英语演讲选修课教案informativespeech I

Lesson 9 Informative speech I

Supporting your ideas

Heather Kolpin decided to give her first classroom speech on the benefits of good nutrition. A dedicated fitness enthusiast, she had recently switched to a high-protein diet. Part of her speech ran like this:

“ For years we’ve been told that meat, eggs, and cheese are bad for us and that we should eat more carbohydrates like cereal, grains, pasta, and rice. But too many carbohydrates can unbalance the body and make you tired and overweight. Do you want more energy? Do you want to concentrate better and get higher grades? Do you want to enjoy real meals and still lose those unsightly pounds? If so, you should eat more protein. I’ve been on a high-protein diet for six months, and I’ve never felt better or done better in my classes!”

After the speech, Heather’s classmates were interested but skeptical. As one remarked，“I know high-protein diets are popular right now, but Heather is no expert on nutrition. Besides, there are lots of diets around, and they all claim to work wonders. Personally, I’d be more convinced if Heather gave some scientific evidence to back up her opinion.”

Good speeches are not composed of hot air and generalizations. They need strong supporting materials to bolster the speaker’s point of view. In Heather’s case, although there is plenty of evidence on the need to balance protein and carbohydrate consumption, many nutritionists have warned about the dangers of overloading on protein. So Heather’s listeners were right to be skeptical. Heather made a mistake of generalizing from her own experience with nothing concrete to support her ideas.

The problem with generalizations is that they do not answer the three questions listeners always mentally ask of a speaker: “What do you mean?”, “Why should I believe you?”“So what?”

The skillful use of supporting materials often makes the difference between a poor speech and a good one. Using supporting materials is not a matter of tossing facts and figures into your speech. You must decide which ideas need to be supported given your audience, topic, and specific purposes. You must do research to find materials that will bring your ideas across clearly and creatively. And you must evaluate your supporting materials to make sure they really do back up your ideas.

As you put your speeches together, you will need to make sure your supporting materials are accurate, relevant, and reliable. You will find yourself asking such questions as, “Are my examples representative?”，“Am I quoting reputable, qualified sources?”

There are three kinds of supporting materials we use most often, they are: examples , testimony and statistics I．Examples

Examples：a specific case used to illustrate or to represent a group of people, ideas, conditions, experiences or the like.

In the course of a speech you may use brief examples—specific instances referred to in passing—and sometimes you may want to give several brief examples in a row to create a stronger impression. Extended examples—often called illustrations, narratives, or anecdotes—are longer and more detailed.

Examples are useful when you wish to make an abstract concept or idea concrete. For example, it is difficult for the audience to see exactly what you mean by such abstract concepts as persecution, denial of freedom, friendship, and love unless you provide specific examples of what you mean.

Here is one example a student used in a speech about lead poison.

‘When Denise Waddle and her family moved to a nice, middle-class section of Jersey City, New Jersey, they had dreams of healthy living, block parties, even a big backyard so their kid could make mud pies. In less than one year in their new home, their two-year-old son had been poisoned, and their newborn showed high levels of poisoning in his bloodstream. Unknowingly, the Waddle’s had been poisoned by their own backyard, for high levels of lead contaminated their water and their lives.”

Examples may be real and factual on one hand or hypothetical and imagined on the other. The hypothetical and imagined ones are called hypothetical examples.