A CASE STUDY: MIA

Let’s take a look at Mia’s selection of supporting materials.

Over the next three days, Mia read and took notes on the articles she’d found. She was fascinated by the number of different and creative ways that emigrants used smartphones. Although Mia counted at least twenty different uses of smartphones, she realized she couldn’t fit them all into her speech. Rather than rushing through a long list, she would have to select several uses and develop them.

Mia’s research materials gave her a variety of different supporting materials. She could use emigrants’ lay testimony to provide examples, brief anecdotes, and narratives, which she knew would be compelling to her audience. Mia also could use expert testimony to support broader claims about smartphone use. Because most of the class was familiar with smartphone apps, she could use analogies to make points about apps used by emigrants, along with functional definitions to explain some of the apps and sites. Mia decided to limit the use of statistics and be sure to round them off so they would not be overwhelming.

Finally, Mia wanted to appeal to different learning styles. Several pictures that she found could be used to supplement verbal explanations. These images would reinforce the message in a memorable way and provide additional proof for the claims she was making. She thought about having students use their own smartphones to search for apps that emigrants might use but decided against it because there would be too much downtime while students fiddled with their phones. She would use rhetorical questions to help students visualize how they might need to use apps.

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.

A CASE STUDY: JACOB

And let’s check out which supporting materials Jacob is using in his speech.

After doing some research, Jacob was ready to start preparing his speech. He wanted to start with the example of his favorite basketball player, Anthony Davis. He also had examples to show how much time student athletes devote to their sports and how colleges take advantage of their players. In addition, Jacob had discovered a number of statistics that he could use as supporting materials. These figures would show what a good player Davis was, the average attendance figures for different teams on campus, the money colleges make from their athletic teams, and the appropriate salary for college athletes.

Finally, Jacob had lay testimony in the form of his roommate’s opinion about paying athletes. Unfortunately, he didn’t speak with any athletes on women’s teams.

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.