Public Speaking

90 CHAPTER^7 Researching Your Speech in the Digital Age

Mars Mission. Encyclopedia entries about the spacecraft are tertiary sources. Table 7.2

provides examples of each source.

Internet Domains^32

Before you even open an Internet document, look for the domain suffix, which indicates

the provider’s primary purpose and tax status. The most common are educational (.edu),

commercial (.com), government (.gov), military (.mil), nonprofit organization (.org), and

foreign (.ca for Canada, .jp for Japan, and so on). Ask who or what entity published the

page. Is it from an educational institution (.edu) or one set up to make money (.com)?

Is it from a government agency (.gov) or a noprofit (.org) with an agenda and a need for

donations? Choose those that seem the most appropriate, given your topic. Use .com

sites with caution and recognize that an .edu document can actually be a student paper,

submitted for an assignment.

Once you’re on the site, look for information about the author, institution,

organization, or agency that accepts responsibility for the material. If this is not

immediately apparent, look for a home page or follow links such as “about us,”

“philosophy,” or “background” to learn more about the site’s creators. Distinguish

between expert or peer sources as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

P = Purpose

Apply what you remember about the four general purposes from Chapter 2. Is material

intended to provide information? To convince of an idea or to motivate to action? To

entertain? To celebrate a person, a cultural value, an event, or an achievement of some

kind? Authors and sources intentionally create material for a reason.

The mission statement of an organization is one way to discern the perspectives

and purposes for the material. For example, Newsy: Multisource Video News says, “It’s

the only video news service that allows users to compare news sources from around the

world to see how a story unfolds. It’s a broader view in a concise format.”^33 MSNBC

offers “news, video, and progressive community”^34 in contrast to National Review, which

offers “up-to-the minute conservative commentary on politics, news, and culture.”^35

Record Your Information

Plan ways to record your findings, avoid plagiarism, and cite sources properly. Then,

when you sit down to organize your speech, you will have the necessary information

at your fingertips, and you can easily classify your ideas into themes and patterns.

domain the type of site such
as .com, .edu, or .org that
tells the site’s purpose and
tax status

TabLe 7.2

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Primary Secondary Tertiary

A letter from Jane Austen to

her sister, Cassandra

A magazine article about

Jane’s correspondence

An encyclopedia entry

about Cassandra Austen

An actual Navajo rug A trade book about Navajo

weaving

A website selling Native

American weavings

An audio recording of

Robert Frost reading his

poetry

A scholarly article about the

impact of Robert Frost on

later generations of poets

A website with quotations

taken from Frost’s poems

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