Chapter 12 Preparing and Researching Presentations 357advantages—they offer access to a huge portion of publicly available Web pages
and give you the ability to search through large databases. But they frequently
return irrelevant links, and they don’t index the “invisible Web”—databases
maintained by universities, businesses, the government, or libraries that cannot
always be accessed by standard search engines. If a search engine fails to produce
useful results, try a metasearch engine—a search engine that scans multiple
search engines simultaneously. Metasearch technology delivers more relevant and
comprehensive results than a search engine. Another great resource is a research
search engine, which will search only for research published in academic books,
journals, and other periodicals. One of the best research search engines is Google
Scholar (scholar.google.com) as it has a wide variety of resources. For example, if
you type, “binge drinking” into Google Scholar, the search engine will identify
about 58,200 scholarly results.
Evaluating Supporting Material
Once you’ve gathered a variety of sources, you must critically evaluate the mate-
rial and determine which sources you should use. After all, your credibility as a
speaker depends largely on the accuracy and credibility of your sources, as well as
their appropriateness for your topic and your audience.
Credible Sources
In today’s media, anyone can put up a blog or a Web page, edit a wiki, or post
a video to YouTube. (This is why many instructors forbid students to use sup-
porting material from Wikipedia.) What’s more, a large and growing number of
opinion-based publications, broadcasting networks, and Web sites provide an
outlet for research that is heavily biased. Consequently, it is always worth spend-
ing a little time evaluating credibility, the quality, authority, and reliability, of
each source you use. One simple way to approach this is to evaluate the author’s
credentials. This means that you should note if the author is a medical doctor,
Ph.D., attorney, CPA, or other licensed professional and whether he or she is
affiliated with a reputable organization or institution. For example, if you are
seeking statistics on the health effects of cigarette smoke, an article written by
an M.D. affiliated with the American Lung Association would be more credible
than an editorial written by a high school French teacher.
A credible source may show a trail of research by supplying details about
where the information came from, such as a thorough list of references. In news-
writing, source information is integrated into the text. A newspaper or magazine
article, for example, will credit information to named sources (“Baseball Com-
missioner Bud Selig said.. .”) or credentialed but unnamed sources (“One high-
ranking State Department official said, on condition of anonymity.. .”).
The Internet poses special problems when it comes to credibility due to the
ease with which material can be posted online. Check for balanced, impartial
information that is not biased, and note the background or credentials of the
authors. If references are listed, verify them to confirm their authenticity. Web
sites can be quickly assessed for reliability by looking at the domain, or the suf-
fix of the Web site address. Credible Web sites often end with .edu (educational
institution), .org (organization), or .gov (government).
The sources you cite in
your speech are part of
your self-presentation to
your audience (Chapter
2). If your sources are
outdated or from your
cousin’s blog, you will
present a self that says,
“I am unprepared and I
didn’t research my topic
thoroughly.” Conversely, if
you offer statistics, facts,
and stories from a variety
of current, reliable, and
compelling sources, you
present yourself as trust-
worthy, prepared, and com-
petent—and your audience
is more likely to consider
what you’re saying.The sources you citeinCONNECT