Page 234 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 8 Supporting Your Message 201

can only suggest the truth of a generalization, even one example to the con-
trary can disprove it. If a speaker claims all American cars are unreliable,
then pointing to just one car line—for example, the Ford Fusion—as having
been shown to be reliable disproves that generalization. If counterexamples
exist, either the generalization is false or it needs to be reformulated to be
less inclusive. Thus we might say, “Many American cars are unreliable,” a
generalization that one counterexample would not disprove.

Facts

A fact is something that is verifi able as true. It is a fact that there are 50 states in
fact
the United States. As former baseball great Yogi Berra might say, “You can look
Something that is verifi -
it up.” On the other hand, the statement that Texas is the best state in which to
able as true.
live is not a fact, though it may be widely believed by Texans.
A fact, of course, is only as good as the source of that fact. To evaluate a fact,
ask the following questions:

• Does the fact come from a reliable source? Encyclopedias, almanacs, authorita-
tive books, and scholarly articles are usually reliable. On the other hand,
if the “fact” comes from someone who has a clear bias about the topic,
we should be suspicious. For example, many Internet sites claim to con-
tain facts, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or that there are
“black choppers” constantly spying on us. Just because something is
on the Internet, we shouldn’t assume that it is true, as we illustrated in
Chapter 7.
• Is the fact verifiable? We should be suspicious of facts that are diffi cult to
verify. For example, there are widely varying estimates of certain types of
crime, such as rape. Part of the discrepancy is that many rapes go unre-
ported. Thus the number of reported rapes is multiplied by some factor
assumed to represent the number of unreported rapes for every reported
one. However, these numbers are impossible to verify for the very reason
that the unreported rapes are, by defi nition, unverifi able. Although these
estimates may be useful, they are not facts in the sense of being verifi able.
• Is the fact the most recent available? Until 2001, statistics about the federal
budget projected a large annual surplus. Yet as this book is being written,
these projected surpluses have been replaced by record defi cits. A speech
built around the existence of budget surpluses would clearly be out of date.
• Is the fact consistent with other known facts? Facts do not stand alone. We
should be suspicious of alleged “facts” that seem to be inconsistent with
other known facts. For example, many tobacco manufacturers once
claimed that nicotine was not addictive. However, not only the surgeon
general but anyone who has tried to give up smoking can tell you that such
a “fact” is suspect. We should double-check sources for possible error and
be particularly careful with secondary sources, which rely on another source
rather than gathering the information fi rsthand. As we noted in Chapter 7,
it is always better to look at primary sources, which are the original sources of
information, because there may be honest mistakes in transferring infor-
mation from one source to another. Finally, we should keep in mind what
facts the audience already knows. If our facts are inconsistent with what the

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