Lecture 7. Communicating to the public. Developing your speech.

Outline.

1. Conducting research: finding supporting material.

2. Library research.

3. Computer-aided searches.

4. Techniques for generating information.

5. Supporting material and presentation aids.

1. During the process of preparing a speech, one of your chief tasks is gathering information. Potential sources available to you include published works, other people, and, of course, yourself. Most of the time, you will have some persona, knowledge of your topic. If you are discussing some aspect of sports medicine, for instance, you may have been injured in football, baseball, track, tennis, or swimming. If your topic is related to music or music education, you may have played the piano as a child. If your topic has to do with business or technol­ogy, you may work in an industry which relates directly to it. Far too often, speakers fail to realize that their personal experiences can be used to establish credibility and add interesting and pertinent examples.

2. Libraries contain information storage and retrieval systems—resources that are invaluable for every type of research. Whatever your topic, the odds are that some library has relevant information. The library is one of the few real bar­gains left in our society. A huge array of material is available free; other materi­als and services (those available through a variety of photographic and elec­tronic systems) are yours for only a minimal cost. In addition, every academic and public library has on its staff knowledgeable people who have been trained to aid you with your investigatory work.

When you begin library research, you will need to consult several refer­ence sources—sources you may have already encountered during your educa­tional career. Your goal during this phase of research is to compile a prelimi­nary bibliography. Thus, your first stop may well be the library's card catalog. Next, you will move on to a variety of newspaper, magazine, and journal indexes. Depending on your subject, you may also consult bibliographical sources, encyclopedias, and almanacs. And you will almost certainly encounter forms of computer-assisted searches.

3. Computer catalogs, also known as on-line catalogs, simplify the research process by making it faster and more efficient. They are widely available in libraries across the country either as supplements to or as replacements for the traditional card catalog. On-line systems save time: The researcher who uses them no longer wastes hours looking through card catalog drawer after card catalog drawer in an effort to find relevant information. Now that information is located much more easily via computer.

4. You may also want to generate information to support or "flesh out" your pre­sentation. Three primary techniques for generating your own information are (1) personal observation, (2) the survey, and (3) the interview.

Personal observation and experience

One of the best ways to research a topic is to examine what you yourself know about it. Search your own background and experiences for materials you might want to integrate into your presentation.

If your topic is one for which direct observation of an event, person, or stimulus would be appropriate, then by all means go out and observe. An observational excursion might take you to a biology laboratory, an airport, a supermarket, or a construction site, for example. Direct observation can pro­vide you with a better understanding of your topic and enable you to incorporate new personal experiences into your presentation in the form of example? illustrations, or quotations. When conducting a direct observation, be sure to. take careful notes. If possible, arrive at the location with tape recorder or video recorder in hand. Sit down immediately after the experience and record your thoughts and feelings. All your firsthand notes should be filed with the materials gathered during your library research.

Informal surveys

Developing a reliable scientific survey instrument is complicated. However, informal surveys can be used to provide the speechmaker with useful and often entertaining information. For example, if you are investigating the possibility of adding cable television courses to the curriculum, a survey at your school may produce data you can use. (For instance, you might be able to discover the percentage of students interested in enrolling for such courses.). Informal surveys normally consist of no more than 5 to 10 questions.

Interviews

An interview is similar to a survey except that it is usually more detailed and assumes that the person being interviewed is in some way an expert on the topic under consideration. On your campus or in your community you will probably find knowledgeable people to interview about current issues and many other topics. Political, business, and religious leaders, for instance, can often be persuaded to talk to student speakers. And of course the faculty mem­bers of a college are often eager to cooperate.

Be sure to record accurately the information gathered during an interview. Take careful notes and repeat or verify any direct quotations you intend to use in your presentation. Also be certain during the speech to credit the inter­viewee as your source, unless he or she has asked not to be mentioned by name.

Interviews conducted by professionals on radio or television can also pro­vide you with useful expert information. Remember to check local listings for potentially interesting programs.

5. Depending on the nature of your topic, you can make your research inter­esting and understandable to your audience by using various kinds of verbal support: definitions, statistics, examples and illustrations, testimonials (quota­tions), and comparisons and contrasts. You can often increase the impact andmemorability of your speech by using repetition and restatement. You can use either factual or hypothetical examples when developing ideas.

Many speeches can be enhanced with visual and audio support. Objects, models, graphs, photographs, drawings, slides, videotapes, and audiotapes can be incorporated into the presentation to reinforce, clarify, and dramatize con­cepts. Computer graphics programs are now making professional-looking graphics available even to student speakers.

Lecture 8. Communicating to the public. Informative and Persuasive Speaking.