Student Resource
Gamble, The Public Speaking Playbook, 2nd Edition
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 7: Finding and Evaluating Research
Learning Objectives
1-1 Draw research from your personal knowledge and experience
1-2 Plan and conduct an interview with a person who possesses special knowledge
related to your topic
1-3 Do library based research
1-4 Demonstrate the value of researching online
1-5 Take good research notes
1-6 Critically evaluate potential sources of information
Outline
I. Your speech is only as strong as the research and personal experiences upon which it is based.
A. Public speaking students frequently overlook primary research.
1. Primary research is original research involving the collecting of firsthand data,
including using your knowledge and experience, conducting surveys, and
interviewing credible sources.
a. Use personal knowledge and experience
b. Interview others who have specialized knowledge
i. Prepare for the interview
ii. Conduct the interview
iii. Conduct a post-interview review
II. Research requires the speaker to also gather secondary research.
A. Secondary research includes published statistics, texts and articles by experts, and
media and personal documents.
1. Library resources
2. Reference collections and other resources
B. There are a variety of sources that are available for online research.
Student Resource
Gamble, The Public Speaking Playbook, 2nd Edition
SAGE Publishing, 2018
1. GALENet
2. Lexis/Nexis
3. Websites
4. Blogs
5. Wikis
III. When assessing the credibility of information, determine whether the sources consulted are
qualified and objective.
A. Sources that have an economic self-interest in the subject are less credible than
sources that have nothing to gain.
1. Assess traditional research sources
B. As you decide what to include in your speech from your Web search, ask yourself
questions about information you find on websites and social media.
2. Evaluate online sources
IV. If research explorations are to be meaningful, speakers will need to record the information
they hope to use by keeping a research record.
A. There are different methods of taking notes that will benefit the speaker.
1. Notebook
2. Notecards
i. Use a card for each article you reference
ii. Record the title, author, and subject on the top of each card
iii. Record one piece of information per card
B. As you take notes, be sure to give each source correct attribution to avoid plagiarism.
1. When using a direct quotation, state the name of the author and the source.
2. Use a specificity progression in your oral citation of a source.
i. Be specific upon first use and less throughout the speech
3. Aim for source variety
i. Rule of one to three – aim for three sources for every minute of the
presentation