gathering data speech writing process

The Speech Writing Process

By Philippe John Fresnillo Sipacio & Anne Balgos (Page 62)

Just like events planning, or any other activities, writing an effective speech follows certain steps or processes. The process for writing is not chronological or linear ; rather, it is recursive . That means you have the opportunity to repeat a writing procedure indefinitely, or produce multiple

drafts first before you can settle on the right one.

By Philippe John Fresnillo Sipacio & Anne Balgos

The following are the components of the speech writing process.

• Audience analysis entails looking into the profile of your target audience. This is done so you can tailor-fit your speech content and delivery to your audience. The profile includes the following information.

Q demography (age range, male-female ratio, educational background and affiliations or degree program taken, nationality, economic status, academic or corporate designations)

Q situation (time, venue, occasion, and size)

Q psychology (values, beliefs, attitudes, preferences, cultural and racial ideologies , and needs)

A sample checklist is presented below.

The purpose for writing and delivering the speech can be classified into three — to inform, to entertain, or to persuade .

• An informative speech provides the audience with a clear understanding of the concept or idea presented by the speaker.
• An entertainment speech provides the audience with amusement.
• A persuasive speech provides the audience with well-argued ideas that can influence their own beliefs and decisions.

The purpose can be general and specific. Study the examples below to see the differences. The general purpose is to inform ….

These are examples of specific purpose….

• To inform Grade 11 students about the process of conducting an
• automated student government election
• To inform Grade 11 students about the definition and relevance of

information literacy today

• To inform Grade 11 students about the importance of effective money management

The purpose can be general and specific. Study the examples below to see the differences. The general purpose is to entertain ….

• To entertain Grade 11 students with his/her funny experiences in

automated election

• To entertain Grade 11 students with interesting observations of people who lack information literacy
• To entertain Grade 11 students with the success stories of the people in the community

The purpose can be general and specific. Study the examples below to see the differences. The general purpose is to persuade ….

• To persuade the school administrators to switch from manual to
• To persuade Grade 11 students to develop information literacy skills
• To persuade the school administrators to promote financial literacy
• among students

The topic is your focal point of your speech, which can be determined once you have decided on your purpose. If you are free to decide on a topic, choose one that really interests you. There are a variety of strategies used in selecting a topic, such as using your personal experiences, discussing with your family members or friends, free writing, listing, asking questions, or semantic webbing .

Narrowing down a topic means making your main idea more specific and focused. The strategies in selecting a topic can also be used when you narrow down a topic. In the example below, “Defining and developing effective money management skills of Grade 11 students” is the specific topic out of a general one, which is “ Effective money management.”

Data gathering is the stage where you collect ideas, information, sources, and references relevant or related to your specific topic. This can be done by visiting the library, browsing the web, observing a certain phenomenon or event related to your topic, or conducting an

interview or survey. The data that you will gather will be very useful in making your speech informative, entertaining, or persuasive .

Writing patterns, in general, are structures that will help you organize the ideas related to your topic. Examples are biographical , categorical / topical , causal , chronological , comparison / contrast , problem-solution, and spatial .

The different writing patterns

An outline is a hierarchical list that shows the relationship of your ideas. Experts in public speaking state that once your outline is ready, two-thirds of your speech writing is finished. A good outline helps you see that all the ideas are in line with your main idea or message. The elements of an outline include introduction, body, and conclusion. Write your outline based on how you want your ideas to develop. Below are some of the suggested formats.

The body of the speech provides explanations, examples, or any details that can help you deliver your purpose and explain the main idea of your speech. One major consideration in developing the body of your speech is the focus or central idea. The body of your speech should only have one central idea.

The following are some strategies to highlight your main idea.

• Present real-life or practical examples
• Show statistics
• Present comparisons
• Share ideas from the experts or practitioners

The introduction is the foundation of your speech. Here, your primary goal is to get the attention of your audience and present the subject or main idea of your speech. Your first few words should do so. The following are some strategies.

• Use a real-life experience and connect that experience to your subject.
• Use practical examples and explain their connection to your subject.
• Start with a familiar or strong quote and then explain what it means.
• Use facts or statistics and highlight their importance to your subject.
• Tell a personal story to illustrate your point.

The conclusion restates the main idea of your speech. Furthermore, it provides a summary, emphasizes the message, and calls for action. While the primary goal of the introduction is to get the attention of your audience, the conclusion aims to leave the audience with a memorable statement.

The following are some strategies.

• Begin your conclusion with a restatement of your message.
• Use positive examples, encouraging words, or memorable lines from songs or stories familiar to your audience.
• Ask a question or series of questions that can make your audience reflect or ponder.

Editing/Revising your written speech involves correcting errors in mechanics, such as grammar, punctuation, capitalization, unity, coherence, and others. Andrew Dlugan (2013), an awar di ng public speaker, lists six power principles for speech editing.

• Edit for focus.

“So, what’s the point? What’s the message of the speech?”

Ensure that everything you have written, from introduction to conclusion, is related to your central message.

• Edit for clarity.

“I don’t understand the message because the examples or supporting details were confusing.”

Make all ideas in your speech clear by arranging them in logical order (e.g., main idea first then supporting details, or supporting details first then main idea).

• Edit for concision.

“The speech was all over the place; the speaker kept talking endlessly as if no one was listening to him/her.”

Keep your speech short, simple, and clear by eliminating unrelated stories and sentences and by using simple words.

• Edit for continuity.

“The speech was too difficult to follow; I was lost in the middle.”

Keep the flow of your presentation smooth by adding transition words and phrases.

• Edit for variety.

“I didn’t enjoy the speech because it was boring.”

Add spice to your speech by shifting tone and style from formal to conversational and vice-versa, moving around the stage, or adding humor.

• Edit for impact and beauty.

“There’s nothing really special about the speech.”

Make your speech memorable by using these strategies: surprise the audience, use vivid descriptive images, write well-crafted and memorable lines, and use figures of speech.

Rehearsing gives you an opportunity to identify what works and what does not work for you and for your target audience. Some strategies include reading your speech aloud, recording for your own analysis or for your peers or coaches to give feedback on your delivery. The best

thing to remember at this stage is: “Constant practice makes perfect.”

Some Guidelines in Speech Writing

1. Keep your words short and simple. Your speech is meant to be heard by your audience, not read.

2. Avoid jargon , acronyms, or technical words because they can confuse your audience.

3. Make your speech more personal. Use the personal pronoun “I,” but take care not to overuse it. When you need to emphasize collectiveness with your audience, use the personal pronoun “we.”

4. Use active verbs and contractions because they add to the personal and conversational tone of your speech.

5. Be sensitive of your audience. Be very careful with your language, jokes, and nonverbal cues.

6. Use metaphors and other figures of speech to effectively convey your point.

7. Manage your time well; make sure that the speech falls under the time limit.

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Collecting Audience Data

The word “data” might conjure an image of an accountant’s office or a research laboratory filled with beakers and vials for some, but data comes in non-numerical forms. Data concerning numbers and statistics is considered quantitative , but it also comes in qualitative forms, which include facts, stories, and observations. Collecting meaningful, purposeful data about an audience in relation to a speech topic is part science and part art. Planning and critical thinking play a large role in succeeding in this endeavor.

Demographic Categories to Consider

• Religious affiliation
• Socio-economic status
• Nationality
• Income level

Before creating a means to gather data, decide on what data matters for the speech. Knowing information about the audience’s demographics , or the most basic and quantifiable characteristics of a population of people, could prove most useful. Data on demographics (see sidebar for examples) can greatly enhance the crafting of an effective message. Why do any of these characteristics matter?

Gender and sex do not necessarily mean the same thing, and knowing the difference can make or break certain speech topics. Sex refers to the biological differences that make a person male or female, while gender refers to masculine or feminine qualities evident within a person of either sex. To determine how sex makes a difference to a speech topic, consider the following situation:

Jill is scheduled to speak to an audience made up of 18 women and 2 men. Her speech topic concerns early detection for breast cancer. Given that the sex breakdown of the room is 90% women and 10% men, the majority of her speech’s information will likely be directed toward the women in the room, but at the same time, she absolutely must find a way to make a portion of her information appeal to the men in the room, such as by talking about how 1 in 1,000 men will get breast cancer, or how a man can assist a female partner with early detection measures. If she doesn’t find a way to include the men in this conversation, then their attention spans will likely fade early in the presentation. By speaking inclusively and inviting men into the conversation using information that directly impacts them, she has acted as an effective audience-centered speaker.

Age represents another important demographic factor, because each generation learns and grows in different environments. Opinions and knowledge levels on a particular subject may vary greatly from one generation to the next.

For example, an informative speeches outlining the dangers of social media delivered to two different audiences, one to parents of high school students and another to the high school students themselves, would likely get arranged in different ways. The parents of high school students might need to hear more background information before the speaker covers the dangers of social media, whereas the experiences of the students themselves (who grew up as “digital natives” and used social media for the better part of their lives) allow the speaker to immediately explore the topic with much more depth.

Sex and age may represent more outward characteristics that seem relatively easy in most cases to spot without a lot of effort, but what about socioeconomic background, and how does this demographic affect the speech preparation process? Socioeconomic background refers to one’s position in society relative to others, which many will identify as “middle class,” “impoverished,” or “wealthy.” Others may also refer to their position among the working hierarchy, such as “blue collar” or “white collar.” To illustrate this point, consider the following student’s example:

Had the speaker, in this case, known her audience’s background, rather than assuming a homogenous (like-minded, with similar backgrounds) one, she could have provided more appealing options, thus inviting the whole audience into her presentation, which would have prevented losing listeners due to alienation or exclusion.

Lastly, a speaker must also know the intricacies of culture for a particular audience. A speaker discussing law enforcement abuses will cover information one way with a predominantly Caucasian audience and another way with an audience with a higher representation of minorities due to vastly differing viewpoints for each audience, but will ideally maintain the integrity of that message with both. Additionally, regional cultural expectations (e.g., a New York audience compared to an audience in Atlanta) can vary greatly, as will multinational audiences, so it pays for a speaker to prepare based on intercultural knowledge, as well as individual audience member characteristics. Delivering a message that meets cultural expectations and respects cultural norms and customs can earn a speaker the respect and admiration of that audience, regardless of message content.

While demographics offer a great place to start, speakers often need more detailed information about their audiences to achieve success. They can use both passive and active methods to gather information.

Hypothetical Situation #1

Hypothetical Situation #2

The more speakers know and the more they can speak specifically toward topics and information that various audiences find important, the greater rapport, or connection, they can generate.

Messages that Matter: Public Speaking in the Information Age - Third Edition Copyright © 2023 by North Idaho College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Big Data Approach to Public Speaking

Key takeaways from analyzing 100,000 presentations.

April 04, 2016

How do you better resonate with your audience? A Stanford GSB lecturer uses big data to explain what works. | Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Students in my strategic communication class often ask how they can become more engaging, competent communicators. This question is in no way new — rhetoricians dating back to the ancient Greeks have explored this issue. However, unlike Cicero and Aristotle, we now have big data tools and machine-learning techniques to examine the core characteristics of effective communicators.

One person leveraging this technology (and one of my most popular guest lecturers) is Noah Zandan , founder and CEO of Quantified Communications , which offers one of the first analytics platforms to measure, evaluate, and improve corporate executives’ communication skills.

Zandan’s team of data scientists analyzed more than 100,000 presentations from corporate executives, politicians, and keynote speakers. They examined behaviors ranging from word choices and vocal cues to facial expressions and gesture frequency. They then used this data to rate and rank important communication variables such as persuasiveness, confidence, warmth, and clarity.

Zandan grounds his team’s work in a communication scheme created by psychologist Albert Mehrabian. They expand upon Mehrabian’s original “Three V’s” — the verbal, vocal, and visual choices that a communicator makes — by adding a fourth V: the vital elements of communication.

Here’s what his team has learned through studying the best communicators, combined with concepts I cover in class:

The actual words you use, whether spoken or written, matter. Zandan and his team found that the language used in corporate earnings calls affects up to 2.5% of stock price movement. Based on data from the most successful communicators, here are three things to keep in mind.

First, word choice should be appropriate for your audience and conform to the context (e.g., formality). Relying on jargon is likely to confuse your audience. The best approach is always to take the time to define terms and technologies that some in your audience might not know. You would also be well-served to have someone review your content specifically to confirm that your word choices are appropriate.

Second, avoid hedging language. Qualifying phrases such as “kind of” and hesitant language like “I think” can be beneficial in interpersonal communication, where they invite contribution and adjust your status relative to the person with whom you are conversing. But in contexts like presenting in public, they can reduce your credibility. You will sound more confident when you remove qualifiers and say “I feel” or “I believe.” The best way to make yourself aware of how often you use hedging language is to have a trusted colleague alert you while giving a practice presentation. Once you’re aware, you will be better able to proactively eliminate this type of language.

Finally, speak clearly and concisely. Research suggests that succinct messages are more memorable. In fact, Zandan and his team found that effective communicators’ messages tend to be more concise than those from speakers who were rated as average or below average. Many presenters speak the way they write — that is, they use complex sentences with nested clauses and phrases. This works well in writing, but when you’re presenting, it’s hard for you to speak and challenging for your audience to follow. In writing, we don’t have to worry about pauses for breath. Nor do we need to worry about the audience understanding what we have written, as a reader can always reread a confusing passage. To be more concise, start by stripping away excess wording that might sound good when read silently but that adds limited value when spoken aloud. When you’re practicing, ask others to paraphrase your points to see if their wording can help you be more succinct.

Vocal elements include volume, rate, and cadence. The keys to vocal elements are variation and fluency. Think of your voice like a wind instrument. You can make it louder, softer, faster, or slower. We are wired to pay attention to these kinds of vocal change, which is why it is so hard to listen to a monotonous speaker. In fact, even just a 10% increase in vocal variety can have a highly significant impact on your audience’s attention to and retention of your message.

Less expressive speakers should vary their volume and rate by infusing their presentations with emotive words like “excited,” “valuable,” and “challenging,” and using variations in their voice to match the meaning of these words. If you’re speaking about a big opportunity, then say “big” in a big way. With practice, you will feel more comfortable with this type of vocal variety.

Disfluencies — all those “ums” and “uhs” — might be the most difficult vocal element to address. Not all disfluencies are distracting. “Ums” and “uhs” within sentences are not perceived as frequently, nor are they as bothersome, as those that occur between thoughts and phrases. Your audience often skips over midsentence disfluencies because they are more focused on your content than your verbal delivery. But as you move from one point to another, disfluencies stand out because your audience is no longer focused on what you are saying. In essence, you are violating your audience’s expectation of a silent pause by filling it.

To address these between-thought disfluencies, be sure to end your sentences, and especially your major points, on an exhalation. By ending your phrases on a complete exhalation, you necessarily start your next thought with an inhalation. It is nearly impossible to say “um” (or anything, for that matter) while inhaling. A useful way to practice this is to read out loud and notice your breathing patterns. In addition to eliminating between-thought disfluencies, your inhalation brings a pause with it. This unfilled pause has the added benefit of varying your rate.

Visual elements refer to what you do with your body. Zandan cites studies by educational researchers that suggest approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually. Your nonverbal behaviors such as stance, gestures, and eye contact are critical not only for conveying and reinforcing your messages, but they serve as the foundation of your audience’s assessments of your confidence. This is important because your audience equates your competence with their perceptions of your confidence.

Your stance is all about being big and balanced. Stand or sit so that your hips and shoulders are square (i.e., not leaning to one side) and keep your head straight, not tilted. Presenting from a balanced position not only helps you appear more confident, but it actually helps you feel more confident, too. When you make yourself big and balanced, you release neurochemicals that blunt anxiety-producing hormones.

Quote Even just a 10% increase in vocal variety can have a highly significant impact on your audience’s attention to and retention of your message Attribution Matt Abrahams

Gestures need to be broad and extended. When you’re gesturing, go beyond your shoulders rather than in front of your chest, which makes you look small and defensive. When you’re not gesturing, place your arms loosely at your sides or clasp your hands loosely right at your belly button level. Finally, remove any distracting items that you might futz or fiddle with, like jewelry, pens, and slide advancers.

Eye contact is all about connecting to your audience. In North American culture, audiences expect eye contact, and quickly feel ostracized when you fail to look out at them. While you need to spread your eye contact around so that you connect with your entire audience, you need not look at each member individually, especially if you are in front of a large crowd. A good strategy is to create quadrants and look in those various directions. Also, try to avoid repetitive patterns when you scan the room. Finally, as Zandan rightly advises his clients, if you are presenting remotely via video camera, imagine you’re speaking directly to people and look into the camera, not at your monitor or keyboard.

Vital elements capture a speaker’s true nature — it is what some refer to as authenticity. For authenticity, Zandan’s team has found that the top 10% of authentic speakers were considered to be 1.3 times more trustworthy and 1.3 times more persuasive than the average communicator. Authenticity is made up of the passion and warmth that people have when presenting.

Passion comes from exuding energy and enthusiasm. When you’re preparing and practicing your talk, be sure to reflect back on what excites you about your topic and how your audience will benefit. Reminding yourself of your motivation can help energize you (or reenergize you if it’s a presentation you give over and over again). Additionally, thinking about how you are helping your audience learn, grow, and achieve should ignite your spirits. This energy will manifest itself in how you relay your information. This doesn’t mean you have to be a cheerleader; you need to find a method for relaying your message that is authentic and meaningful for you.

Warmth can be thought of as operationalized empathy. It is a combination of understanding your audience’s needs and displaying that understanding through your words and actions. To be seen as warm, you should acknowledge your audience’s needs by verbally echoing them (e.g., “Like you, I once…”) and by telling stories that convey your understanding of their needs, such as the CEO who tells a story of the most difficult tech support call she had to deal with as she addresses her client services team. Further, maintain an engaged posture by leaning forward and moving toward people who ask questions.

Before your next speech, try out the Four V’s and the specific suggestions derived from big data and machine learning to see if they fit your needs. Only through reflection, practice, and openness to trying new things can you become an engaging, competent communicator.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

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Module 9: Audience Analysis

Approaches to audience analysis.

Whenever thinking about your speech, it is always a good idea to begin with a thorough awareness of your audience and the many factors comprising that particular audience. In speech communication, we simply call this “doing an audience analysis.” An audience analysis is when you consider all of the pertinent elements defining the makeup and demographic characteristics (also known as demographics ) of your audience. [1] From the Greek prefix demo (of the people), we come to understand that there are detailed accounts of human population characteristics, such as age, gender, education, occupation, language, ethnicity, culture, background knowledge, needs and interests, and previously held attitudes, beliefs, and values. Demographics are widely used by advertising and public relations professionals to analyze specific audiences so that their products or ideas will carry influence. However, all good public speakers consider the demographic characteristics of their audience, as well. It is the fundamental stage of preparing for your speech. Table 5.1 shows some examples of demographics and how they may be used when developing your speech. Of course, this is not an all-inclusive list. But, it does help you get a good general understanding of the demographics of the audience you will be addressing.

So now you may be saying to yourself: “Gee, that’s great! How do I go about analyzing my particular audience?” First, you need to know that there are three overarching methods (or “ paradigms ”) for doing an audience analysis: audience analysis by direct observation, audience analysis by inference, and audience analysis through data collection. Once you get to know how these methods work, you should be able to select which one (or even combination of these methods) is right for your circumstances.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life. – Marcus Aurelius

Direct Observation

Audience analysis by direct observation, or direct experience, is, by far, the most simple of the three paradigms for “getting the feel” of a particular audience. It is a form of qualitative data gathering. We perceive it through one or more of our five natural senses—hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Knowledge that we acquire through personal experience has more impact on us than does knowledge that we learn indirectly. Knowledge acquired from personal experience is also more likely to affect our thinking and will be retained for a longer period of time. We are more likely to trust what we hear, see, feel, taste, and smell rather than what we learn from secondary sources of information. [6]

All you really need to do for this method of observation is to examine your audience. If you are lucky enough to be able to do this before speaking to your audience, you will be able to gather some basic reflective data (How old are they? What racial mix does this audience have? Does their non-verbal behavior indicate that they are excited to hear this speech?) that will help you arrange your thoughts and arguments for your speech. [7]

“MobileHCI 2008 Audience” by Nhenze. CC-BY-SA .

One excellent way to become informed about your audience is to ask them about themselves. In its most basic form, this is data collection. Whenever possible, have conversations with them — interact with members of your audience—get to know them on a personal level (Where did you go to school? Do you have siblings/pets? What kind of car do you drive?) Through these types of conversations, you will be able to get to know and appreciate each audience member as both a human being and as an audience member. You will come to understand what interests them, convinces them, or even makes them laugh. You might arouse interest and curiosity in your topic while you also gain valuable data.

For example, you want to deliver a persuasive speech about boycotting farm-raised fish. You could conduct a short attitudinal survey to discover what your audience thinks about the topic, if they eat farm-raised fish, and if they believe it is healthy for them. This information will help you when you construct your speech because you will know their attitudes about the subject. You would be able to avoid constructing a speech that potentially could do the opposite of what you intended.

Another example would be that you want to deliver an informative speech about your town’s recreational activities and facilities. Your focus can be aligned with your audience if, before you begin working on your speech, you find out if your audience has senior citizens and/or high school students and/or new parents.

Clearly this cannot be done in every speaking situation, however. Often, we are required to give an unacquainted-audience presentation . Unacquainted-audience presentations are speeches when you are completely unfamiliar with the audience and its demographics. In these cases, it is always best to try and find some time to sit down and talk with someone you trust (or even several people) who might be familiar with the given audience. These conversations can be very constructive in helping you understand the context in which you will be speaking.

Not understanding the basic demographic characteristics of an audience, or further, that audience’s beliefs, values, or attitudes about a given topic makes your presentation goals haphazard, at best. Look around the room at the people who will be listening to your speech. What types of gender, age, ethnicity, and educational- level characteristics are represented? What are their expectations for your presentation? This is all-important information you should know before you begin your research and drafting your outline. Who is it that I am going to be talking to?

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein

Audience analysis by inference is merely a logical extension of your observations drawn in the method above. It is a form of critical thinking known as inductive reasoning, and another form of qualitative data gathering. An inference is when you make a reasoned tentative conclusion or logical judgment on the basis of available evidence. It is best used when you can identify patterns in your evidence that indicate something is expected to happen again or should hold true based upon previous experiences. A good speaker knows how to interpret information and draw conclusions from that information. As individuals we make inferences—or reasonable assumptions—all the time. For example, when we hear someone speaking Arabic, we infer that they are from the Middle East. When we see this person carrying a copy of The Koran, we infer that they are also a follower of the Muslim faith. These are reasoned conclusions that we make based upon the evidence available to us and our general knowledge about people and their traits.

When we reason, we make connections, distinctions, and predictions; we use what is known or familiar to us to reach a conclusion about something that is unknown or unfamiliar for it to make sense. Granted, of course, inferences are sometimes wrong. Here’s a familiar example: You reach into a jar full of jelly beans, and they turn out to be all black. You love black jelly beans. You reach back into the jar and take another hand full, which turn out to be, again, all black. Since you can’t see the jelly beans inside the jar you make an assumption based on empirical evidence (two handfuls of jelly beans) that all of the jelly beans are black. You reach into the jar a third time and take a hand full of jelly beans out, but this time they aren’t any black jelly beans, but white, pink, and yellow. Your conclusion that all of the jelly beans were black turned out to be fallacious.

Data Sampling

“Here’s a Jellybean for You” by KaCey97078. CC-BY .

Unlike audience analysis by direct observation and analysis by inference, audience analysis by data sampling uses statistical evidence to quantify and clarify the characteristics of your audience. These characteristics are also known as variables, [8] and are assigned a numerical value so we can systematically collect and classify them. They are reported as statistics, also known as quantitative analysis or quantitative data collection. Statistics are numerical summaries of facts, figures, and research findings. Audience analysis by data sampling requires you to survey your audience before you give your speech. You need to know the basics of doing a survey before you actually collect and interpret your data.

If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk. – Robert Baden-Powell

Basic Questionnaire

There are a great number of survey methods available to the speaker. However, we will cover three primary types in this section because they are utilized the most. The first type of survey method you should know about is the basic questionnaire, which is a series of questions advanced to produce demographic and attitudinal data from your audience.

“Man With a Clipboard” by Elizabeth M. CC-BY .

Clearly, audience members should not be required to identify themselves by name on the basic questionnaire. Anonymous questionnaires are more likely to produce truthful information. Remember, all you are looking for is a general read of your audience; you should not be looking for specific information about any respondent concerning your questionnaire in particular. It is a bulk sampling tool, only.

While you can easily gather basic demographic data (examples of demographic questions are shown in the chart following this section), we need to adjust our questions a bit more tightly, or ask more focused questions, in order to understand the audience’s “predispositions” to think or act in certain ways. For example, you can put an attitudinal extension on the basic questionnaire (examples of attitudinal questions are shown in Figure 5.1).

These questions probe more deeply into the psyche of your audience members, and will help you see where they stand on certain issues. Of course, you may need to tighten these questions to get to the heart of your specific topic. But, once you do, you’ll have a wealth of data at your disposal that, ultimately, will tell you how to work with your target audience.

Ordered Categories

Another method of finding out your audience’s value set is to survey them according to their value hierarchy. A value hierarchy is a person’s value structure placed in relationship to a given value set. [9] The way to determine a person’s value hierarchy is to use the ordered categories sampling method. Here, each audience member is given a list of values on a piece of paper, and each audience member writes these values on another piece of paper in order according to their importance to him/her. Each response is different, of course, because each audience member is different, but when analyzed by the speaker, common themes will present themselves in the overall data. Accordingly, the speaker can then identify with those common value themes. (Examples of an Ordered Value Set appear in Figure 5.1).

Likert-type Testing

The final method of asserting your audience’s attitudes deals with Likert-type testing. Likert-type testing is when you make a statement, and ask the respondent to gauge the depth of their sentiments toward that statement either positively, negatively, or neutrally. Typically, each scale will have 5 weighted response categories, being +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2. What the Likert-type test does, that other tests do not do, is measure the extent to which attitudes are held. See how the Likert-type test does this in the example on “unsolicited email” in Figure 5.1.

A small Likert-type test will tell you where your audience, generally speaking, stands on issues. As well, it will inform you as to the degree of the audience’s beliefs on these issues. The Likert-type test should be used when attempting to assess a highly charged or polarizing issue, because it will tell you, in rough numbers, whether or not your audience agrees or disagrees with your topic.

No matter what kind of data sampling you choose, you need to allow time to collect the information and then analyze it. For example, if you create a survey of five questions, and you have your audience of 20 people complete the survey, you will need to deal with 100 survey forms. At high levels such as political polling, the audience members quickly click on their answers on a webpage or on a hand-held “clicker,” and the specific survey software instantly collects and collates the information for researchers. If you are in a small community group or college class, it is more likely that you will be doing your survey “the old-fashioned way”–so you will need some time to mark each individual response on a “master sheet” and then average or summarize the results in an effective way to use in your speech-writing and speech-giving.

• McQuail, D. (1997). Audience analysis . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ↵
• Pearson, J.C., Nelson, P.E., Titsworth, S. & Harter, L. (2011). Human communication (4th Ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. ↵
• Gamble, T.K. & Gamble, M. (2013). Communication works . New York: McGrawHill. ↵
• Eisenberg, I. & Wynn, D. (2013) Think communication . Boston: Pearson. ↵
• Gamble & Gamble 2013 ↵
• Pressat, R. (1972). Demographic analysis; methods, results, applications . Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. ↵
• Nierenberg, G.I. & Calero, H.H. (1994) How to read a person like a book . New York: Barnes and Noble Books. ↵
• Tucker, K.T.; Weaver, II, R.L.; Berryman-Fink, C. (1981). Research in speech communication . Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. ↵
• Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values; a theory of organization and change (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ↵
• Chapter 5 Approaches to Audience Analysis. Authored by : Peter DeCaro, Ph.D., Tyrone Adams, Ph.D., and Bonnie Jefferis, Ph.D.. Provided by : University of Alaska - Fairbanks, University of Louisiana - Lafayette, and St. Petersburg College. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• MobileHCI 2008 Audience. Authored by : Nhenze. Located at : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MobileHCI_2008_Audience.jpg . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Here's a Jellybean for You. Authored by : KaCey97078. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/q1m9u . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Man With a Clipboard. Authored by : Elizabeth M. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/74U8kN . License : CC BY: Attribution

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7 Chapter 7: Gathering Materials and Supporting Your Ideas

Amy Fara Edwards and Marcia Fulkerson, Oxnard College

Victoria Leonard, Lauren Rome and Tammera Stokes Rice, College of the Canyons

Adapted by William Kelvin, Professor of Communication Studies, Florida SouthWestern State College

Figure 7.1: NYC Public Library 1

Introduction

When was the last time you spent hours on social media looking up people you used to know? Maybe we are looking to see how former schoolmates are doing or we try to identify the underlying meaning of an ex-partner’s posts. As we search for “spilled tea,” we tend to have more questions and need more information, so we continue to click deeper into profiles. Whether we care to admit this or not, we have spent countless hours on this type of “research.” However, this process of asking questions, gathering information, analyzing the truth of that information, then asking more questions and gathering more information is research.

There are similar steps we take in college when researching for a speech or essay, but instead, we search library databases, not social media apps. We pull up article after article and question the truth of new information at each turn, which then leads to more questions and more articles.

Figure 7.2: Study Group 2

The Research Process

Formal research occurs in a step-by-step process to gather content that we then fit into class assignments. In this chapter, we discuss methods of formalizing our research process so it becomes an effective tool for academic research. Let’s start with  library databases.

Library Databases

The search for information about our topics can be fun when you start the speechmaking process. Using your library databases will generate higher-quality academic work. Don’t be afraid of the library databases! They work similarly to a Google search, but they produce more peer-reviewed, academic material. Let us explain.

In the beginning, it is okay to use the internet to search for topics, but once you identify a topic, you must use the library database to find the research. The results of a database search will all be peer-reviewed articles, primary sources, books, and other vetted or pre-screened materials; library databases act as a “background check” for your research. One of the key benefits of using library databases is free access to scholarly and full-text articles to be used as the foundation for our work. Libraries purchase subscriptions to these databases that a general internet search cannot access. When selecting research from the library databases you are using material that has been vetted or screened for credibility and reliability. The alternative, traditional search engines, produce countless results flawed by bias and non-scientific approaches.

Exploring Sources

When we are looking for sources for our speech outline, we may be looking for peer-reviewed journals, books, newspapers, or magazines. A peer-reviewed source means that multiple expert reviewers have verified the content. You can feel confident that a peer-reviewed source is trustworthy. Your professor may guide you to the type of sources that are appropriate for your assignment. In academic research, we typically use a blend of sources to gain a balanced view of our topic. One way of looking at types of sources is to compare scholarly sources, substantive sources, and popular sources as the chart below illustrates (Modesto Junior College Library, 2021).

Figure 7.3: Types of Information Chart 3

Types of Sources

Scholarly sources are written by credentialed experts for an audience of their peers. They have been vetted, or pre-screened, and selected by a committee of experts. For this reason, they are called peer-reviewed. They are also known as  journal articles, scholarly articles, or academic journals. These journal publications may only publish five articles a month as they disseminate specialized, discipline-specific information. You may have heard that  many higher education instructors work diligently to produce these kinds of works. They are not easy! Imagine your professors working for a year or longer on a 30-page essay to submit to other professors. The standards are very demanding, but that is what makes the final products so useful.

Substantive sources, on the other hand, are produced by scholars or credentialed journalists for an educated audience, but not an expert audience. Typically, one editor of the publication will vet or pre-screen articles. These publications may include newspapers or magazines. The reason for using the specific source is key. A magazine that is produced monthly has fewer articles that provide more detail. Whereas newspapers are produced daily, which give us quick statistics. For example, The Los Angeles Times might cover the COVID-19 pandemic in a “daily numbers” kind of way, while Newsweek Magazine will provide the detailed context and personalized stories as evidence which makes it more substantial.

Know that these kinds of publications frequently report on scholarly sources. If you’re incorporating a periodical’s interpretation of a scholarly source, consider locating the original source and reading, or at least skimming, it yourself. You may find that the journalists misrepresented or misunderstood certain aspects, or may uncover useful details not included in their secondary account. Secondary sources summarize and relay the work of primary sources, which are often scholarly articles.

Popular sources are written by journalists, staff writers, freelance writers, or sometimes hobbyists for the general public. Although they may be good sources for finding the next recipe or where to find the best beaches or the easiest teacher, they may not have been vetted properly. Largely, they are based on opinion. For academic work, we avoid such sources because they are too broad and offer limited credible information. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Wikipedia. Wikipedia may be a good starting point to begin thinking about your research, but it is not up to academic standards. You may find primary resources cited at the very bottom of the Wikipedia page…but have you taken the time to scroll all the way down there? Many instructors will not allow Wikipedia for any portion of your assignment since it is an alterable website.

However, many scholars do begin with Wikipedia as a jumping-off point to gather a basic overview of a subject. Using a crowd-sourced tool like Wikipedia or ChatGPT to learn the “lay of the land” on a subject is perfectly acceptable. But, make sure you continue searching to locate the credible sources that are ultimately the backbone of those crowd-sourced, secondary source entries. For example, Wikipedia may cite a college textbook. That textbook is a secondary source, making Wikipedia a tertiary source in this instance. Have you played the children’s game Telephone? You don’t want two degrees of separation between your work and the sources it is based on.

Types of Evidence

We just described different types of sources. Now, what do we use these sources for? Well, we pull out evidence which becomes the content for our main points.

Examples are types of evidence that reinforce, clarify, or personalize your ideas. Throughout the reading of this book, and many others, you have experienced the use of examples. Authors say “for example” or “such as” to illustrate their points. For example , if your speech is about the top five brands of sneakers in the United States, you would give examples of different brands, such as Nike and Adidas.

There are different types of examples:

• Brief examples are quick to illustrate a point (showcased in the paragraph directly above).
• Hypothetical examples describe an imaginary or fictitious situation using words like “imagine” or “visualize.” Imagine a world with no Internet. Can you do it? This might be used in a speech about the history of the world wide web.
• Specific instance is a more developed, real example where you illustrate a specific time. For example, you might be informing about the dangers of alcoholism and provide a specific instance of when one of your friends was pulled over for a DWI (don’t drive intoxicated!). You would provide a few sentences about your friend’s situation. A specific instance can sometimes be considered a very short story. A longer story used as evidence is called a narrative.

Humans tell a lot of stories. We run to a friend to share good news or we communicate with a sibling when something happens at work. For speeches, we call these more detailed stories that relate to your topic narratives . You can use them in all types of speeches. Ultimately, a narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events. A narrative is a story, and audiences love stories, especially in speeches. Narratives can accomplish several things. They can:

• Explain the way things are . The story would explain the situation by giving the details related to the who, what, where, when, and how it relates to your speech topic. You might tell a story about a friend’s experience having shingles.
• Provide examples of excellent work to follow or admire. This type of story gives reasons for admiration. You might tell a story about a company that offers employees great workspace and health benefits.
• Strengthen or change beliefs and attitudes . This type of story can grab the audience’s attention because they tend to be emotional and highly effective. You might tell a story about a couple who met online and have been married for 15 years; this could be a story to persuade an audience to download their dating app.

Testimony is a specific account of someone’s experience, knowledge, or expertise. This type of evidence can be impactful because it comes directly from a person. We use testimony to support our claims. For example, witnesses in a court trial give testimony to share their personal accounts of the events. There are two types of testimony:

• Expert testimony comes from a person who is considered an expert in their field. For example, if our informative speech is on different types of cancer, expert testimony would come from an oncologist. You may obtain such testimony from live interviews or publications. Who else may you consider an expert on types of cancer? Does someone with cancer constitute an expert?
• Lay testimony (sometimes called peer testimony) is information from someone who has experience with the topic but is not a trained expert. So, thinking about the same informative speech example on types of cancer, lay testimony could come from a relative of someone with cancer. They would understand the struggle of watching someone experience cancer and would have secondhand information from the doctor. Lay testimony can provide a simplified and personalized account of the topic.

When using testimony, remember you must explicitly state the name of the person (when possible) and why their testimony matters. Next time you see a clip of courtroom drama , you should be able to identify both the expert and the layperson giving testimony on the stand.

Statistics are summary figures which help you communicate important characteristics of a complex set of numbers. Oftentimes you need numbers to make something clear. For example, if your speech is about using dating apps safely, a good attention getter might be that one in five women in the United States has been raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website as of 2022. You can see that this statistic has a greater impact than just saying, “lots of women are impacted by sexual assault.”

You need to think about the best way to deliver the numbers during your speech. Here are some tips when using statistics in your speeches:

• Use them to quantify an idea.
• Interpret statistics to be sure your audience understands them the way you want them to.
• Use statistics sparingly; too many numbers can be confusing for an audience.
• Round off complicated numbers. Instead of saying “3,867,532 people,” you can say “roughly 4 million” or “about 3.9 million people.”
• Identify the source using an oral citation during delivery.
• Explain the statistics with a narrative. The numbers alone do not always tell the whole story.
• Use presentation aids, such as pie graphs, line graphs, or bar graphs to clarify statistical trends. Visual representations can help people make sense of numbers and trends, especially when they are abstract or complex.

Evaluating Your Sources

By now, you know that research is a critical part of the speech-writing process. Using sources throughout your speech is necessary, but you have to decide which sources are the right sources to use. Next, we give you specific ways to evaluate the sources you find during your research.

How to Select Credible Sources and Avoid Biased Sources

Finding information today is easy; it’s all around you. Making sure the information you find is reliable can be a challenge. When you use Google or social media to get your information, how do you know it can be trusted? How do you know it’s not biased? You can feel pretty confident that books you get from the library and articles you find in the library’s databases are reliable because someone has checked all the facts and arguments the author made before publishing them. You still have to think about whether or not the book or article is current and suitable for your project.

Make sure every source you plan on using in your speech outline or research assignment passes the “CRAAP Test,” which helps you identify if the sources use accurate information (Blakeslee, 2004). Since anyone can publish a website or write a blog with a professional-looking design, it’s more important than ever to make sure your sources are legitimate.

Figure 7.4: CRAAP Test 4

CRAAP stands for:

• When was your source published or updated?
• Is the information recent enough for your topic for your specific research question?
• Does the source directly address your topic?
• Does it answer one or more of your research questions?
• Is it information you already have?
• What are the author’s qualifications? Are they accepted by their peers?
• Do they have advanced degrees or professional experience? What kind and how much?
• Who is the publisher? Are they accomplished and unbiased?
• Is the information supported by evidence?
• Is the evidence cited?
• Can it be verified that the source has been reviewed?
• Point of View
• Is the information objective?
• Is the author trying to convince you of something?
• Do they have an agenda? How can you tell? Search for links between authors and political / economic organizations.

It is important to identify the good, the bad, and the ugly in our sources so we don’t fall victim to poorly informed opinions. We must also be vigilant about the author’s intent or motivation. If you decide to use a source even though you know it is considered questionable by many experts, make that clear. Today there are some scientists who disagree with the majority of their peers on scientific matters largely considered settled (e.g., humans’ influence on climate change, safety and efficacy of vaccines, the age of the planet and our species, etc.).

If your specific purpose involves explaining an unpopular view, be honest with your audience about that. If you omit the fact, you are being deceptive because you imply that the argument is considered sound. If you don’t discover the fact that your source is not considered credible, your lack of research preparation is also an ethical lapse. Even unintentionally misleading people is problematic. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of information and evaluate their authors’ intent.

Understand the Information

Information is data presented in context to make it understandable (O’Hair, 2019). As a speechmaker, your job is to translate data into understandable information for your audience. For example, vital signs from your doctor are data and your doctor’s interpretation of the vital signs is information that helps put that data into context. Information and data themselves are neutral, but they can have the potential to be skewed.

Propaganda is a term for widely distributed messages designed to manipulate public opinion on an issue, especially difficult-to-sell ideas such as war (Campbell et al., 2020). It often includes “rumors, half-truths, or lies” (Brittanica, 2022) and is often camouflaged as advertising or publicity.

Opposing politicians will often accuse their opponents of using propaganda in their messaging strategies, as they present an opposing political view unfavorably. However, simply casting aspersions on a person or perspective is not propaganda. By nature, propaganda is deceptive, and usually part of a widespread campaign coordinated among many parties. The Nazis in World War II created the most advanced propaganda system in the world up to that point, disseminating untrue information both at home and worldwide to shape others’ views of their actions. One particularly noteworthy incident is known as The Gleiwitz Incident , in which the German Secret Service donned Polish uniforms and took over a German radio station to make the world think Germans were dealing with Polish aggression (Pope, 2018).

Figure 7.5: North Korean propaganda poster 5

Misinformation

Misinformation refers to something that is not true. It is misinforming by using incorrect information. It isn’t always based on an ulterior motive, someone could just get it wrong. The main difference is the intention in which it was used (read on to differentiate mis information from dis information).

One author heard a story about two people arguing over COVID-19 statistics. One person was referencing information they had just heard from the most recent cable news story. The other person cited significantly different information based on a webpage they had kept open on their computer. Although it turned out that the webpage referenced hadn’t been updated in months, you can see how misinformation can have an impact on understanding.

Stories change all of the time. The people might get the facts wrong or they may embellish the facts. Let’s be clear, information is complicated and might also be incomplete. The moral of the story is to pay attention as you research! Social media is rife with misinformation as people like and share stories that fit their worldview, often without carefully evaluating them or even reading  them. One author shared an image of then-President Trump reading a scholarly, critical book about U.S. media systems on Facebook and was embarrassed when others pointed out that it was a manipulated image; the event never took place.

Disinformation

Disinformation is intentionally stating or circulating inaccurate information. Photoshopped images, doctored documents, or falsified financial records are examples of disinformation (O’Hair, 2019). This must be avoided to be an ethical public speaker. We all watch the news and hear about “fake news.” The question is how do we know what is, and is not, true. Your role as an ethical public speaker is to figure it out for the audience during the research process and offer credible information from beginning to end. Overall, identifying accurate information for our academic research assignments is a process we learn over time. As we learn to research and cite properly, we will become more critical consumers of information.

Now that we have evaluated our sources and are into the writing phase, we need to know how to cite correctly. This next part of the chapter is critical to your speech delivery.

Citing Your Sources Correctly

It is not enough to find good sources in your research, but you have to tell the audience and the readers about them during your speech and in the outline of the speech. Sometimes you may be caught unintentionally plagiarizing just because you are citing incorrectly. Citing means giving credit where credit is due. There are three places to cite for a speech: during the delivery (oral citation), in the outline (in-text citation), and in the References page at the end of the outline.

Oral Citations

Your instructor will most likely ask you to cite sources orally (verbally) during the delivery of your speech. Be warned, this does not mean recite the sources used at the end of your speech or display them on a slide. Cite the sources at the point where you use their information or claims. Also, imagine some audience members may be vision-impaired, others may look away from your slides. An on-screen citation is not an oral citation, and post-speech citations are too late to be meaningful to your audience ( or to earn you points).  You may be asked to include your oral citations in your outline exactly the way you would say them in the delivery of your speech. Many students believe that this can sound boring; however, these oral citations enhance your credibility as a speaker, making you and your arguments more persuasive.

How to Develop an Oral Citation

When you deliver an oral citation, your audience should believe that the source exists, that you are not making up a source out of thin air. They should have enough information that they can find the source later if they are interested in looking it up to verify your interpretation of its claims. They also should be convinced that the source is credible and authoritative, rather than biased and amateurish.

Oral citations should be written using the following elements (check with your professor):

• Author: Who is it that generated the information? Are they credible? Authors can be organizations—if no individual is listed on your resource, list / name the organization that produced it.
• Date: When did this information get published, updated, or accessed?
• Type of resource: In what form can this information be found? Tell us the name of the place where you found it. Book? Magazine? Online database, video, webpage title, pamphlet, etc.?
• Title: (if there is one)
• Credibility: What credentials does the author or organization have?

If you have described the resource and its producer’s background effectively, your audience will have little doubt that the source exists and is authoritative. After providing these citation elements, you will move into the direct quote or paraphrased information.

Direct quotations: Direct quotes use the exact language from the source without any changes. There are a variety of ways to make clear to your audience that you are quoting material. You can offer the citation elements above, then begin the quotation saying “quote,” and end the quotation saying “unquote.” You could dramatically alter your voice to indicate a change in speaker. You could supplement either of these techniques using your fingers to make quotation marks in the air. You can use careful attribution verbs, like “in her words,” or “the quotation reads,” or “as the author put it.” Do not cite page numbers in your oral citation.

Deciding whether to quote or paraphrase is a creative act. Reasons to quote include transmitting a person’s voice to your audience, maintaining the feeling of the original language, or avoiding misinterpretation.

Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is a way of writing the research you retrieved in your own words. Sometimes this serves to make research more understandable to your audience. When paraphrasing, you can remove jargon, simplify language, make statements more efficient, modernize vocabulary, and remove potentially offensive or misunderstandable words. Thus, it is sometimes best to change the source’s words into your own words, while still using all correct parts of the oral citation format. Be sure not to alter the essential meaning of the content you are paraphrasing.

These are the most active verbs to use when citing a source. Active verbs are important when you write oral citations. Although there are many you can use, here are a few examples:

How to Deliver Oral Citations

Real-life example of an online fact sheet (taken from the cdc website).

The Online CDC Fact Sheet entitled Mold , last accessed on March 26, 2022, states , “ Stachybotrys chartarum is a greenish-black mold. It can grow on material with a high cellulose content, such as fiberboard, gypsum board, and paper. Growth occurs when there is moisture from water damage, water leaks, condensation, water infiltration, or flooding.” (don’t forget to say “quote” at the start and “unquote” at the end.)

Hypothetical Examples of Oral Citations with Active Verbs

In his recent article entitled “Americans Are Killing Themselves” in the American Journal of Medicine accessed March 15, 2022, Dr. Jorge Ramirez, a cardiologist from the University of Southern California, argues , “Americans are eating foods high in fat in greater numbers than ever before. This builds up plaque in arteries and raises cholesterol. Without change, we will see more Americans die from coronary artery disease.”

According to staff writer Raashid Saaman, in the January 15, 2022 issue of the Los Angeles Times, dogs and cats have been taken in great numbers to local shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reasoned that “most animals were abandoned because people lost income during the pandemic and were unable to afford their basic care, such as food and veterinary care.

(Notice that the three preceding citations have easily recognizable credibility. You might want to explain what CDC stands for, but most people know it, especially after the COVID pandemic. Soon we will approach how to cite sources the audience is likely unfamiliar with.)

Hypothetical Example of Oral Citation from an Article

In an article in the November 2022 issue of the South African Journal of Psychology , Dr. Jada Smith, a professor of sociology at the London School of Psychology, asserts that “Racism begins with exposure to stereotypical and negative attitudes shown by those closest to us. We learn to mirror these behaviors when we are young and by the time we become teenagers, most of these attitudes have evolved into prejudice, and ultimately racism.”

Hypothetical Example of Oral Citation from a Web Page

The web page titled “The History of Apples,” last updated in 2022, provided by the California Apple Advisory Board, reveals varied uses of the apple: as a digestive aid, an antioxidant, and a weight loss aid.

Note: You can say “last updated” or “last accessed on” for any type of oral citation for a website.

Hypothetical Example of Citing a Study

A Harvard University study made available on the Justice website accessed on January 16, 2022, suggests that accidental shootings occur more frequently when people have not had professional firearm training.

Hypothetical Example of Citing a Source that is Not Easily Recognizable or Credibility is Unknown – Website Example

Accessing the website IMDB on February 2, 2022, I was able to trace the motion picture career of George Clooney. For those of you who may not be familiar with this site, IMDB is a web page created in 1990 that specializes in maintaining a history of people and works in the entertainment industry and is used to examine film facts, actors, producers, directors, and dates of various television or movie projects. IMDB reports that George Clooney was “active in sports such as basketball and baseball, and tried out for the Cincinnati Reds, but was not offered a contract” (IMDB, 2022).

Hypothetical Example of Citing a Source that is Not Easily Recognizable or Credibility is Unknown – Periodical Example

The periodical, The Nation , a weekly journal that tends to offer political stories from a left-leaning perspective, suggests in its letters to the editor on March 1, 2022, that facts about the euthanizing of pets in California are simply not true.

APA In-Text Citations

All written academic work needs to cite sources in the outline , both where the information is used and in the References section at the end. The Communication Studies discipline uses the APA format which stands for the American Psychological Association . This formatting style is also used in other disciplines such as Psychology, Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, Criminology, Business, and Nursing. Knowing how to cite in APA format is imperative for all academic writing. This section is based on APA Publication Manual (7th edition) and is designed to help you learn how to format in-text citations. In-text citations are used when quoting directly and when paraphrasing from a research source. 6

The APA Basics

• In-text citations in APA follow the author-date method.
• If you are directly quoting a work, you need to include the author, publication year, and also the number of the page from which you are quoting. Use the term “p.” for one page and “pp.” if the quote spans multiple pages. Be sure to add a space after the p, like this: “p. 32” or “pp. 2-5”.
• If you are paraphrasing a work, or simply referring to an idea from a work, you need to include the author and publication year, but you don’t need to include the page number (though it is encouraged to include page numbers when paraphrasing or summarizing to help readers locate that information).

Creating In-Text Citations with a Signal Phrase

• When creating an in-text citation, you can use what’s called a signal phrase to introduce a quotation or begin paraphrasing within the text of the sentence.
• A signal phrase calls attention to the author. This is the most pronounced, marked way to cite a source.
• The signal phrase contains the author’s last name followed by the publication date in parentheses.
• If you use a signal phrase to introduce a quote, you will need to include the page number in parentheses directly after the quote.
• Examples of in-text citing with a signal phrase:
• Research by Newsom (2004) suggests “Sailor Moon’s greatest powers are eventually revealed as related to her capacity to love, and through that love to heal” (p. 10).
• Newsom (2004) finds that Sailor Moon “illustrates the quality of love very plainly throughout the anime” (pp. 67-68).
• According to Newsom (2004), Sailor Moon’s power is derived from her emotional capacity.

Creating In-Text Citations without a Signal Phrase

• If you don’t use a signal phrase to introduce a quote or begin paraphrasing within the text of a sentence, you will need to place the author name, publication date, and, if applicable, the page number in parentheses directly after the quote or paraphrased content.
• Examples of in-text citing without a signal phrase:
• Sailor Moon is often portrayed crying, which supports the argument that emotions are central to her character (Newsom, 2004)
• One scholar states, “Sailor Moon’s greatest powers are eventually revealed as related to her capacity to love, and through that love to heal” (Newsom, 2004, p. 10) and goes on to illustrate how the character’s love is physically expressed.

When citing without a signal phrase, authors (you!) are focusing attention on the information, rather than the author of the source behind the citation. This technique is common when asserting a list of facts produced in different sources, or when supporting information that is relatively well known and non-controversial, but you want to be clear where you found it.

• Conversational narcissism behaviors include boasting (Vangelisti & Knapp, 1990), “shifting the conversational focus to the self” (Horan et al., 2015, p. 156) and interrupting (Blake, 2001).
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s  I Have a Dream speech was protesting conditions for African Americans in the United States (Lei & Miller, 1999).

In-Text Citations with Multiple Authors

• In-Text Citations for Sources with 2 Authors:
• Place “and” between authors’ last names when providing them in the text of your sentence with a signal phrase.

Example: Langford and Speight (2015) state…

• Place “&” between authors’ last names when providing them in parentheses after the quote or paraphrased content.

Example: …(Langford & Speight, 2015).

• In-Text Citations for Sources with More Than Two Authors:
• Place “et al.” after the first author’s last name when providing it in the text of your sentence with a signal phrase.

Example: Ince et al. (2017) claim…

• Place “et al.” after the first author’s last name when providing it in parentheses after the quote or paraphrased content.

Example: …(Ince et al., 2017)

In-Text Citations When Citing Multiple Works

• In-Text Citation with More Than One Work:
• Some of the ideas you cite will be pulled from more than one source, so you will need to include multiple sources in your in-text citations.
• To cite multiple works in your in-text citation, place the citations in alphabetical order by the first authors’ last names and separate the citations with semicolons.
• Example: Educational psychology is the most researched field involving human learning (Holloway & Hofstadt, 2000; Olson, 2019; Sterling & Cooper, 2020).
• In-Text Citation if One Work is the Most Directly Relevant:
• Place the most relevant citation first, then insert a phrase such as “see also” and the other works
• Example: Educational Psychology does not support learning styles (Palmer, 2020; see also Horne, 1999; Hayward, 1993)

In-Text Citations for Indirect Sources

• If you want to cite a source (an original source) that was cited in another source (a secondary source), name the original source author(s) in the text as you would with a signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the author, date, and page number in your parenthetical citation, preceded by the words “as cited in.”

Example: As John Dewey said, “Action is the test of comprehension. This is simply another way of saying that learning by doing is a better way to learn than by listening” (as cited in Waks, 2011, p. 194).

In-Text Citations for Sources without Page Numbers

• Some sources, especially electronic ones such as webpages, may not have page numbers that you can include when creating in-text citations for quotes.
• If the source you are quoting doesn’t have page numbers, provide some other piece of information that will help readers locate the quote.
• You can use chapter names or numbers, heading or section names, paragraph numbers, table numbers, verse numbers, etc.
• Examples of in-text citing sources without page numbers:
• “In E.T. , Spielberg made a truly personal film, an almost autobiographical trip back into his own childhood memories” (Breihan, 2020, para. 6).
• To prevent kidney failure, patients should “get active” and “quit smoking” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017, “What Can You Do” section).

APA Reference Page Citation Format

The reference page is simply a list of all the sources used in the outline. This page is titled “References” and will be the last page of your outline. Each source will be listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name or by organization’s name (if there is no individual author). Each citation will be double spaced and there are specific ways they will need to be listed.

Reference List Basics

• List your sources in alphabetical order according to the last name of the first author of each work.
• Double-space the entries and use hanging indents.
• Adhere to the proper citation format for each source type.

Formatting Author Names

• Use surname followed by the author’s initials: Author, A. A.
• If the author’s given names are hyphenated, maintain the hyphen between the initials:
• Example: Ai-Jun Xu would by Xu, A.-J.
• Use commas to separate suffixes such as Jr. and III: Author, A. A., Jr.
• Write the surname exactly how it appears, including hyphenated surnames and two-part surnames: Santos-Garcia, A. A. or Velasco Rodriguez, A. A.
• If the author is an organization, just use the organization’s name; do not rearrange the organization’s name in order to give it a surname.
• If you can discover no author, not even a company or government agency, move the title of the work to the author position. Do not use Anonymous unless the work is signed as Anonymous.

Formatting Titles

• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns.
• If it is a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part as well (e.g., after a colon or period).
• Names of journals and books are italicized while article titles and book chapter titles are not italicized

Citation Style for Commonly Used Sources

• Journal Article:

Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial If Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article: Subtitle. Title of Journal, Volume Number (Issue Number), first-page number-last page number. DOI

Without DOI

Schott, C. (2020). The house-elf problem: Why Harry Potter is more relevant now than ever. Midwest Quarterly , 61 (2), 259–273.

Takhtarova, S. S., & Zubinova, A. Sh. (2018). The main characteristics of Stephen King’s idiostyle. Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriâ 2. Âzykoznanie , 3 , 139. https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2018.3.14

Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial If Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if any. Publisher.

Manson, M. (2019). Subtle art of not giving a f*ck: A counterintuitive approach to living a good life. Newbury House Publishers.

• Chapter in an Edited Book:

Editors are listed in the citation of an edited book. Their names are not inverted and come after the title of the book chapter. Place “In” in front of the first editor’s name. If there is only one editor listed use (Ed), if more editors are listed use (Eds.) after the last name of the editors.

Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial If Given. (Year of Publication). Title of the book chapter . In First Initial. Second Initial. Last Name & First Initial. Second Initial. Last Name (Eds.), Title of the book (Edition or volume number if given, pp. #-#). Publisher.

Zasler, N. D., Martelli, M. F., & Jordan, B. D. (2019). Civilian post-concussive headache. In J. Victoroff & E. D. Bigler (Eds.), Concussion and traumatic encephalopathy: causes, diagnosis, and management (pp. 728–742). Cambridge Univ Press.

Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial If Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if given). Webpage title. Organization If Given. http://website.com

Horowitz, J. M., Igielnik, R., & Parker, K. (2018, September 20). Women and leadership 2018. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/09/20/women-and-leadership-2018

This chapter focused on supporting your ideas with credible evidence. Although it wasn’t the most exciting chapter, this is one of the most crucial elements of speech writing and speech delivery. Sometimes students think that doing a quick Google search and jotting notes into an outline means they are writing a speech. We hope you see the value of oral citations–convincing your audience that your sources are real and credible. We also hope that after reading this chapter you see that academic research is easier than you thought. Many run away from academic research or drop a class when they see a research paper in the syllabus, but if you apply the right tools for uncovering information, it can make your job simpler. Don’t drop your class because it says you have a research assignment! You can do it and your college provides you with all of the tools you need to be a successful researcher. Research doesn’t only happen when you are scrolling your former schoolmates and partners on social media, it happens every time you read a published piece of evidence. Now go impress your professors!

Reflection Questions

• After visiting your campus library’s databases, which of them do you believe will be the most relevant for your informative and persuasive speech assignments?
• Why is it important to consider using peer-reviewed sources for an academic speech?
• How will you test the credibility of your sources?
• Why do audiences appreciate oral citations?
• Why should you cite sources when you use them–orally during the speech and in-text in the outline–and not simply rely on sharing a list of resources at the end of the piece?
• Why is it important to use active verbs when you write oral citations?

Brief Example

Direct Quote

Expert testimony

Hypothetical example

Information

Lay testimony

Oral Citation

Paraphrasing

Peer-reviewed

Popular sources

Scholarly sources

Secondary sources

Specific instance

Substantive sources

APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition): General Format (n.d.). Purdue University Online Writing Lab , Retrieved March 4, 2021 from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html.

Blakeslee, S. (2004). The CRAAP Test. LOEX Quarterly, 31 (3): 6–7.

Campbell, R. C., Martin, C., Fabos, B., & Harmsen, S. (2020). Media Essentials ., 5th edition.

Get Started With Research: Popular, Substantive, and Scholarly Sources. (n.d.). Modesto Junior College Library , Retrieved December 4, 2021 from https://www.libguides.mjc.edu/ResearchHelp/sources.

O’Hair, D., Rubenstein, H., Stewart, R. (2019). A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martin.

Pope, C. (2018). How a false flag sparked World War Two: The Gleiwitz Incident explained. Retrieved January 23, 2022 from https://www.historyhit.com/gleiwitz-incident-explained/.

Smith, B. Lannes (2021, January 24). Propaganda. Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved May 15, 2022 from https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda.

Introduction to Public Speaking Copyright © by Jamie C. Votraw, M.A.; Katharine O'Connor, Ph.D.; and William F. Kelvin, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

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Resources for Writers: The Writing Process

Writing is a process that involves at least four distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. It is known as a recursive process. While you are revising, you might have to return to the prewriting step to develop and expand your ideas.

• Prewriting is anything you do before you write a draft of your document. It includes thinking, taking notes, talking to others, brainstorming, outlining, and gathering information (e.g., interviewing people, researching in the library, assessing data).
• Although prewriting is the first activity you engage in, generating ideas is an activity that occurs throughout the writing process.
• Drafting occurs when you put your ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Here you concentrate upon explaining and supporting your ideas fully. Here you also begin to connect your ideas. Regardless of how much thinking and planning you do, the process of putting your ideas in words changes them; often the very words you select evoke additional ideas or implications.
• Don’t pay attention to such things as spelling at this stage.
• This draft tends to be writer-centered: it is you telling yourself what you know and think about the topic.
• Revision is the key to effective documents. Here you think more deeply about your readers’ needs and expectations. The document becomes reader-centered. How much support will each idea need to convince your readers? Which terms should be defined for these particular readers? Is your organization effective? Do readers need to know X before they can understand Y?
• At this stage you also refine your prose, making each sentence as concise and accurate as possible. Make connections between ideas explicit and clear.
• Check for such things as grammar, mechanics, and spelling. The last thing you should do before printing your document is to spell check it.
• Don’t edit your writing until the other steps in the writing process are complete.

COMM 1110: Speech Communication: Steps of the Speech Process

• Learning Activities
• Steps of the Speech Process
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A speech generally needs to be written further in advance than a research paper so that adequate practice and revision can occur. Preparing for your speech will help with the very common fear of public speaking.  Here are some steps and links to guide you through the process.

Step 1: Understand Your Assignment

• Read your assignment and ask  your instructor you have questions on what is required.
• Who is your audience?  What is your purpose?  This this guide your topic, tone, and style.
• How long is the speech?  Are you using presentation software such as PowerPoint or do you need visuals or props?  How many sources are required?

Step 2: Select and focus your topic. Begin preliminary research

• See the Topics Research Guide
• ProCon.org: Hot Topics in the News
• Locate background information
• Locate information in books and e-books
• Consult some databases
• Locate journal articles
• Locate visuals (graphics and films)

Step 3: Get Organized

Begin to organize or outline your speech.Group your remarks and evidence to create an informal outline. It may be useful to include: 

• An introduction (including purpose and overview)
• Content or body
• Begin crafting a strong title, opening and key sentences.
• Speeches from University of North Carolina Writing Center
• Writing an Effective Title  from U of M's Center for Writing.

Step 4: Step 4: Draft any visuals. Gather additional research.

• Select evidence to support your ideas such as quotations, statistics , facts, anecdotes, etc.
• Gather your evidence from credible sources.  Include the source in  your speech.  This will make your speech more authoritative.
• Do you need help in locating materials?  Ask the librarians for help via chat, e-mail, or phone,
• Visit the Free Images, Music, and Videos Research Guide
• Learn more about creating effective visuals
• Citation help

Step 5: Compose Your Talking Points

• Start with your most important points.
• What is the "take home message" you want your audience to understand, believe, accept or do after they hear your speech? Write this out in one or two sentences.What evidence supports your "take home message?"
• Novelty: an unusual fact or surprising image
• Conflict: an opposing viewpoints on the issue
• Humor: an amusing play on words or exaggerated remark
• Suspense: such as asking a provocative question
• Consult your outline
• Create index cards (be sure to number cards)
• Organize your visuals
• On the Lisle campus, get help at the Student Success Center to go over your speech or outline for structure, clarity, tone, etc.

Step 6: Plan the Timing of Your Speech.

• Add timing to your talking points
• Revise your talking points, PowerPoint slides and transitions.
• Delete talking points and/or PowerPoint slides that are not crucial. Paring down or eliminating content will enhance clarity and improve the speech overall.  

Step 7: Rehearse Your Speech for Content and Timing.

• Be aware of your body position, foot placement, breath and eye movement.
• Videotape or record a rehearsal to identify problems, distracting habits, etc. 
• Avoid reading every word--you should be presenting not reading.
• Avoid common verbal habits such as "um", "like", "you know", "kinda", etc.
• Practice your speech many times until you feel comfortable with the content and timing.
• Review your assignment to be sure you are meeting all the requirements.

Step 8: Rehearse Your Speech in Front of an Audience.

• Gather a few friends or classmates and deliver your speech.
• Try to avoid the following common behaviors: fidgeting, looking at the computer or screen not at audience, rustling your papers, chewing gum, gesturing too much, or pacing.
• Ask for feedback on your delivery (such as eye contact, hand gestures, speech habits, etc.) and content
• Ask what they identified as the most important points. Do these match yours?
• Edit or revise speech based on the feedback.

Step 9: Continue Revising and Prepare for Anticipated Questions

• If your speech includes a question and answer session with your audience, spend some time to anticipate questions and briefly plan answers.
• Ask for clarification if you don't understand a question when you are presenting

Step 10: Final Preparations

Continue to rehearse. Prepare to deliver you speech.

• Make sure you have all your materials together including note cards, outlines, visuals, handouts, bibliography, PowerPoint on Flash drive, etc.
• Arrive early
• Practice on the day of your speech so you are comfortable with the content.

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19.5 Writing Process: Writing to Speak

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Develop a writing project through multiple drafts.
• Compose texts that use rhetorical concepts appropriately in a speech.
• Apply effective shifts in voice, diction, tone, formality, design, medium, and structure.
• Demonstrate orality as an aspect of culture.
• Provide and act on productive feedback to works in progress through the collaborative and social aspects of the writing process.
• Adapt composing processes for a variety of technologies and modalities.

Now it’s time to try your hand at writing a script or speaking outline for a public audience. Decide on a topic, and take that topic through the planning, drafting, and revision processes. Remember that even the informal writing you do when planning a script or speaking outline is recursive , meaning it is not linear. You will probably go back and forth between sections and processes.

You may question of the wisdom of preparation before speaking to the public. After all, you may post regularly to social media, for example, without following the processes of drafting and revising. However, “winging it” when it comes to speech is not a wise strategy. As a genre, social media in particular lends itself to short and simple messaging. Viewers allow producers very little time and attention before clicking to view the next item. Some sources say that you have 10 seconds to get the attention of a viewer; by the one-minute mark, you may have lost up to 45 percent of your viewers. Live adult audiences will pay attention for about 20 minute increments before their minds begin to wander; for young audiences, the time is even less. Given that knowledge, you must craft your message accordingly.

Summary of Assignment: Writing to Speak, Speaking to Act

You may have heard that merely believing in a cause is not enough; you must take action to create change. As you keep the idea of social, political, or economic change in mind, your task is to develop an outline as the basis for a speech to a live audience or on a social media platform of your choice. The topic is an issue you care about. Speaking from an outline rather than from a written script helps ensure that your speech is natural and smooth. Your audience should not feel as though you are reading aloud to them. If you are free to choose your own topic, consider a cause meaningful to you, or consider using one of the following suggestions as your topic or as inspiration for it:

• Police and mental health services reform
• Standards-based reform in education
• Global human rights
• Liberty and justice for all
• Reduction of carbon emissions

Your speech may incorporate multimedia components as you see fit. You’ll also need to plan how to access the audience or platform you have in mind.

As you craft your outline, keep in mind your audience, your purpose for addressing them, and your support for that purpose by using key ideas, reasons, and evidence. When planning your script, use an organizer to collect information so that you can support your ideas credibly with a well-developed argument.

Using Your Authentic Voice

Unlike most formal academic papers, oral presentations give you an opportunity to consider how you might challenge formal writing conventions by delivering your script in your authentic voice. Oral compositions offer an opportunity to bring through conventions of your own culture, perhaps including discursive patterns of language and grammar and challenges to standard language ideologies. As always, keep your audience and purpose in mind as you make choices about your use of language.

Researching and Narrowing the Topic

After choosing the overall subject of your script, research the general topic to learn about context, background information, and related issues. Then narrow the topic and focus your research, as guided by your working thesis and purpose. You can return to Argumentative Research: Enhancing the Art of Rhetoric with Evidence , Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information , and Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources to review research processes, including how to allow research to shape your thesis and organization.

After choosing a topic, you will probably need to narrow it further. One way to achieve this task is by brainstorming , which involves generating possible ideas and thoughts quickly and informally. A basic, fast-paced brainstorming technique is simply to list all your possible ideas on paper and combine those that are related. Then you can eliminate some ideas to narrow the range. For example, for this assignment, you might list all of the causes toward which you feel sympathetic. Beginning with an idea that already interests you will help you remain enthusiastic about the idea and generate a positive tone that will come across to the audience and maximize the effectiveness of the presentation.

For example, if you’re interested in the environment, your brainstorm might include the following:

• Deforestation
• Plastic waste
• Rising carbon levels
• Global warming

If you think you still need new ideas at this point, spend some time researching advocacy organizations. Next, expand each idea by creating subtopics. This activity will help you eliminate topics that are difficult to elaborate on—or at least you will know that you need to conduct more research. In summary, follow this process as you choose and narrow your topic:

• Brainstorm ideas that already interest you or with which you have experience.
• Circle topics appropriate for the assignment.
• Cross out topics that you think you cannot make relevant to the audience. Remember, you are developing a presentation for a public forum.
• For remaining topics, flesh out subtopics with ideas you might cover in your script. You should have between two and five key ideas; three is fairly typical.
• Eliminate topics for which you lack sufficient material, or do the necessary research to obtain more.
• Finally, decide on a topic that you have the resources to research.

Another Lens. Because this chapter focuses on activism and you have read the Trailblazer feature about Alice Wong’s work in the disability activism space, think about content consumers (readers, listeners) who experience the world through the lens of disability. Challenge yourself to create content that meets the needs of diverse consumers. Because the assignment is an activist script outline for a presentation, it naturally lends itself to those who are abled in the areas of sight and hearing. Consider people who are visually impaired or hard of hearing. How might you adapt your script and its delivery to make it accessible to all?

One option to consider is visual representation of your presentation through an infographic that depicts the thesis, main reasoning, and evidence to reach those who cannot hear a speech. Or consider how you might adapt the delivery of a script to reach those who experience visual limitations. By making considerations for accessibility, you will strengthen your message for all who interact with it.

Quick Launch: Outlining

Before your presentation, create an outline of the main ideas you plan to discuss. An outline is a framework that helps you organize your major claims, reasoning, supporting details, and evidence. Creating an outline is also a way to create a natural flow for your ideas and provide a foundation for engaging your audience. Doing this basic organizational work at the beginning will help you present your ideas so that they will have the greatest impact on your audience.

The first step in creating your outline is to develop a purpose statement . This one-sentence statement reveals what you hope to accomplish in the presentation—that is, your objective. The purpose statement isn’t something that you will include in your actual presentation; the purpose statement is for you. It will help you keep your audience at the center of your script, create a central idea, and, most of all, give you a realistic goal. One example of a purpose statement for an informational speech might read, “By the end of this presentation, my audience will better understand the impact of plastic waste on the ocean and the world.” Or, for a persuasive speech, a purpose statement on a similar topic might read, “By the end of this presentation, my audience will feel compelled to reduce their use of disposable plastic.”

Although a speaking outline resembles an outline for an academic paper, with special considerations for the genre, it does not need to be as detailed as an outline for a research paper. Rather, a speaking outline will form the framework for speech. Feel free to write your outline as complete thoughts, sentence fragments, or even bullet points.

A presentation’s basic format is relatively similar to most other writing: an introduction, three to five major supporting points, and a conclusion. The major differences will be the genre-specific choices you make about presenting this information.

Introduction

Like most persuasive writing, your presentation needs an introduction that establishes its purpose. The introduction should engage the audience, present the topic and main ideas, and validate the speaker’s credibility. Engaging your audience is important. You can capture an audience’s attention by relating an anecdote or a quotation, posing a question, using humor, relating surprising facts or statistics, or any other method you think will do the job.

The introduction will usually lead seamlessly into a definitive statement of the main theme or claim. As you would include a thesis in the introduction of a piece of persuasive writing, your introduction here also should include a statement that previews the main idea and briefly touches on key points. Though you are outlining your presentation rather than writing a full script, it is a good idea to write your thesis so that you clearly identify your aim. When presenting, you won’t have to read your script word for word, but recording the thesis clearly will enable you to summarize the central idea of your presentation easily.

Finally, the introduction is your opportunity to establish credibility with your audience and to tell them why they should listen to what you have to say. Include a brief statement of your credentials, experience, and knowledge that demonstrates your credibility or authority on the topic.

The main section of the outline, the body is the longest part of the script and the one in which you present key points to support the main idea. Each key point should stem organically from the script’s goal and your thesis. Although standard practice is to present three key ideas, you may choose to have between two and five. Any fewer, and you won’t support your thesis sufficiently; any more, and your audience will lose track of them. Back each key idea with several points, including reasoning, evidence, and audiovisual support.

You can organize your key ideas in several ways. Determining an organizational pattern helps you narrow the central ideas generated from research and allows you to plan material for your script. Topical patterns break main ideas into smaller ideas or subcategories. After dividing the topics into subtopics, consider the most logical order of points. There is often no right answer to this order, so feel free to move your ideas around to create the greatest impact. For example, a topic discussing World War II battles might best be presented in chronological order (listed or arranged according to time sequence), but a topic broken down to address the causes of World War II (diplomatic factors, nationalism, World War I peace treaty) may not fit into an obvious pattern. In a persuasive script, problem-and-solution or cause-and-effect patterns of reasoning may be the best way to organize ideas. These and other organizational patterns are discussed in Reasoning Strategies: Improving Critical Thinking .

This portion of the script provides a summary and is your final opportunity to make an impression on your audience. Typically, in this section, you restate the thesis convincingly and, if applicable in a persuasive script, tell your audience what you believe they should do. Also, you briefly revisit each key idea in the context of how it supports your thesis. Strong conclusions are especially important in scripts.

One strategy for writing conclusions is the “mirrored” conclusion that ties back to the introduction. For example, if you use a statistic to engage your audience’s attention, you return to that statistic in the conclusion. Consider the following example.

student sample text Introduction: It takes 450 years for one plastic bottle to decompose in a landfill. Now consider the fact that, according to the U.S. government, at least 50 million plastic bottles are thrown away each day in the United States. end student sample text

student sample text Mirrored Conclusion: Each time you’re tempted to reach for a plastic bottle, contemplate the 50 million that end up in landfills each year. Consider other options that spare our environment from the centuries of decomposition that each one contributes to. end student sample text

For writers who have difficulty beginning, one idea is to reverse-engineer the structure of the script. Beginning with the conclusion will help you know where you need to end up, thus making it easier to create a roadmap for getting there. This strategy can provide consistency and add emphasis to the key ideas in the script.

Keeping in mind the basic parts of a script outline, you can now begin to craft a skeletal version your own. Use a graphic organizer like Table 19.1 to gather and organize your initial thoughts.

A sample skeletal outline might include the following information.

Drafting: Signpost Language; Tone, Repetition and Parallelism; Media and Other Visuals; and Cultural Cues

After you have analyzed your audience, selected and narrowed the topic, researched supporting ideas, and created a skeletal outline, you can begin adding flesh to the outline. Gather all supporting material for your topic, and consider the various ways to include notes about effective language and delivery.

Signpost Language

The function of signs is to direct people to the places they are going. Think of a road sign that points to an exit off the highway. Signs also can warn people of places they should not go. Similarly, in presentations, signposts are statements that help the audience know where your presentation is going. These may include

• a preview statement that offers an overview of the path and topics your script will take on;
• transition statements between the introduction and body, between key points and ideas, and between the body and the conclusion; and
• a conclusion statement that ends the script.

Table 19.3 shows examples of signpost language. Notice the boldfaced words, called transitions , which help readers and listeners navigate between ideas and concepts. Signposts should clearly connect ideas, are often parallel (repeated words or grammatical forms), and mark the most important parts of an argument or explanation.

Tone is a writer or speaker’s attitude as it is conveyed in a composition or script. A writers or speaker’s language choices as well as other elements specific to speech, such as gestures and body language, help create tone. The tone of a presentation depends largely on its purpose, audience, and message.

Consider this text from Annotated Student Sample .

student sample text Without warning, the smaller dog launched itself from its owner’s lap, snarling and snapping at the guide dog. The owner of the small dog jumped up and retrieved her animal from the Labrador’s vest and stomped back to her seat. That neither she nor the still-yapping dog had an obvious panic attack amazed me, as I questioned, to myself of course, what possible service was being provided—other than a moment of exercise. end student sample text

The author’s tone of disapproval is evident when he relates the actions of the untrained, unrestrained dog causing trouble for others. The attitude is emphasized by words with negative connotations such as snarling and stomped .

The tone you choose for your script will help you relate to your audience. It can help your audience feel connected to you and promote your credibility as well as that of the message you wish to impart.

Notice, too, the use of the first person in script writing. While you may have been taught not to use first-person pronouns in most formal or academic writing, speech is completely different. Even in formal scripts, the use of I helps connect listeners to the speaker. In general, effective speakers also use simple, declarative statements in the active voice (subject + verb + object) to emphasize their key ideas and to keep audiences focused on them. Longer, complex sentences may cause audience members to lose focus. Thoughts and sentences should flow conversationally. See Clear and Effective Sentences for more about effective sentences, including use of the active voice.

Repetition and Parallelism

Repetition and parallelism are literary devices that authors and speakers use for emphasis, persuasion, contrast, and rhythm. In repetition , a word, phrase, or sound is repeated for effect. Repetition is also employed in a variety of figurative language. The following example is an excerpt from the surrender speech of Chief Joseph (1840–1904), the Nez Percé leader who surrendered to the U.S. Army in 1877 after the U.S. government had appropriated Nez Percé land. Rather than be forced to live on reservations, Chief Joseph and his followers unsuccessfully attempted to flee to Canada, a journey of about 1,500 miles, during which they were pursued and vastly outnumbered by the U.S. Army. Notice the use of repetition to emphasize the cold and the death toll.

public domain text I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead , Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead . . . . He who led on the young men is dead . It is cold , and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death . My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death . I want to have time to look for my children. . . . Maybe I shall find them among the dead . end public domain text

Parallelism is the use of similar or equivalent constructions of phrases or clauses to emphasize an idea. Parallelism is especially helpful for organizational and structural concerns in a script or composition. Consider this excerpt from President John F. Kennedy ’s (1917–1963) inaugural address:

public domain text Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. end public domain text

Kennedy uses parallelism for impact as well as to organize his support for the idea that the United States works collaboratively for “the success of liberty.” Parallelism and repetition can work hand in hand as organizational strategies and to emphasize ideas in your script.

Anaphora and epistrophe are two related forms of parallelism.

You can hear examples of parallelism and repetition in audio excerpts on the website American Rhetoric .

In Chapter 19, you have learned about rhetorical techniques used in speech, including parallelism, repetition, and signpost language.

Media and Other Visuals

Because speeches are auditory by nature, you can enhance their effectiveness by using media and other visual aids. These elements can add emphasis, help the audience understand a complex idea, or otherwise support your message. But be careful not to detract from your speech with the media you choose. A common error speakers make is to include too much or irrelevant media.

When considering media and visual aids, remember to keep in mind your audience, purpose, and message. Note these considerations about media and visual aids:

• Use media in a way that doesn’t clutter or overwhelm your presentation. The media you choose should enhance, not detract from, your message.
• Ensure that visuals are large enough for the audience to see. Create or obtain media that is clear, concise, and of high quality. Tiny, hard-to-read graphs or muffled audio clips will only frustrate your audience.
• Keep a consistent visual style, including font, colors, backgrounds, and so on.
• Provide space and time for your audience to listen to, read, and/or view media and other visuals in your presentation.
• Consider accessibility; think about an audience member who relies on an interpreter or who is visually impaired. How can you make your presentation accessible to that person?
• Ensure that your media engages the audience, thus making your speech delivery more dynamic.
• If using technology, make every effort to test it before your presentation.

As you finish drafting your script, consider all the potential aspects of language and organization you might use to create meaning for your audience. Remember that you will give your presentation orally. Therefore, during drafting, take a few minutes at key points—after completing a section, for example—to practice your presentation by reading it aloud. Listen to how it sounds and make adjustments as you go along, considering the oral elements of speech that lend themselves to fluency.

Peer Review: Using Symbols

After you have completed the first draft of your outline, peer review can help you refine your ideas, improve your organization, and strengthen your language. One aspect of effective peer review is marking the text for revision. You and your peers can do this kind of marking by using symbols, which allow reviewers to give feedback quickly and thoughtfully without overwhelming the writer with notes.

Figure 19.10 below provides some of the editing marks to use for proofreading and review. Peer reviewers may also write in the margin to indicate issues with organization, tone, or flow of ideas.

Revising: Interpreting and Responding to Symbols and Context Cues

After a peer has reviewed and provided feedback on your first draft, you will begin the revision process. Remember that writing is recursive, meaning it is not linear. Although revision won’t go on forever, it’s important to revise your work at each point in the writing process. In fact, even though you are officially working with the first draft, it is likely your writing has already undergone some process of revision. You will want to continue this process to strengthen your writing, respond to peer review, and ensure that your script fulfills your intent. Consider the items in the following checklist.

Checklist for Revision

• Is it organized logically?
• Is the topic immediately clear?
• □ Ensure that the script has a clear purpose.
• Does the script respond to what the audience already knows about the subject?
• Does it support new knowledge?
• Have you taken culture into consideration?
• □ Review the introduction to determine whether it hooks the audience and establishes a thesis.
• □ Review the sentences in each paragraph and the order of the paragraphs to ensure that the organization supports the thesis.
• □ Review the conclusion to ensure that it supports the thesis and provides a strong ending.
• □ Read the script again after making revisions to find ways to improve transitions and connections. Consider tone, signpost language, parallelism, and repetition.
• □ Review the draft for conventions, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

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2. Information gathering (the writing process)

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Now that you’ve created a doc plan , gathered up source material (and presumably read it as well), and observed a demo, you’re ready to move on to phase two of the writing process: information gathering through interviews.

How you see yourself: writer versus journalist

Prepare lists of questions, be aware of your role as a product aligner, be aware of engineering myopia, 2.1 interview the engineers, 2.2 interview the product manager, 2.3 interview the partner engineers, 2.4 interview the quality assurance (qa) group.

As you gather information, a paradigm shift about the tech writing role would help out during this phase. Rather than thinking of yourself as a technical writer , think of yourself as a technical journalist . As a journalist, you gather information for your story by interviewing people. There are several different groups of people to gather information from:

• Engineering — the group that coded the feature
• Product management — the group that oversees the feature’s planning and strategy
• Partner engineers — the group that helps users implement the feature
• Quality assurance — the group that tests the feature

These groups will each provide a different input on the feature. Note that groups and titles will vary (especially the term for “partner engineers”), but the four domains represented here are common across companies.

General tips for interviews

The following are several tips for interviews that apply across all groups.

With each interview, it’s good to give the person a list of questions ahead of time. This not only keeps you on track but also reassures the interviewees that the meeting will have a focus and purpose. Some people despise meetings that consume time they could have otherwise been spent coding. A simple list of questions sends the message that the meeting will be worthwhile. For more on this technique, see A tip for doc reviews — bring a list of questions .

There’s another reason for reaching out to these four distinct groups: any group alone might present a skewed perspective, and without more variety, it’s easy to mistake their perspective as the Truth . When you write documentation, you often raise awareness about differing points of view that need to be addressed. You might find disagreements between engineering and product management, or between product management and business development, and so on.

For example, in our scenario of creating an API for coffee shops, perhaps the product management group envisions partners being able to add their own coffee shops and supplementary data, including ratings and reviews — essentially enabling partners to both read and write to the API. In contrast, Engineering might have more conservative views about what’s possible with the data and might want to promote a more simplified model of updates only going one way — read-only. Writing documentation raises awareness of these differences and will force these groups to align as they review the documentation.

When these differences of opinion surface, don’t be surprised. You will occasionally run into a product manager who freaks out about potential content almost going out to partners before it can be edited/tweaked in a certain way, which actually changes the direction provided by some other group. In these scenarios, your role pivots from tech writer to something entirely different: product aligner . During these moments, your role is to help define and shape the product’s story and messaging.

Rather than inserting yourself into any disputes between groups, let the different groups do their own sparring and other hand-to-hand combat. Your job is mostly just to bring them into the ring together and see who’s left standing at the end.

A strategic advantage to the tech writer role is your broad perspective across products. As you interview different groups, you might find that, surprisingly, they lack awareness of other products. Some aspects of the product you’re documenting might actually duplicate other products or have other redundancy and conflict. This phenomenon happens most frequently in large tech companies, where many teams work independently across different org lines.

Be aware of your cross-product perspective and recognize that it’s a unique advantage you bring to the table. When a PM or engineer is unaware of how the API they’re building differs from one that a neighboring team built, don’t be shocked, and don’t belittle the PM or engineers. These groups are often so specialized, they know only their sliver of the technology. Part of the value you bring to the table is your awareness of other products. Don’t be afraid to surface the issues you observe and bring other groups into the conversation.

Now let’s get into some strategies for interviews, starting with the engineers. Most likely the engineering team has already designated someone to be your contact point — the main engineer who coded the feature. (If you don’t have a contact point, start with the tech lead or team lead for the API; they might designate someone else down the line.)

Set up time with this engineer and prepare a list of questions (the technique I described earlier). Now, this is extremely important: Record your interview with the engineer. Even if you’re meeting in person, create a conference session in the room on your computer and record the meeting. The engineer is going to dive into gobbledygook and other technical speak, and you’ll want to go back and re-listen to this again, even if it’s just to get the terminology and phrasing correct. You won’t be able to take enough notes in real-time to keep up (unless you’re part-engineer already), and you might be too busy taking notes to catch all the details of the conversation.

Some questions to ask the engineer might be as follows:

• Are there any requirements to use this API?
• How do you set it up?
• How do you initialize it?
• Can you talk through the code in the sample app?
• How do you use this API for some common use cases?
• Are there limitations that partners will want to know about?

Pitfall warning: The engineer might give you a Javadoc and say that all the details are contained within the Javadoc, and it’s self-explanatory to any Java engineer — as such, there’s not much more to say. All a user needs is a Javadoc to understand the API and implementation details . For tech writers without an engineering background, this attitude can be difficult to counter because the Javadoc is challenging to read without a background in Java. In fact, just navigating the Javadoc output can be confusing, and you might feel up against a technology barrier, unsure if your lack of understanding will make it impossible to write intelligently about the feature. What does the user know or not know? What is common knowledge in the programming domain and what isn’t? Are engineers even using industry standard terms here? You’re at a real disadvantage in this situation, but press the engineer to provide some details.

Recognize this attitude (“All the developer needs is this Javadoc!”) as a red flag to push back on. You can later get more ammunition for a counter argument when you meet with partner engineers, but for now, press on.

One strategy to get the engineer to unravel more detail is to have him or her talk through the code in the sample app, which was presumably used in the demo. The demo provides an instance in which the API was implemented toward some end. The engineer might have all kinds of disclaimers and notes about how the demo doesn’t represent a true implementation, or how it’s likely not how users will actually implement the API, but at least it’s something to go on. You could also loop in the partner engineers to better gauge the knowledge levels and needs that users will have.

As you talk with the engineer, you’ll find that a lot of times, the engineer who codes the feature doesn’t know how the feature should be messaged or pitched, and doesn’t have the larger picture about workflows and product implementation. Just as you might be unfamiliar with how to actually work with the API, the engineers who created it might not know how partners/developers will implement the API in their particular business domain and use cases. Your project engineers know software, but they often don’t know the domain or industry where the partners will be implementing the API.

This is a key point and one that throws a monkey wrench in the writing process. Ideally, you might think the engineers who created the feature could walk you through how third-party developers will use it. After all, the API was designed to support various business use cases. Companies don’t create APIs without a strong knowledge of who they’re for and what scenarios they envision the APIs being used. They’re providing a stream of data for a specific business use case. The company using the API will pay large amounts of money for this data.

And yet, does the engineer creating the API actually know how to implement the API in such business scenarios? Not always. As such, the information you get from the engineer will be somewhat general and not specifically tailored to how the APIs are used for key business tasks.

Think of the API and its various methods or endpoints like providing a cupboard of ingredients to a chef. Project teams don’t know exactly how the chef (partner) will use the eggs, flour, sugar, butter, molasses, paprika, and cornmeal — because the ingredients could be used in a variety of recipes and intents. From the engineer’s perspective, the requirements doc only specified that they create the molasses and paprika, not how they concoct these ingredients together toward some coherent recipe.

Engineers are so specialized, their view of the system often is much narrower than you assume. They might have specialized technical knowledge while lacking a broader understanding of the technology in the context of business domains. As a result, your interview with this development engineer will only take you so far. To gather the other information you need, you need to set up time with several other people.

The product manager (PM) might not be as technical as the engineers, but he or she will have a better handle on product messaging, use cases, audience analysis, and concepts related to the product. The product manager also likes to have input on the docs because the docs are part of the product experience.

Some topics will absolutely require the PM’s input. If you start listing known limitations and issues with the feature, the PM will want to have input. If you drop hints about future, related features on the roadmap, you’ll need to clear this with the PM as well.

Some questions to ask the PM might be as follows:

• Who is the audience for this API?
• What are some use cases for this API?
• What are some important concepts to know when working with this API?
• When is the release date for the feature?

The PM is sometimes easier to speak with because PMs aren’t as steeped in the technology as the engineers, and so you might find this interview more comfortable. However, while the PM is your friend, the PM often has an agenda: to present the product in an extremely positive light, reflecting the successes of the product team (led by the PM). The PM will squirm against listing any warts, limitations, and issues with the product. PMs generally dislike transparency.

Whereas the engineers might note some important issues/limitations, the PM might want you to spin these issues in a positive way. Or the PM might try to persuade you that the omission of limitations is an indirect way of addressing them. For example, the PM might say, We don’t need to say that you can’t do [X] with the feature; we just don’t mention [X] at all. So by not saying it, we don’t have to note this limitation about our product.

While this might be reasonable in many situations, if X is a feature most users will want or expect to do, the documentation should mention it. Tech writers are supposed to be user champions, not product champions. For example, in our coffee API scenario, suppose the coffee API works only for coffee produced in the U.S., not coffee imported from Columbia, Guatemala, or elsewhere. It would be a pretty big gap not to mention this limitation explicitly in the documentation.

For more on the topic of transparency, see Transparency in documentation: dealing with limits about what you can and cannot say .

Keep the PM in the loop of the doc review even if they have little input on the technical aspects of the product. The PM is aware of all the stakeholders that you might not know about, and they can easily pull people into conversations to answer questions. For example, the PM likely connects the dots up the executive chain and can include others in the doc review several levels above you, or across teams that you didn’t even know existed. The PM can be your connection point to all the other teams and interested parties related to the feature.

Another group to interview is the partner engineers. The title might differ by company — for example, “solutions engineers” or “developer relations.” This is the group that interfaces with partners/users to help them implement the company’s products. This group is one of the most important to have frequent communication with because they give you the closest feedback from users.

Roles and companies vary of course, but in my experience, I rarely have direct interactions with the users. Instead, the partner engineers are the contact points with the users, and most feedback about users comes from the partner engineers. The partner engineers’ familiarity with the partner’s experience, friction points, and feature needs/requests gives them their primary value.

Partner engineers appreciate being in the loop about feature development and the documentation efforts, though they might not have much input on the documentation until you show them a draft. Partner engineers tend to work with existing documentation more than future documentation. They might be reactive (responding to current partner issues) rather than proactive (planning for future features and roadmaps, as PMs do).

Whether you choose to interview the partner engineers now or later depends on how much they know about the feature/API and the partner needs. Ideally, meet with the partner engineer who specializes in this feature ahead of time and get a better understanding of the target users and their use cases.

This information might be redundant with the use cases that the PM describes, but maybe not. The partner engineer can describe the business cases, implementation workflows, and other partner details in more depth. You could, at the very least, check the information you gathered from the PM against the partner engineer’s knowledge.

Some sample questions to ask the partner engineer include the following:

• Which partners are we developing this feature for/with?
• How is this target partner planning to use the API?
• How does this partner implement the feature within their company? What’s their workflow and setup?
• What issues or questions do you anticipate partners will have related to this API?

Usually, when companies develop a new feature, they select a target partner to develop the feature for, and this target partner becomes the beta partner that product teams work closely with. The partner provides constant input about features of the product and helps steer the product’s development, feature set, and roadmap against their own needs and requirements. Partner engineers will often be the contact points with this development partner (more so than the PM), so it’s key that you plug into this partner relationship — your access to the partner/user often comes directly through the partner engineer.

Most partner engineers are strong champions of documentation because documentation provides a tool that partner engineers need to do their jobs. At some point, partner engineers will be handing partners a link to the docs. As such, partner engineers are invested in having great docs because it makes their job easier. If the docs are poor, the partner engineers will have to hold the partner’s hand in the implementation and answer a lot of questions, troubleshoot issues, and more. In contrast, good docs might free them up from many partner meetings and bug threads.

Building rapport with your partner engineers is one of the main strategies you can implement for success with your doc group. Touch base with a partner engineer now to gather more information. Later you’ll loop back around with them for documentation reviews.

Another group to interview is the QA group. This group won’t have much information about the users and use cases. Instead, QA should have a group of test cases that they are testing the feature against. This list of test cases might help flesh out common tasks with the API. For example, the QA group might verify that the API returns the correct data for a variety of use cases. If you can get a hold of these test cases, they could inform the various how-tos and other technical details that are described in your documentation.

QA teams aren’t used to working with tech writers, so you’ll need to steer this conversation towards the paths you want. Some questions to ask QA include the following:

• Do you have a list of test cases that you’re testing the API against?
• How are you testing the API? Is there a specific test environment you’re using?
• Are there any test devices or setup I can use?
• Is there a sample app you’re using to do the testing? How do you use this sample app?
• Do you have any documents that describe testing steps?
• Are there any bugs or limitations to be aware of? Where are the bugs tracked?
• Do you have a list of exactly what data the API should return in various scenarios?
• Are there any resources related to this API that might be helpful?

You can later involve QA in the review of the docs, but they tend to have minimal input on the documentation quality. They only seem to be interested in two questions: what do we promise, and does the feature return what we promised? For example, if your docs say that the API provides data for a specific use case, QA might chime in to say that the API doesn’t actually provide that data. They rarely comment on clarity, organization, or style of the documentation.

The main benefit from QA will be information about how to test the API. They often have sample apps, test environments, streamlined procedures, and other resources set up to test an API. This can help facilitate how you can explore the API yourself because, as I mentioned earlier, playing around with the API is essential to better understand the product and inform your ability to write. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to write about something that I can’t experience and explore for myself. If QA can help unlock that hands-on exploration, it’s a huge win.

Continue on to 3. Writing .

About Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me . Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.

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© 2024 Tom Johnson

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