Page 245 - Essentials of Human Communication

224 CHAPTER 11 Public Speaking Preparation (Steps 1–6)

● Logical support includes reasoning from specific instances and from general principles,
from causes and effects, and from signs.
● Motivational support includes appeals to the audience’s emotions and to their desires for
status, financial gain, or increased self-esteem.
● Credibility appeals involve establishing your own personal reputation or credibility, espe-
cially your competence, high moral character, and charisma.
These forms of support are covered in depth in Chapter 14.

Objectives self-check
● Can you explain the nature and types of supporting materials in informative and persuasive
speeches?

Step 5: Develop Your main Points

In this step, you use your thesis (which you created in Step 1) to generate your major points or
ideas. Once you phrase the thesis statement, the main divisions of your speech will suggest
themselves. Let’s look at an example: You’re giving a speech on the value of a college education
to a group of people in their 30s and 40s who are considering returning to college. Your thesis
is “A college education is valuable.” To generate your main points, you’d then ask, “Why is it
valuable?” These answers constitute your major points and might look something like this:
There are several reasons why a college education is valuable :
1. It helps you get a job.
2. It increases your potential to earn a good salary.
3. It gives you greater job mobility.
4. It helps you secure more creative work.
5. It helps you appreciate the arts more fully.
6. It helps you understand an increasingly complex world.
7. It helps you understand different cultures.
8. It helps you avoid taking a regular job for a few years.
9. It helps you meet lots of people and make friends.
10. It helps you increase personal effectiveness.
For purposes of illustration, let’s stop here. You have 10 possible main points—too many
to cover in a short speech. Further, not all are equally valuable or relevant to your audience.
You need to make the list shorter and more relevant. Here are some suggestions.

eliMinate Or cOMBine POints
You might want to eliminate, say, number 8—it’s inconsistent with the positive value of
college, the thesis of your speech. Furthermore, your audience is unlikely to be able to stop
working to go to college full-time.
Also notice that the first four points center on jobs. You might, therefore, consider
grouping them under a general heading:
A college education will help you secure a better job.
This might be one of your major propositions, which you can develop by defining what
you mean by “a better job.” This main point and its elaboration might look like this:
I. A college education will help you secure a better job.
A. College graduates earn higher salaries.
B. College graduates enter more creative jobs.
C. College graduates have greater job mobility.
Note that A, B, and C are all aspects or subdivisions of “a better job.”