Printed Page 233

You can’t expect your listeners to unthinkingly embrace all the claims you make in your speech. Rather, audience members may be skeptical of a point if they’ve never heard it before, if it strikes them as counterintuitive, or if it contradicts their worldview. To show that a claim is probably true, you need to provide supporting data that offer a good reason for accepting the claim. (This pattern of reasoning, first described by British logician Stephen Toulmin, is called the Toulmin Model of Argument).⁵ For example, you might quote an expert, present a demonstration, or provide examples to illustrate the claim. If your audience accepts the link between these supporting materials and your claim, there is a good chance they will agree with your point.