Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
CHAPTER 7: Supporting Your Ideas
Overview Learning Objectives Ideas for Instruction
Supporting Ideas with Evidence
Facts ·Definitions ·Examples ·
Statistics ·Testimony
pp. 131–142
7.1
Identify and understand how to
use the principal types of supporting
evidence: facts, definitions,
examples, statistics, and testimony.
Discussion questions
:
7a; 7b; 7c
Activities: 7a; 7b; 7c; 7d
Lecture ideas: 7.1
Supporting Ideas through
Comparison and Contrast
Techniques of Comparison and
Contrast ·Thinking Critically about
Comparison and Contrast
pp. 143–144
7.2 Understand the ways in which
comparisons and contrasts can
support ideas.
Discussion questions: 7d
Activities: 7e
Lecture ideas: 7a
Ideas for Instruction
As noted elsewhere, you will not be able to cover everything in the text—nor should you attempt to (i.e.,
“The more we teach, the less they learn.”). I always “assume” students have read the assigned reading and
that my job as an instructor is to highlight a few, select ideas from the reading (or to introduce
supplemental material) for students to contemplate, reflect upon, and apply. My goal is to help them build
meaning and internalize what they have learned, retaining it for future use.
What follows are ideas for how some material might be treated through discussion and activity.
My selections are ones I typically highlight in my own classes—depending on how much time I have to
devote to a chapter. In light of larger class sizes (which require more days per speech round), I rarely can
Discussion Questions. Use these to stimulate discussion and prompt reflection. As students process
the material at a deeper, more meaningful level, they likely will offer interesting observations or pose
provocative questions of their own. Make note of these, literally! Let students know when you’re
particularly impressed by their thinking and let them see you writing it down in your lesson file. They will
feel valued/motivated—as long as you don’t go overboard and write down everything everybody says!
I typically make six or seven such entries during a typical semester. The next time I’m preparing the
lesson I often have something new to add, based upon what the student(s) offered.
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Discussion Question 7a
Approximate time required: 5–7 min.
Supplement the textbook by asking students: “What does the following passage imply that we should do,
as speakers, to make sure our facts are sound?” To assist students, you might post the passage on a
PowerPoint slide or use the slides we have provided. We also supply a PowerPoint slide with the answers.
Facts are data that can be verified by observation. As facts are repeatedly verified by experts and other
observers, they come to be thought of as “established” facts.
The implications include the following:
2) Continue researching if we find inconsistencies among sources.
Discussion Question 7b
Approximate time required: 4–6 min.
Have students listen as you read the following excerpt, and then ask them what type of supporting
material it is, what it would add to a speech, and where it might be used in the speech.
Shawn Sturgill, 18, had a clique of his own at Shelbyville High, a dozen or so friends who sat at the same
long bench in the hallway outside the cafeteria. . . . These days the bench is mostly empty. Of his dozen or
so friends, Shawn says just one or two are still at Shelbyville High. . . . nearly all of them became high
school dropouts. –Nathan Thornberg, “Dropout Nation,” Time April 17, 2006, p. 30
Students should note that this type of supporting material is an example—an actual example.
They likely will note that it adds interest and meaning, putting a human face on the high school
dropout rate.
An example like this is vivid and captures our imagination. We “see” this young man sitting on a
nearly abandoned bench in the hallway, missing his friends who have quit school. The example is
memorable, providing an image we likely will retain and continue to ponder.
As a follow-up, you might ask students what else is needed in the speech in order to convince people of a
problem. The answer, of course, is statistical information that will help us see whether this example is
typical. The Time article provides the numbers immediately after the example, informing the reader that at
Shelbyville High, it is not just Shawn’s friends who have left school. They report that 100 of the 315 who
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Discussion Question 7c
Approximate time required: 4–6 min.
Post the following statement. Have students identify what type of supporting material it is, plus evaluate it
in terms of its effectiveness. For any “problems” they identify, have them offer a possible corrective.
According to Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, the world’s biggest industrial countries are
failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa. He warns that insufficient increases in aid
could reverse progress already made in combating AIDS and other diseases and suffering.
Students should recognize this type of support to be “testimony.”
Some students will likely recognize that although Bono is a rock star, he has become well-versed on
aid to Africa, and his interpretation and judgment is respected by world leaders—even invited by
President Bush to present the keynote address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast at the White
Discussion Question 7d
Approximate time required: 4–6 min.
Post the following statement. Have students identify the type of supporting material it is, plus
evaluate it in terms of its effectiveness. For any “problems” they identify, have them offer a
possible corrective.
Placing these high-tech video cameras in our downtown area and other business districts, as well as on our
highways and at our airport, will be akin to Britain’s surveillance system. We’ve all seen pictures from their
network of cameras, such as images of the London subway bombers as they entered Luton Station, wearing
the rucksacks that contained their bombs.
Students should recognize this type of support to be “comparison.”
Students will likely recognize that comparison can function to promote understanding. In this
particular comparison, listeners can better understand several things. They better grasp that the type
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Suggested Activities. Use these “hands-on” applications to get students actively involved with the material.
What we suggest often requires students to synthesize what is covered in the chapter, as well as what they
were to have learned from other chapters.
Activity 7a
Approximate time required: 6–8 min.
To help students understand how evidence serves multiple functions in a speech, post the following
information on a PowerPoint slide. Have students work with a neighbor to identify how the following
excerpt from a speech would function. After a couple of minutes, discuss their observations with the
entire class.
According to Harvard Medical School, Rohypnol (pronounced row-HIP-nole), also known as a “date rape
drug,” is approximately 10 times stronger than Valium (diazepam).
Students should note that the information allows them to understand how powerful the drug is, how
dangerous it can be, and why anyone who would dose someone with the drug has behaved criminally,
Rohypnol (pronounced row-HIP-nole), also known as a “date rape drug,” is approximately 10 times stronger
than Valium (diazepam). It takes effect in as little as 10 minutes, causing the person to become disoriented,
confused, and in a state of extreme drunkenness—slurring words and having difficulty walking or otherwise
coordinating movement. The drug prompts victims to let down their guard, fall asleep, or even become
unconscious. When mixed with alcohol, the drug is particularly dangerous. The person will slowly lose
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Activity 7b
Approximate time required: 6–8 min.
Use the following statements (or others you find) to facilitate discussion about the power of
definition and how definition can function in a persuasive sense. This exercise can help students
experience how definition might be used to challenge the audience to think differently about
something, altering their perspective and—as a result—what they are inclined to be open to in the
way of policy decisions. The following excerpts provide an alternative definition of taxes. They
challenge the definition of taxes as “a burden,” often used in public discourse for political
purposes.
Our parents invested in the future, ours as well as theirs, through their taxes. . . . Today we have assets—
highways, schools and colleges, the Internet, airlines—that come from the wise investments they made.
There is no such thing as a self-made man. Every businessman has used the vast American infrastructure,
Activity 7c
Approximate time required: 10–12 min.
Have students read the speech excerpt that appears below. In it, economist Ed Rubenstein attempts to
dramatize the high cost of crime in the United States. After reading the excerpt, have students respond to
these questions regarding use of statistics:
1. What kinds of statistics does the speaker use?
2. How effective/compelling are these statistics?
3. What other forms of supporting material does he use—and how effectively does he use them?
4. Based on the evidence he presented, were you convinced by the speaker’s argument?
5. Can you think of ways he could have strengthened it?
A few measures would strengthen the argument. For example, the total costs to crime victims
Note: Since this speech was delivered in 1992, any 1990+ statistics should be viewed as “recent.”
Polls show that Americans regard crime as the number one social problem facing the nation. We fear being a victim
of violent crime, or having our property violated, far more than we fear being unemployed or suffering a loss of
income. . . . We know . . . that the national crime rate—crimes per capita—has tripled over the past 30 years. And at
Source: Ed Rubenstein, “The Economics of Crime,” Vital Speeches of the Day 62 (1995): 19.
Activity 7d
Approximate time required: 12–15 min.
Accuracy: Is the information redundant and verifiable?
Recency: Is the information up-to-date?
Is the person utilizing the latest information and latest assessments, or is the information and/or
thinking dated?
Completeness: Has the subject been explored sufficiently?
Source reliability: How credible is the source?
Does the source have expertise? Is the source fair-minded? Is the source trustworthy? Does the
source put public interests above personal interests?
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Audience appropriateness: Does the material fit the situation and audience?
Is the material appropriate for the task at hand? Is it at a level appropriate to the audience? Will
the audience find the type of information in good taste?
Ethical considerations: Has the source been responsible in their speech?
Has the source adequately met all the tests mentioned above and—as a result—been responsible
to the listeners?
After this quick review, have students work in groups of four to analyze the evidence in some
contemporary public discourse. You might have them size up a brief opinion piece from the
Activity 7e
Approximate time required: 12–15 min.
To enhance students’ understanding of how various types of supporting material are needed in a
speech and how a speaker will appear remiss if failing to provide adequate support, have students
work in groups of three or four to identify the types of support that would be needed in the
following situations (or generate ones of your own). Have two groups address the same topic, to
“compare notes” when reporting to the class. Doing so will help underscore the expectations for
supporting material that an observant listener will have during a speech.
A speech proposing that a city develop a park and recreational areas along its waterfront
A speech celebrating a city’s bicentennial
Lecture Ideas. Some elements in the chapter lend themselves to careful review and/or some
supplemental material. Either way, you’ll amplify something that deserves amplification. We’ll offer
some suggestions, often providing one or more corresponding PowerPoint slides.
Lecture 7a: Use one or more of the slides from the PowerPoint slideshow that accompanies this chapter
and prepare your own examples as illustrations of the concepts featured on the slide(s). Break up the
“lecture” by including some of the discussion questions we provide and/or an activity or two. Any
individual slide can function as either a preview or review of an activity or discussion item.
As noted previously, feel free to edit down the slides, observing the various principles outlined in
Chapter 12 (pp. 247 & 252–54) for effective use of PowerPoint (such as having each bulleted item appear
one-by-one, as it is discussed, as well as incorporating blank slides into the slideshow, as needed, for
visual “silence”). Be mindful, too, that Prezi (an alternative to PowerPoint) allows you to import
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
Exam Items. Testing, of course, can be an important part of instruction. We provide numerous,
high-quality multiple-choice items in our test bank. We also offer several short-answer items and
essay items. These often can double as in-class discussion items or activities or lecture material
(and it is a good idea to cover something in class, if you are going to test on it later with a short-
answer or essay item!)
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Chapter Outline: Chapter 7: Supporting Your Ideas
Chapter Intro:
In daily conversations, we rarely feel the need to support our assertions with extensive
evidence. By contrast, when we make a public statement, listeners expect speakers to
substantiate their opinion with supporting material. The need to use evidence to support
ideas varies with the situation, the audience, and the complexity of the idea. Not all
supporting material is of equal quality. As speakers and listeners, it is important that we
develop a critical attitude toward both the nature and quality of supporting materials.
Note: A speech by Terry Ford, at the end of this chapter, highlights many of the techniques discussed in this
chapter.
I. Supporting Ideas with Evidence
Learning Objective 7.1—Identify and understand how to use the principal types of
supporting evidence: facts, definitions, examples, statistics, and testimony.
A. To strengthen assertions, evidence is needed.
B. Evidence is the body of fact and opinion presented in support of claims.
C. Whatever kind of speech you deliver, it will be more interesting and
convincing if you use a variety of good, credible evidence.
D. It is important that your audience knows that the evidence came from
credible sources.
E. Facts
1. Facts are data that can be verified by observation.
3. Speakers often take facts and interpret them or try to color their
meaning.
5. To make sure your facts are sound, validate them by consulting
multiple, credible sources.
7. Make sure your sources are up to date.
F. Definitions
1. It’s important to define key concepts, especially if a word or term
3. Define acronyms with which listeners may be unfamiliar.
4. Definitions can be persuasive as well as informative.
5. Definitions can be straightforward or they can challenge the
audience to think in different and creative ways.
G. Examples
2. Examples provide concrete frames of reference and interject life
and meaning into the ideas you are communicating.
3. Actual examples
a. An actual example deals with a real case; it is something
4. Narratives as actual examples
a. Narratives are extended examples and may come from
5. Hypothetical examples
a. A hypothetical example is one that represents an action or
6. Narratives as hypothetical examples
a. Some speakers may choose to use proverbs, stories, or folk
8. Thinking critically about examples
a. Perhaps the best test of an example is typicality. We should
ask whether the examples are representative of the normal
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
example may not be typical, yet it still warrants our
H. Statistics
1. Statistics provide a numerical method of handling large numbers of
cases.
3. Understanding Statistical Support
a. Statistics offer a way of showing how some things are
related to others.
b. They may tell us about the typicality of an occurrence and
thus validate the examples used.
c. Statistics also might be used to show cause-and-effect
relationships, or correlations between certain phenomena.
4. Using Averages Reliably
a. Statistics can sometimes be misleading.
b. Average is a notoriously vague measure, even though it
seems to give an air of statistical weight when it is used.
c. Many people assume that average and mean are
synonymous, but they aren’t.
d. Averages can be computed in different ways.
(1) The mean – adding up a list of figures and dividing by the
number of figures
(3) The median – choosing the figure that is the midpoint
between the two extreme figures
5. Descriptive Versus Inferential Statistics
a. Most statistics quoted in speeches are inferential rather than
descriptive; that is, they deal with probabilities rather than
with observable facts.
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
group (sample) to the larger group.
c. Descriptive statistics describe the actual results of an entire
set or population.
d. Many times, speakers will turn to inferential statistics
6. Thinking Critically About Statistics
a. Statistics by themselves don’t always “prove” anything.
b. Even if the statistic is accurate, what the statistic means is
not always as evident as the source would have you
believe.
c. Statistics should only be used when they provide needed
I. Testimony
1. Testimony is the opinions, interpretations, or judgments of other
people.
2. Personal Testimony
a. It is entirely appropriate to offer your own testimony from
time to time.
3. Lay Testimony
a. Lay testimony is based on firsthand experience which is not
your own or the experience of an expert.
4. Expert Testimony
a. Using an expert’s testimony, in effect, borrows the ethos of
someone to whom the audience will likely respond
positively.
5. Thinking Critically About Expert Testimony
a. You need to ask whether the audience considers the source
a reputable expert.
b. Are your sources known to your listeners? If not, you may
need to identify them and establish their credentials. It
never hurts to establish the ethos or credibility of your
sources by saying something about why their testimony
should be believed.
c. Sometimes speakers provide only vague references to their
6. Prestige Testimony as Evidence
a. It may be acceptable, even desirable, to quote from a
celebrity with high visibility.
b. They may not be “experts,” but prestige testimony can
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
II. Comparison and Contrast
Learning Objective 7.2—Understand the ways in which comparisons and
contrasts can support ideas.
A. One of the principal ways we learn is by comparison and contrast.
B. We compare the unknown to the known. We look for similarities and
differences.
C. Comparison and contrast are not evidence in the strictest sense of the word;
technically, they are a form of reasoning focusing on similarities and
differences.
D. Techniques of Comparison and Contrast.
2. Comparisons are often used by speakers who want to make a
difficult or abstract concept more concrete and understandable to
3. Thinking Critically About Comparison and Contrast
a. Are the persons, events, places, or objects being compared
really comparable in essential ways?
b. Colorful analogies are acceptable for dramatic effect as
long as they are not unfairly exaggerated.
III. Evaluating Supporting Material
Learning Objective 7.3—Apply the criteria of accuracy, completeness, recency,
source reliability, appropriateness, and ethical integrity to evaluate the quality of
supporting material.
A. Accuracy
1. Accurate information is reliable and verifiable.
2. You should be able to examine several independent sources and
discover essentially the same factual or statistical information.
B. Completeness
1. The more thorough and complete your knowledge is on a topic, the
better your speech will be.
C. Recency
2. Because advances in technology have made it easier than ever to
find information, the burden is on the speaker to be up to date.
D. Source Reliability
1. It is important to assess the reliability of your sources and avoid
bias.
3. In general, whenever you doubt a source’s objectivity,
trustworthiness, or competence, it is best to disregard the
Chapter 7: Ideas & Materials for Instruction
information and look elsewhere.
E. Audience Appropriateness
1. Regardless of the quality of your evidence, it should not be used if
its appropriateness to the audience and situation is in question.
F. Ethical Considerations
1. A speaker who uses evidence that he or she knows to be
2. A speaker’s ethical obligation is to scrutinize his or her own
3. Civic responsibility demands a commitment to ethical public speaking.
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Instructional ideas for Chapter Seven
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