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Consider quoting or paraphrasing people who have an intimate knowledge of your topic. Testimony is firsthand findings, eyewitness accounts, and people’s opinions; expert testimony includes findings, eyewitness accounts, or opinions from professionals trained to evaluate a given topic. Lay testimony, or testimony by nonexperts such as eyewitnesses, can reveal compelling firsthand information that may be unavailable to others.
Supply the name and qualifications of the person whose testimony you use, and inform listeners when and where the testimony was offered. It isn’t always necessary to cite the exact date (though do keep a written record of it); in the oral presentation, terms such as “recently” and “last year” are fine. The following is an example:
In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness last week, Derek Ellerman (co-executive director of the Polaris Project) said, “Many people have little understanding of the enormity and the brutality of the sex trafficking industry in the United States. When they think of sex slavery, they think of Thailand or Nepal—not a suburban house in the DC area, with $400,000 homes and manicured lawns. . . .”7
Use a Variety of Supporting Materials
Listeners respond most favorably to a variety of supporting materials derived from multiple sources to illustrate each main point.8 Alternating among different types of supporting material—moving from a story to a statistic, for example—will make the presentation more interesting and credible while simultaneously appealing to your audience members’ different learning styles.