Giving examples, facts and statistics (supporting materials) are effective when giving a speech when the speaker wants to “bolster his opinion” (126). Giving those supporting materials “holds, illustrates, clarifies and provides evidence for your speech” (126). Using those tools are helpful when either you are trying to persuade, inform or amuse your viewers. Giving examples help make your topic concrete, but also can personalize your speech or make it emotional by telling a personal experience. Facts and statistics can persuade or promote agreement, and give logical, solid evidence. Both examples and statistics are commonly used, and are used often in my writing to support my thesis. I usually even start out my writing with a fact or statistic to try and engage the audience. Even though I may find it effective, I still need to explore different ways of grabbing my audience since I have gotten too comfortable using those supporting materials.
I like the way you share how you use facts and statistics. It is a good point that it is a very comfortable supporting material to use and that it is important to use a variety of supporting materials. I catch myself doing the same thing because I feel you can not go wrong with a fact or statistic. There are times when statistics or facts can take away from your speech and that is something to acknowledge also. If you give an irrelevant fact or statistic it is just taking up space in your allotted time for your speech instead of enhancing the speech.
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