Page 233 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

200 Part 3 Putting Theory Into Practice

make. We also need to consider our audience. What facts do audience members
already know or believe? What additional facts do they need to know? Will they
accept the values implicit in our message? If we advocate policies, we need to
base them on facts and values that are established in our speech. Thus research
and audience analysis go hand in hand.

Grounds

To succeed as public speakers, we need to ground our claims in facts and opin-
ions. For example, whether we are teaching someone how to swing a golf club or
persuading them to share our views on stem cell research, we need to do more
than just offer our own opinions. Audiences want us to provide evidence to sup-
port our claims. If a speaker says stem cell research could lead to a cure for dia-
betes, audience members are going to expect the speaker to tell them why and
how. We can support a speech and answer the audience’s desire for grounding in
facts and reliable opinions using these methods:
• Examples
• Facts
• Numerical data
• Opinion
• Explanations
• Descriptions
• Narratives

Examples

An example is a specific instance that represents some larger class. We might
cite a recycling program in our hometown as an example of how curbside recy-
cling can work. The test of an example is whether it is actually representative of
the larger category. To test whether an example is representative, we need to ask
the following questions:
• What is the relevance of the example to the larger category? If we are talking
about products made from recycled material, then a cardboard box made
from new materials, although it could be recycled by the consumer, is not
relevant.
• Are there enough instances to support the generalization? A few years ago, a dis-
posable-diaper manufacturer ran an ad campaign claiming that its diapers
could be turned into compost. However, according to a Consumer Reports
article, only about a dozen cities had the capability to compost disposable
diapers. Thus disposable diapers wouldn’t be a good example of a recy-
3
clable product.
• Is the example typical of the larger category? We should avoid isolated and atyp-
ical examples. Just because some types of plastic can be recycled doesn’t
mean that all plastic is recyclable.
• Are there counterexamples that disprove the generalization? A counterexample is
one example that contradicts the generalization. Whereas several examples

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