How to Communicate: Oral Citations
HOW TO COMMUNICATE|Video Skills
ORAL CITATIONS
One way to improve your public speaking skills is by knowing how to properly cite your sources during a speech. Learn how to do this completing the How to Communicate video activity below.
CONSIDER THIS:
For your communication class, you are giving a speech about why it’s important to develop good sleep habits. Your professor wants you to incorporate at least three academic sources. You know how to write source citations for research papers, but you’re not sure how to go about crediting your sources in a speech.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
The following advice illustrates how to properly cite your sources. As you watch the video, consider how planning a research strategy, conducting appropriate research, and evaluating your sources will help you compose your citations. Then, test your knowledge of key skills, and create your own responses to the What if? video prompts on the next page.
Download transcript
AVOID PLAGIARISM by giving proper credit to the sources of quotations, testimony, unique facts, and statistics that you use in a speech. Unlike written reports, there is no standard format for orally citing your sources in a speech. However, you should give enough detail to allow your audience to evaluate the information. (“According to a 2013 report from the Center for Disease Control…”)
USE AN INTRODUCTORY PHRASE TO BEGIN CREDITING YOUR SOURCE. This alerts your audience to the citation. Avoid awkward, forced phrasing, such as “…that statistic came from an article in the January 8, 2012, edition of the New York Times newspaper.” (“The CDC also reports that drowsy-driving-related accidents are most common among young people ages 16–29, especially males.”)
PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CREDIBILITY OF THE SOURCE, including the author, title of the work, and date. It’s not necessary to give page numbers or volume details. If the author and/or title of the work are not well known, provide additional information to prove the credibility of the source. (“In 2012, the Health Center at the University of Georgia posted some of these consequences on its Web site.”)