types of supporting Material 8.3 165
of the significance of a problem, and where an illustration might stir their emo-
tions. Next, we will discuss these and other types of supporting material and
present guidelines for using them effectively.
Illustrations
Novelist Michael Cunningham often reads to standing-room-only crowds. He
explains the appeal of such live readings in this way: “It’s very much about
storytelling... you’re all gathered around the campfire—‘I’m going to tell you
about these people, and what happened to them.’”^4 Cunningham is right. A
story or anecdote—an illustration—almost always guarantees audience inter-
est by appealing to their emotions. “Stories get you out of your head and into
your gut” is how one professional speech coach explains the universal appeal of
illustrations.^5
Let’s look more closely at different kinds of illustrations and examine some
guidelines for using them.
BRIEF ILLUSTRATIONS A brief illustration is an unelaborated example that
is often no longer than a sentence or two. In a speech to the United Nations, Sec-
retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered this brief illustration of women
making a difference:
In South Africa, women living in shantytowns came together to build
a housing development outside Cape Town all on their own, brick by
brick. And today, their community has grown to more than 50,000 homes
for low-income families, most of them female-headed.^6
It is often helpful to use multiple brief illustrations. Sometimes, a series of
brief illustrations can have more impact than either a single brief illustration or
a more detailed extended illustration. In addition, although an audience could
dismiss a single illustration as an exception, two or more illustrations strongly
suggest a trend or norm.
EXTENDED ILLUSTRATIONS Longer and more detailed than the brief illus-
tration, the extended illustration resembles a story. It is more vividly descriptive
than a brief illustration, and it has a plot—an opening, complications, a climax,
and a resolution. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told this moving story
of two British sisters who were forcibly taken to Australia under a Child Mi-
grants Program in the 1950s:
Judy remembers the day they were first taken to the home and her sister
Robyn bolted from the gate and ran away.
They later found her and dragged her back.
Robyn and Judy remember that they kept waiting and waiting for
just someone, someone to come and pick them up—but no-one, no-one
ever came.
They recall being hit with belt buckles and bamboo.
They said the place they grew up in was utterly, utterly loveless.^7