Supporting Your Ideas

7.1: Introduction

• Learning Objectives: After studying this chapter, students should be able to:

  • Combine multiple forms of evidence to support ideas.

  • Differentiate between the three types of testimony and know when to use each.

  • Navigate library holdings and distinguish between types of information in different sections.

  • Evaluate source credibility and appropriateness for a speech.

  • Explain plagiarism and implement strategies to avoid it.

  • Apply chapter concepts in review questions and activities.

• Case Study: Jamie Oliver (2010):

  • In $2010$, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (from Essex, England) won the TED Prize for his ‐One Wish to Change the World.‐

  • He was given $18$ minutes to discuss his wish: ‐Teach every child about food.‐

  • Research and Strategy: To convince an American audience to change eating habits, he used compelling research to demonstrate credibility and catch attention.

  • Emotional Hook: He stated, ‐Sadly, in the next $18$ minutes . . . four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat‐ (Oliver, $2010$).

  • Data Usage: He used a chart showing that more Americans die from diet-related diseases than from other diseases, accidents, or murder.

  • Testimony: He provided testimony from people in the ‐most unhealthy state in America.‐

• The Nature of Research:

  • Librarians Sjoberg and Ahlfeldt ($2010$) noted that professors and students view research differently.

  • Professors: See research as a professional scholarly process involving late nights in library stacks (Leckie, $1996$).

  • Students: View research as an informal process involving popular web search results.

  • Effective Research: Requires a combination of both formal and informal tools.

• Guiding the Research Process:

  • Specific Purpose Statement: A one-sentence summary of the speech goal, often beginning with ‐At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to…‐

  • Critical Questions for Evidence:

    1. ‐Does this evidence support the goal of my speech?‐

    2. ‐Is this evidence appropriate for my audience?‐

  • Contradictory Evidence: If a source contradicts your purpose, keep it to address the contradiction with evidence for your own idea.

• Fundamental Principle from Adam Osborne: ‐I take what I see work. I'm a strict believer in the scientific principle of believing nothing, only taking the best evidence available at the present time, interpreting it as best you can, and leaving your mind open to the fact that new evidence will appear tomorrow.‐

7.2: Personal and Professional Knowledge

• Leveraging Existing Knowledge: Public speakers should draw on preexisting knowledge and experience to enhance their message.

• Pete Seeger Quote: ‐Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.‐

• Personal Testimony:

  • Narrative Paradigm: Walter Fisher ($1984$) argues humans are natural storytellers who make sense of experience and community through stories.

  • Benefits: Enhances credibility by showing firsthand experience, conveys insight and emotion, and makes the speech memorable (Beebe & Beebe, $2003$; Parse, $2008$).

  • Example: Describing how a buck you hunted fed your family for a season to illustrate the importance of hunting culture.

  • Caution: Psychologists Gladding and Drake Wallace ($2010$) find that tellers relive the experience, which can lead to excessive detail. Always practice to keep stories concise.

• Lay Testimony:

  • Definition: Any testimony based on witnesses’ opinions or perceptions in a given case (‐Federal Rules,‐ $2012$).

  • Application: Used when personal experience is lacking (e.g., quoting an Occupy Wall Street protestor to describe the movement).

• Expert Testimony and Interviews:

  • Definition: Testimony from a recognized authority who has conducted extensive research (Beebe & Beebe, $2003$).

  • Purpose of Interviews: Allows experts to expand on published research and offer perspectives tailored to the speech topic (e.g., interviewing a Red Cross representative for natural disaster preparation).

  • Brian Lamb Quote: ‐My basic approach to interviewing is to ask the basic questions that might even sound naive, or not intellectual.‐

• Interview Procedures:

  • Scheduling: Arrange a time and place that works for the expert via respectful phone call or email.

  • Formats: In-person (ideal for rapport), video call (e.g., Skype), phone, or email (least ideal due to time required for the expert to type responses).

  • Conducting the Interview:

    • Write questions in advance.

    • Establish Rapport: Foster respect, take turns, avoid interrupting, and allow freedom of expression (Lindolf & Taylor, $2002$).

    • Take notes even if recording (ask permission before recording).

    • Synthesize main points into a coherent statement for the speech.

7.3: Library Resources

• The Librarian: A primary resource for locating relevant material. Students should conduct initial independent research before asking for help to demonstrate ownership of the assignment.

• Books:

  • Characteristics: Comprehensive, rich investigations, not constrained by page counts. Can be single-authored or edited collections.

  • Example: Melissa Harris-Perry’s ($2011$) Sister Citizen for a deep dive into stereotypes of black women using literature, theory, and political science.

  • Henry Ward Beecher Quote: ‐A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.‐

  • Online Catalog: Indices by title, author, and publication info.

  • Call Number: The ‐address‐ of the book on the library stacks.

  • Interlibrary Loan: A process to borrow books from other libraries if they are not available locally.

  • Research Strategy: Use table of contents, headings, and indices to skim for keywords rather than reading the entire book.

• The Reference Section:

  • Provides basic summary knowledge. Includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, abstracts, and biographical references.

  • Usually cannot be checked out because they are used briefly and regularly by many.

• Periodicals:

  • Publications printed at predictable intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly).

  • General Interest Periodicals: Targeted at the general public, intended for profit, edited for appeal (e.g., The Atlantic, Women’s Health, The New York Times, National Geographic).

  • Scholarly Research Journals: Not for profit, designed for experts, undergo Peer Review (e.g., Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard Law Review, Quarterly Journal of Speech).

  • Arthur Baer Quote: ‐A newspaper is a circulating library with high blood pressure.‐

• Citation Trails:

  • Backward: Skim the source’s bibliography for earlier publications.

  • Forward: Use Google Scholar’s ‐cited by‐ function for more recent publications.

• Full-Text Databases:

  • Specialized electronic databases (e.g., Lexis-Nexis for news/legal research; Communication and Mass Media Complete; EBSCO).

  • Can be searched by area of specialization or database name.

7.4: Internet Resources

• Search Engines: Use software to scan indices of internet content (e.g., Google, bing, Yahoo!, Ask).

• Sergey Brin Quote: ‐We want Google to be the third half of your brain.‐

• Sponsored Websites: Links that pay for the top spot. They are often highlighted or labeled as ‐Ads‐ and may not be the most relevant results.

• Boolean Operators (Table 7.2):

  • OR: Expands search (e.g., ‐colleges OR universities‐).

  • AND / +: Limits search by requiring both terms together (e.g., ‐Hillary Rodham Clinton AND Senate‐).

  • NOT / -: Excludes specific terms (e.g., ‐hyena -lion‐).

  • ‐‐ (Quotation Marks): Searches for a specific phrase (e.g., ‐‐humans contribute to global warming‐‐).

• Specialized Google Tools:

  • Google Scholar: Focuses on scholarly journal articles, books, theses, and court opinions. Can be linked to library databases via ‐scholar preferences.‐

  • Google Books: Useful for searching keywords inside books to identify relevant pages before obtaining the physical copy.

  • Google Images: Useful for visual aids. SafeSearch settings include Strict filtering, Moderate filtering (default), and No filtering.

• Website Characteristics:

  • Berners-Lee ($2000$) notes information is arranged in an ‐unconstrained web-like way.‐

  • Identify the owner/author near the top of the homepage or in the copyright notice.

• Government Documents:

  • Include census data, health reports, crime statistics, and legislative transcripts (e.g., Fukushima nuclear safety testimony in $2011$).

  • Resources: www.fedworld.gov; Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (catalog.gpo.gov).

  • Josh McDowell Quote: ‐Now, whenever you read any historical document, you always evaluate it in light of the historical context.‐

• Evaluating Information:

  1. Quality: Is it comprehensive? Does it explain reasoning? Does it consider competing perspectives?

  2. Credibility: Check qualifications (professional training vs. survivor experience), parity (alignment with other sources), and bias (predispositions).

  • Wikipedia: Useful for initial search terms but not a credible source to cite because anyone can update it.

  • Example Citation: Mary Carskadon (Professor at Brown University) explaining sleep benefits, bolstered by Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom whose studies affirmed the work.

7.5: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

• Style Guides:

  • MLA (Modern Language Association): Humanities.

  • APA (American Psychological Association): Social sciences.

  • CMS (The Chicago Manual of Style): Histories/General.

• John Adams Quote: ‐Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes… they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.‐

• Plagiarism:

  • Definition: Presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own.

  • Intentional: Buying speeches, copying friends (severe consequences: failure/expulsion).

  • Mistake: Failing to properly summarize or cite due to ignorance.

  • Oral Attribution: Mandatory even if citations are in the written outline. ‐Always provide oral citations for direct quotations, paraphrased material, or especially striking language‐ (Osborn & Osborn, $2007$).

• Verbal Source Citation Examples (Table 7.3):

  • Steve Jobs ($2005$): ‐In his $2005$ commencement address at Stanford University Steve Jobs said, ‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.’‐

  • Michael Pollan ($2009$): Mentions his book In Defense of Food and the guideline ‐Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.‐

  • Hillary Clinton ($2012$): Refers to her speech to the ‐Friends of Syria People‐ regarding Assad’s human rights violations.

  • Barack Obama ($2009$): Refers to his ‐Back to School‐ speech encouraging participation in student government and debate.

7.6: Conclusion

• Effective speeches coordinate testimony, library resources, and internet evidence.

• Consistency across sources and accounting for contradictory data is vital.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne Quote: ‐Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.‐

7.7: Glossary

• Bias: The predisposition toward a particular viewpoint.

• Boolean Operators: Words and symbols that illustrate the relationship between search terms and help the search engine expand or limit results.

• Expert Testimony: Testimony that comes from a recognized authority who has conducted extensive research on an issue.

• Interlibrary Loan: The process of borrowing materials through one library that belong to another library.

• Lay Testimony: Any testimony based on witnesses’ opinions or perceptions in a given case.

• Parity: Similarity of information across sources.

• Personal Testimony: An individual’s story concerning his or her lived experience, which can be used to illustrate the existence of a particular event or phenomenon.

• Rapport: A cordial relationship between two or more people in which both parties convey respect and understanding for one another.

• Search Engine: Software which uses algorithms to scan an index of existing Internet content for particular terms, and then ranks the results based on their relevance.

• Source Credibility: Signs that a person is offering trustworthy information.

• Specific Purpose Statement: A sentence summarizing the main idea, or claim, which the speech will support. It should be stated clearly toward the beginning of the speech.

• Style Guide: An established set of standards for formatting written documents and citing sources for information within the document.