Chapter 11: Supporting Your Message

Author: Lisa Marie Coppoletta

A presentation has both verbal and visual elements. In this chapter, we will first explore the process of locating credible sources for presentations and how to adhere to ethical standards for research. Once you understand how to use research ethically, you will synthesize and integrate it into a full-sentence outline. Then secondly, we will examine the visual elements of a speech and learn to master presentational aids.

Importance of Research

For the audience to accept our line of reasoning in a presentation, creating an understandable organizational structure is essential. We also have to reinforce our ideas with research from experts. Using various types of research is valuable because it appeals to diverse audience members. Some individuals find stories resonate with them, while others find data more convincing. Speakers must support their assertions with research to prove premises behind logical assertions. Using various inquiry forms allows a speaker to plan a message targeting all listeners. Research from experts corroborates a speaker’s assertion. Research also establishes the probability of the truth of our argument. The more credible our research, the higher the likelihood the audience will believe our assertions in the presentation. Research accomplishes the following objectives in a speech:

• Define/Explain

• Prove/Support

• Engage/Make Vivid

• Enhance Speaker Credibility

Define/Explain: For speakers to convince their listeners, they often strive to establish common ground to have a similar level of understanding. Defining terms ensures the speaker and audience maintain the same language. Definitions strengthen the logical progression of ideas so that the audience can follow the line of reasoning. Public speakers use research to create a precise vision supporting the argument they want to make. Quotations allow the speaker to define or clarify those specific terms.

Prove/Support: We cannot all be experts in everything. Most of us are specialists in a particular field of study. For this reason, speakers use research published by specific experts in a field of study to support assertions about topics they are unqualified to speak on. Experts in a field have extensive education, training, long-term experience, publications, and/or considerable skill.

Engage/Make Vivid: Supporting research creates a vivid picture for an audience to remember a presentation.

Enhance Speaker Credibility: Referencing research and testimony from reliable sources enhances a speaker’s credibility. Essentially, speakers “borrow credibility” from trustworthy experts when they effectively provide quotations to an audience. Using credible sources is central to speaker credibility to support our ideas with various forms of supporting material, such as definitions, statistics, narratives, and expert testimony.