Chapter 8 Review

“The sum of the parts determines the success of the whole speech.”

As the story about Graciela’s speech on Title IX illustrates at the beginning of this chapter, the right supporting materials can help you build listeners’ interest in your presentation, enhance audience understanding of your topic, strengthen the likelihood that audience members will remember your speech, convince your audience that your claims have merit, and breathe life into your speech by touching on audience emotions. To choose the best supporting materials, you can start by understanding the many forms they take—such as examples, definitions, testimony, statistics, narratives, and analogies. You then can apply important guidelines, such as choosing the most credible proof, using a variety of supporting materials, appealing to different learning styles, avoiding long lists of information, considering your audience’s knowledge and interests, and ensuring that your supporting materials don’t consume too much of the time available for your presentation.

LaunchPad for Speak Up offers videos and encourages self-assessment through adaptive quizzing. Look for the check icon and play icon throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.

Key Terms

Play video supporting material 228

Play video example 233

brief example 233

extended example 234

dictionary definition 235

expert definition 235

etymological definition 235

functional definition 236

Play video testimony 236

expert testimony 236

lay testimony 236

Play video statistic 237

Play video narrative 238

Play video analogy 240

literal analogy 240

figurative analogy 240

multimedia presentation 245

Page 250

Review Questions

  1. Question

    Name five purposes for using supporting materials.

  2. Question

    Name and define the six types of supporting materials.

  3. Question

    Explain why it is important to select supporting materials that are backed by credible evidence.

  4. Question

    Identify four or more guidelines for using supporting materials in a speech.

  5. Question

    Define four different learning styles.

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. Question

    What are a speaker’s ethical obligations when presenting statistical information? How could failing to provide solid context for statistics mislead audiences?

  2. Question

    Narratives and anecdotes often are used to evoke an emotional response. What other types of supporting materials might tap audience members’ emotions? Could expert testimony support an emotional appeal? Could statistics generate an emotional response?

  3. Question

    Think of a time when one of your instructors explained a subject effectively. What supporting materials did he or she use to help the class understand the topic? What supporting materials did he or she use to build interest in the subject?

  4. Question

    Think of a topic that you understand well but that is likely to be new to many of your classmates. How could you use a figurative analogy to explain some aspect of that topic to your audience?

Activities

  1. Question

    Working in groups, select a speech topic, and then have each group member select a different type of supporting material for the topic. Next, have each member provide an example of the supporting material that could be used in a speech on the selected topic.
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 1

  2. Question

    Working in groups of up to five students, select a potential speech topic. Then have each group member choose a different purpose for supporting materials (such as building audience interest or strengthening audience memory) and select an example of a supporting material that would help achieve that purpose. Discuss whether each supporting material chosen would be likely to achieve its purpose.
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 2

  3. Page 251

    Question

    Video Activity 8.4: “Kim, The Nonmonetary Uses of Gold.” Identify the types of supporting materials Kim uses to develop her ideas. How well does she follow the guidelines for using supporting materials that are discussed in this chapter?
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 3

  4. Question

    Review the illustration on page 241 (“This is an analogy explaining the Higgs field”). Select any speech topic of interest to you, and think of an analogy you could use as supporting material. Draw your own illustration of that analogy.
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 4

  5. Question

    Review the evidence sources cited within this chapter, and then look at the endnotes for this chapter in the back of the book. What types of sources did the authors use to back up the points they raise? What kinds of supporting materials are included in this chapter that do not require citations to research? Would the chapter work as well if only one or the other type of supporting material were presented?
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 5

  6. Question

    Review a newsmagazine article or another source that presents statistics to support the points it makes. How well do the statistics support the author’s thesis? Does the author provide appropriate context for the statistics?
    Chapter 8 - Activity Question 6