Draw on Testimony

When looking for supporting material, consider quoting or paraphrasing people who have an intimate knowledge of your topic. Testimony (from the Latin word for “witness”) is firsthand findings, eyewitness accounts, and people’s opinions. Expert testimony includes findings, eyewitness accounts, or opinions by professionals trained to evaluate a given topic. For example, a medical doctor may provide cutting-edge information on the threat of cholesterol. Lay testimony, or testimony by nonexperts such as eyewitnesses, can reveal compelling firsthand information that may be unavailable to others, such as that given by volunteers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) working in war-torn Syria.

ESL SPEAKER’S NOTES

Broaden Your Listeners’ Perspectives

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As a non-native speaker of English, consider sharing a personal experience with the audience. Stories from other countries that describe other ways of life often fascinate listeners. Unique cultural traditions, eyewitness accounts of newsworthy events, or tales passed down orally from one generation to the next are just some of the possibilities. Depending on the goal of your speech, you can use your experiences as supporting material for a related topic or as the topic itself.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Credibility plays a key role in the effectiveness of testimony, since a source is only as credible as an audience believes it to be. When selecting testimony, consider whether the audience will assign credibility to the source, and then take steps to establish the source’s reputation. Briefly establish the person’s qualifications and inform listeners of when and where the testimony was offered. It isn’t always necessary to cite the exact date (though do keep a written record of it); in the oral presentation, terms such as “recently” and “last year” are fine:

In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness last week, Derek Ellerman, co-executive director of the Polaris Project, said, “Many people have little understanding of the enormity and the brutality of the sex trafficking industry in the United States. When they think of sex slavery, they think of Thailand or Nepal—not a suburban house in the DC area, with $400,000 homes and manicured lawns. . . . ”13

EVALUATING THE CREDIBILITY OF TESTIMONY

  • imageAre the experts I’ve cited proven in their fields?
  • imageIs the lay testimony reliable?
  • imageDo the sources have any obvious biases?
  • imageIs their testimony timely? Is it relevant?
  • imageDo their views effectively support my thesis?
  • imageAre there reasons that the audience may not react favorably to the testimony?

Testimony that does not meet these standards is likely to do more harm to your speech than good.

The idea for these questions was prompted by O. M. Walter and R. L. Scott, Thinking and Speaking: A Guide to Intelligent Oral Communication, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 52.