Use Supporting Points to Substantiate Your Claims

Supporting points represent the supporting material or evidence you have collected to explain (in an informative speech) or justify (in a persuasive speech) the main points. It is here that you substantiate or prove your thesis with the examples, narratives, testimony, and facts and statistics discovered in your research (see Chapter 8).

In an outline, supporting points appear in a subordinate position to main points. This is indicated by indentation. As with main points, supporting points should be arranged in order of their importance or relevance to the main point. The most common format is the roman numeral outline. Main points are enumerated with uppercase roman numerals (I, II, III, . . . ), supporting points are enumerated with capital letters (A, B, C, . . . ), third-level points are enumerated with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, . . . ), and fourth-level points are enumerated with lowercase letters (a, b, c, . . . ), as seen in the following:

  1. Main point
    1. Supporting point
      1. Subsupporting point
        1. Sub-subsupporting point
        2. Sub-subsupporting point
      2. Subsupporting point
        1. Sub-subsupporting point
        2. Sub-subsupporting point
    2. Supporting point
  2. Main point

Here is an example (in phrase outline form) from a speech about using effective subject lines in business-related e-mails:

  1. Subject line most important, yet neglected, part of e-mail.
    1. Determines if recipient reads message
      1. Needs to specify point of message
      2. Needs to distinguish from spam
    2. Determines if recipient ignores message
      1. May ignore e-mail with missing subject line
      2. May ignore e-mail with unclear subject line
  2. Use proven techniques for effective subject lines.
    1. Make them informative
      1. Give specific details
      2. Match central idea of e-mail
      3. Be current
    2. Check for sense
      1. Convey correct meaning
      2. Reflect content of message
    3. Avoid continuing subject line in text
      1. May annoy the reader
      2. May be unclear
        1. Could be confused with spam
        2. Could be misinterpreted

Note that different levels of points are also distinguished by different levels of indentation. These differences clearly indicate the direction of your speech. They also enhance your recollection of points and make it easy for you to follow the outline as you speak.