The type of information you choose for your speech should be influenced by its general purpose. If you are persuading your audience (Chapter 16) or giving a speech for a special occasion, try using personal anecdotes to touch your audience emotionally. When informing your audience (Chapter 15), make sure that your use of anecdotes illuminates your topic and doesn’t persuade the audience to think a certain way about it.
A wealth of material is available to enliven your speech and make it more effective. Listeners respond well to a range of compelling information, so try to include a variety of supporting materials in your speech, including testimony, scholarship and statistics, anecdotes, and quotations.