integrating Your Supporting Material 9.2 193
Another application of specificity might be to compact or explode sta-
tistics, as discussed in Chapter 8. Compacting moves statistics from general
to specific. Exploding moves them in the other direction, from specific to
general. In her speech on alternatives to imprisonment, Anastasia uses both
tactics. She begins with a broad statistic and makes it more specific by com-
pacting it. Then she moves back toward a general statement by exploding a
related statistic:
... there are more than 2.4 million U.S. residents who serve time in
prison. That means that one in every 142 residents is in prison right now,
or approximately 2.3 percent of the total population. While this num-
ber may seem reasonable, when you think about how many people
went through prison at some point of their lives, that number rises to
25 percent of the total population.^13
comPLexity We have discussed organizing main ideas by moving from
the simple to the complex. The same method of organization may also deter-
mine how you order your supporting material. In many situations, it makes
sense to start with the simplest ideas that are easy to understand and work
up to more complex ones. In her speech on solar radiation, Nichole’s sup-
porting materials include explanations of two effects of solar storms. She
presents the simpler explanation first—of electrical blackouts and disrup-
tions in radio broadcasts—and then goes on to the more complex explanation
of cosmic radiation:
The sun produces storms on its surface in eleven-year cycles. During
solar maximum, these storms will make their presence known to the
land-bound public through electrical blackouts and disruptions in radio
broadcasts. These storms cause the sun to throw off electrically charged
ions that, combined with charged particles, enter the Earth’s atmosphere
from outer space. This is known collectively as cosmic radiation.^14soFt evidence to Hard evidence Supporting material can also be ar-
ranged from “soft” to “hard.” soft evidence rests on opinion or inference. Hy-
pothetical illustrations, descriptions, explanations, definitions, analogies, and
opinions are usually considered soft. Hard evidence includes factual examples
and statistics.
Soft-to-hard organization of supporting material relies chiefly on the prin-
ciple of recency—that the last statement is remembered best. Notice how Beth
moves from an illustration to expert testimony (both soft evidence) to a statistic
(hard evidence) in her speech on the danger of sand holes:
Illustration (soft evidence) An article in the Christian Science Monitor
Web site of August 24, 2012, describes how a
South Korean exchange student suffocated in
a Southern California beach sand pit that he
had dug with fellow students and staff from
the small California college he attended.