: Brainstorming Speech Topics and Analyzing Your Audience

Purpose: To help students understand the difference between a subject and a topic,

and to work together to generate potential speech topic ideas that are

appropriate for the classroom audience

Time: 15 to 20 minutes

Process: Have students work in small groups to brainstorm at least three different

topics under each of the following subject areas:

Baseball or basketball

Popular music

Famous person

Conflict in the Middle East

Global warming

When the students are done generating topics, have them present their topics

to the class as a whole. Discuss the various topics that have been generated.

Pick a few topics to discuss in more detail:

• Which of these topics does the audience know a lot about?

• Which of these topics might generate a high interest level?

• Which of these topics might the students have a positive attitude about?

If time allows, ask for a show of hands to confirm whether the class’s

assumptions are true:

• How many of you know a lot about this topic?

• How many of you are bored with this topic?

• How many of you are interested in hearing more about this topic?

Highlight the difference between knowing a lot about a topic and having a

high amount of interest in the topic. Ask students to consider how they could

make a boring topic more interesting to a highly informed audience.

11.2: Speech Goals

Purpose: To help students practice framing and evaluating speech goals

Time: 30 minutes

Process: Since students often have difficulty creating a well-worded speech goal, this

exercise is designed to give students in-class experience. With the same

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groups used in the brainstorming exercise (Chapter Activity 12.1), ask

students to pick one of the topics they generated during brainstorming. Then

ask them to prepare specific speech goals for two informative and two

persuasive speeches based on this topic. Students should make sure their

goals meet the criteria delineated in pages 289–291 of their textbooks. At the

end of a 15-minute period, each group should select what they believe is their

best-worded speech goal. The recorder for the group should then write the

selected goal on the board.

After each group has written their goal on the board, ask the class to analyze

the goals and select the best-written informative speech goal and the best-

written persuasive speech goal. Use the criteria in the textbook to direct their

evaluative process.

11.3: Audience Analysis

Purpose: To help students practice an audience analysis

Time: 30 minutes

Process: Divide the class into groups of four or five students each. Give each group an

informative speech goal, drawn from the speech goals written for Chapter

Activity 12.3 or from a list you provide. Also give them a specific audience to

which the speech described in the speech goal is to be given, such as the

following:

• High school parent-teacher association

• Community action group

• College branch of the Young Republicans or Young Democrats

• Kiwanis club (or some other service organization)

• Local Ten Percent Society

• Conference comprised of lawyers

• Conference comprised of elementary school teachers

Have each group identify the audience and setting considerations for their

speech, and ask them to discuss how they might adapt their speech for their

audience, given the audience’s background, knowledge level, interests, and

shared experiences. Have each group share a few of their findings.

11.4: Using Examples

Purpose: To help students develop the skill of citing examples that support

generalizations

Time: 20 minutes

Process: Begin with enough 3 x 5 cards to pass out at least two cards each to groups

comprised of three to four students. On each card write a generalization that

is easily developed with examples, such as the following:

• When one television show becomes a hit, the other networks often try to

bring out similar shows.

• (Your city) has many fine restaurants.

• Many recreational activities don’t cost a lot of money.

• The skyline of the state capital has changed considerably over the years.

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• Wrestling programs are popular on cable and non-network television shows.

• Each year computers get more powerful.

• Many Americans choose exotic vacations in the South Pacific and Asia.

• The end never justifies the means.

• Students find many different ways to spend their spare time.

• Different stores cater to different clothing tastes.

• Each part of town provides its own advantages for its residents.

• Automobiles have incorporated many safety features during the last several

years.

• People are turning to many different kinds of low-calorie and low-cholesterol

desserts.

• Modern movies seem to be laced with violence.

Begin the round by handing out two cards to each group. Then give the

groups five minutes to prepare a short informative speech in which they

develop their speech goal with at least three examples; the examples can be

of any length. Have each group pick a representative to present their short

informative speech. When the first group has finished, give the class two

minutes to discuss the speaker’s use of examples.

11.5: Recognizing Inappropriate Research

Purpose: To enable students to recognize inappropriate research of supporting

materials for a speech

Time: 40 minutes

Process: Divide students into groups of four. Give each group a card with one of the

following sets of instructions on it. Allow the groups 10 minutes to create their

“incorrect” scenario. Each group should select one person to deliver the

scenario. Proceed by having students attempt to guess the incorrect or

inappropriate research technique demonstrated by each scenario. Use each

scenario as an opportunity to reinforce important material from the chapter.

Instruction sets

1. Create a short speech on seatbelt usage that uses only statistics as

evidence. Do not cite any sources for your statistics.

2. Give a short speech on capital punishment in which you use a direct quote

(which you will need to create for this in-class assignment). After giving

the quote, tell the audience “That’s a quote that I got off the Internet”

before concluding the speech.

3. Tell a story as an opening for a speech on date rape. After the story, say,

“I heard this from someone in the dorms.”

4. Create a short speech on abortion. Include the following statements:

“Many women are using abortion as birth control”; “Many women on

welfare have had over ten abortions”; and “ Abortion hasn’t been legal

very long.” Provide no source citations for any of these assertions.

5. Create a short speech on campus crime, using information “my brother

told me.”

6. Create an introduction for a speech on the Vietnam War. State that “I got

all of this information from a book called Vietnam—The Unholy War.”

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What Would You Do?

A Question of Ethics

When Mr. Allen gave the class its final public speaking assignment, Alessandra decided that

she would deliver a speech on the limited educational opportunities for women in the

developing world. This topic was close to her heart, as her mother had struggled for years

to improve education for women in her native country of Eritrea before immigrating to the

United States. Moreover, Alessandra had already done quite a bit of reading on the topic in

the past.

As chance would have it, Alessandra came down with the flu the week before her speech

was due and was flat on her back for four days before she finally recovered. Because she

was so far behind in her studies, Alessandra didn’t begin working on her speech until the

afternoon before it was due. Still, by midnight, she had completed what she felt was a

strong draft.

The next morning she cleaned up a few typos and errors in her outline and then

practiced delivering it the next two hours. Just before leaving for school, she read the

instructions one last time to double check that she had done everything correctly. Were her

eyes playing tricks on her? The speech needed to be supported by no fewer than five

published sources, yet she had cited only four. How could she have overlooked this detail?

Alessandra thought frantically. She could ask for an extension, but she had too much other

schoolwork to do in the coming days and needed to complete this project now. She could

leave her speech as it was, but Mr. Allen was a stickler for little details and he’d certainly

lower her grade over the missing source.

Alessandra had, of course, read other books on her topic in the past, even if she hadn’t

cited them in her speech. Although she couldn’t remember the specific details of these

books, she recalled their general message well enough. That was the solution! She would

write a few quotations from one of the books based on her memory, drop them into her

speech—she knew just the spot—and then update her references with credit information

pulled from the Internet.

In less than a half an hour, Alessandra completed her emergency revisions to her speech

and was on her way to class.

1. Although blatantly fabricating information from a source is clearly unethical, what about

someone like Alessandra writing quotations based on her memory of earlier reading?

2. What ethical obligations does Alessandra have to her sources?

Journal Assignments

A Political Correctness

Ask three people of differing ages to define “political correctness.” Compare and contrast

their definitions with your own. Is there a difference between political correctness and using

respectful language? How would you respond to an offensive speech? If we all avoided

speech topics that might offend someone, would persuasion ever occur? Explain.

B. Supporting Evidence for Editorials

Select an editorial or a letter to the editor from a national, local, or campus newspaper. (It’s

okay to use online newspapers.) Research the topic discussed in the editorial and locate

material that either supports or contradicts the statements made in the editorial. Find an

example of distorted facts on this topic. Discuss this example.

C. Diverse Perspectives in Supportive Evidence

On the topic of parental rights, affirmative action, or same-sex marriage, find five different

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perspectives by consulting information from diverse groups.