Public Speaking

Chapter

7

This ChapTer Will

help You

•    Plan your research

•    Locate and gather

materials from a

variety of sources

•    Critically evaluate

your sources

•    Record your informa-

tion in a way that suits

your learning style and

avoids plagiarism

YOU HAVE YOUR TOPIC, your goal, and your audience in mind. Now it’s

time to gather speech materials. The amounts and kinds of library holdings,

communication technologies (ICT), and other resources put a wide variety of

available documents at your fingertips within seconds. However, this can be

a mixed blessing. It’s easy to rely on Internet search engines, which can lead

to literally billions of often questionable data to sift through.^1 Consequently,

you face the task of analyzing and synthesizing the information you find into

high-quality, manageable speech materials.^2

As Chapter 2 explained, principles for gathering effective supporting

materials are found in the canon the Romans called invention. Choosing the

Review the
chapter
Learning
Objectives
and Start
with a quick
warm-up
activity.

Diana Ong/SuperStock

Researching Your

ChaPter 7 Researching Your Speech in the Digital Age

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