ELE 107

OBJECTIVES
 Research and Support Material
 Research and Support Material

 Research is crucial in order for your speech to be believable.

 You must present details to substantiate the claims you make in your speech.
 This evidence is referred to a support material.
 This evidence can come from the library, interviews, surveys, online
publications, video, films and so forth.
 You then present the support material as examples, testimonies, facts,
statistics, definitions, descriptions and so forth.
Research and Support Material Cont’d

The Library
 Re-acquaint yourself with the library and its resources.
 Familiarise yourself with the online research databases.
 Look for material that’s applicable to your topic.
 Look for publications on the World’s Greatest Speeches to see techniques that
were used in excellent presentations.
Research and Support Material Cont’d
The Informative Interview and the Survey
 You may consider interviewing someone who’s knowledgeable of your topic.
 Interviews are an excellent means of getting interesting information to add to
your speech.
 Interviews can be on phone/zoom/teams or person to person.
 If you plan to record the interview, always seek the person’s permission
beforehand.
 Even if you are recording the interview, still ensure you take copious notes.
You never know if your recording device is going to fail you.
 Always thank your interviewee.
 Research your topic as much as possible so that you can ask pertinent
questions.
Research and Support Material Cont’d
The Informative Interview and the Survey
 Develop questions that will yield deep responses as opposed to “yes” and
“no” in your interview.
 Avoid lead-in questions in both your interview and survey. A lead-in question
is a type of question that pushes respondents to answer in a specific manner,
based on the way they are framed. More than often, these questions already
contain information that survey creator wants to confirm rather than try to
get a true and an unbiased answer to that question.
Example of a lead-in question: How much did you enjoy the sports day at school?
Example of a question that will yield a “yes” and “no” response: Did you enjoy your
sports day at school?
Better way to frame the question: How was sports day at school?
Research and Support Material Cont’d
The Informative Interview and the Survey
 If you are conducting a survey, you can randomly select individuals to
participate or you can ask a specific group.
Additional survey tips:

 Keep it short and specific: Make sure each question brings you closer to your goal. Be
compassionate of survey takers’ time, and frame the questions clearly. A good rule of
thumb is your survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete.
 Remember the audience: You speak to friends differently than you speak to parents
and professors. Keep your audience in mind when you’re writing questions, and adjust
according to the target audience.
 Do a test run: Once your survey is set up, test it. Test it again! Other people can bring
fresh insight and ideas and catch embarrassing mistakes before they go out to a large
audience.
Research and Support Material Cont’d
Forms of Presenting Support Material
 Testimony: can be in the form of a quote or a paraphrase. The key here is to
always tell your audience the source of the information. DO NOT PLAGIARISE.
 Examples: specific instances that demonstrate an idea.
 Narratives: examples in story form which highlight or demonstrate
the idea of your speech. A narrative can be from your personal
experience or from a third party. They add life to your speech and
can be used as attention-getters.
 Analogies: compare and contrast examples and can add
variety to your speech. For example: "If you want my final opinion
on the mystery of life and all that, I can give it to you in a nutshell. The
universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is
locked up in the safe." Peter De Vries, Let Me Count the Ways.
 Statistics
 Descriptions: an example which is phrased with many interesting
adjectives- adds more dimension to your speech
Research and Support Material Cont’d

Forms of Presenting Support Material

 Definitions: Think carefully when using definitions. At times, the dictionary
definition may be flat and may not deliver the overall meaning of the word
you are defining. In these instances, you may have to add the connotation –
what the word really means in common usage – to give your thought more
substance.
 In-Class Activity

 Two volunteers are needed for an interview on a topic of their choice.