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 To do this, you might quote an expert, present a demonstration, or provide examples to illustrate the claim. For example, in a speech asking for volunteers for a local Special Olympics competition, you might combine a study documenting the link between athlete participation and subsequent employment and the narrative of a former Special Olympics swimmer who is now in the workforce. If your audience accepts the link between the supporting materials and your claim, there is a good chance they will agree with your point.

232