Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Researching and supporting your message RE. Chapter 7
Today we are discussing Evidence and Reasoning and doing research to support your message.
Evidence is material used to support your ideas/conclusions. Not everything you run across during the research process can be used as evidence. Data used for support should be relevant to the point you are trying to make, should support the point you are trying to make, and be believable by the audience.
The final stage of any research is to decide what you, the researcher, have learned, and what you want to tell others.
Evidence we know some things = facts, examples, statistics, testimony linked through Reasoning and because the universe operates in ordered and consistent ways = inductive [moving from the specific to the general], deductive [begins with the general and ends with the specific], casual, or analogy to Claim thesis, main point, subpoint we can draw conclusions about things we don't know
Supporting Materials You should locate the information that you need for your speech through researching appropriate reference materials in the library and online. You will be required to use at least four (3) sources of information in addition to what you already know about the topic. Again, only one source may be an interview. Examples, statistics, and facts from your sources should be clearly identified when used in the speech.
To determine what information you need to support your ideas, you must first analyze your topic. In other words, you need to break your topic down into key ideas. For example, if you were doing a speech on College Campus Crime you could potentially discuss what exactly the problem is, why the problem exists and what can be done to eradicate it. These three areas of analysis would then need to be elaborated upon and supported with evidence.
Goals firstly being able to inform your audience
Need to understand the diversity of your audience (what we went over on the sheet Friday) To know whether your message will be responded to. (examples of the merits of tofu eating or using astrological symbols that no one may understand)
ASSUME YOUR AUDIENCE DOES NOT KNOW MUCH IF ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR TOPIC or if it is something that you think most people will know then present something new and worthwhile For example if you were telling about playing basketball in Europe to players who already knew the rule you may give information about what to expect from different teams this is what I realized playing the French teams or the Brits or the Dutch your information speech may be about how different cultures respond in International situations.
Types of support which are effective in speeches:
v Examples should be relevant, quantity, and typical.
v Develop a Preliminary Bibliography or a list of promising resources include electronic as well as print materials
On the speech coach CD-ROM use the flashcards for todays topic use chapter 7 which in your book is called KEY CONCEPTS
Ψ Abstract
Ψ Fact something that is verifiable as true: to evaluate a fact ask:
· Does the fact come from a reliable source
· Is it verifiable
· Is the fact the most recent available
· Is it consistent with other known facts
Ψ Secondary sources rely on other (primary) sources rather than gathering information firsthand
Ψ Primary sources original sources of information
Ψ Statistics explore the source. Use sparingly. Need to be from a reliable and unbiased source based on fair questions, from a representative sample. Polls should report the sample size and margin of error. Know what percentages are based on and if the average or mean is being cited exclusively.
Ψ Expert opinion (not your opinion your opinion as long as you are a student is not worth as much as someone who is an expert even when you are doing your PhD you must not rely on your opinion). Needs to come from a subject matter expert who is reliable and unbiased.
Ψ Explanations use two tests
· Is the explanation clear too complex and no one understands use comparisons and contrasts when one makes tofu one of the steps is to coagulate the soymilk this separates the milk into whey and curds the curds are what are left when the whey is drained out the curds are then pressed to make tofu
· Is the explanation accurate -
Ψ Descriptions
· Is the description accurate for example you were there or you did the thing you are discussing
· Is the description vivid paint a picture the curds are like white clouds floating in sea of clear liquid the difference is that these white clouds have substance weight and volume
Ψ Narratives to use a narrative for your information speech you would need to develop your story with characters, scene, action and plot
· Narrative probability does your story make sense in and of itself
· Narrative fidelity does it ring true to real life
Ψ Research evaluating internet information give example look up whitehouse.gov and whitehouse.org for next class and tell which site you would use to present to the class information on a recent speech from Bush. Know how old the information is. Compare sites it is not necessarily the first page of sites that will give you the information you are looking for - Where to get it Research
1. Always pay attention to the date of publication. A 1925 National Geographic article on Peru may be timely if you are using historical photos but to talk about the tourism climate of today it would be too old.
2. Evaluating internet information give example look up whitehouse.gov and whitehouse.org for next class and tell which site you would use to present to the class information on a recent speech from Bush. Know how old the information is. Compare sites it is not necessarily the first page of sites that will give you the information you are looking for we will do this for your homework to add to your group reports number 2 today.
3. Use the library or databases to discover periodicals that deal with the issue. in order to do good research, it is important to find good material. Academic research that has been peer reviewed is your best bet. Periodicals are usually more useful than books because the articles are more current and more focused. The main problem with journal articles are: 1) they are highly specialized and written for peers rather than students; 2) the focus of many articles is too narrow to be useful to you; 3) many articles are characterized by jargon or statistical analyses that you may be unfamiliar with.
4. Brochures pamphlets etc especially for places like cities, planets that you have been to.
Ψ Apply deductive and inductive reasoning to the data. Reasoning is simply the drawing of conclusions from existing data. There is no absolute truth in human affairs. There is no black or white. There are only shades of gray that we make sense of by different kinds of reasoning.
· Inductive reasoning means developing generalizations from the facts.
· Deductive reasoning means using principles or valid generalizations to organize the facts. In practice, human beings do both things simultaneously, because both kinds of reasoning are problematic when used exclusively.
· The problem with deduction. Take the deductive principle a sound mind is a sound body." Not only does the principle ask the question of how the body and mind relate, but also it assumes that a person can not have a sound mind without a sound body. That would be difficult to prove. Many deductive principles are simply slogans. Some are merely truisms or tautologies - things tat are true by definition but don't really tell you anything. Unless deductive reasoning allows us to discover important facts, and unless the facts support deductive reasoning, it does not get us anywhere.
Ψ Interviews read page 172-173 Firstly do research on the topic to write up your questions
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