Public Speaking

Use Visual Evidence (^109)
similarities between his country and ours and helped senators understand why Muslims
broke away from India’s majority Hindu population to create Pakistan:
Pakistan was founded so that millions of Muslims should be enabled to live according
to their opinions and to worship God in freedom.... Like some of the earlier founders
of your great country, these Muslims, though not Pilgrims, nevertheless embarked
upon an undertaking, which, in aim and achievement, represented the triumph of
an idea. That idea was the idea of liberty, which has had its ardent followers in all
climates and all countries. When our time came, its call summoned us, too, and we
could not hold back.
Figurative analogies or metaphors connect less familiar images to well-known
images by highlighting similarities between otherwise dissimilar things. Consequently,
they require your listeners to apply their imagination and integrate likenesses between
two otherwise different things or ideas. For instance, this student compared highways to
a familiar food:
Looking at a road is essentially like looking at a cake. The top layer of frosting is
essentially a tar seal that is flexible and resists water infiltration. Once the “frosting”
wears off—the road’s worst nightmare—water is allowed into the more porous
second layer of the road. When it freezes it expands, causing the road to break
apart on a micro level. So once the frosting is gone, the rest of the cake deteriorates
very fast.^38
Comparing life to a game is a common metaphor, but in her speech to the graduat-
ing class one speaker rejected this comparison:
It is not a sport. Life does not have rules designed to keep the competition fair. There
are not a lot of men and women running around in black and white striped shirts
blowing the whistle on infractions against humanity. Would that there were.^39
This example shows that pointing out differences, or showing contrasts between a
new concept and a more familiar one, can also be a good strategy.

Think Critically about Analogies

Evaluate your use of comparisons and contrasts. To test literal analogies, make sure the

items are alike in essential details. For instance, you could mislead your audience by

comparing the work of a police officer in Houston, Texas, with one in Sioux Falls, South

Dakota. Although their duties may be similar, the differences are significant. A Houston

officer is more like officers in large cities such as Los Angeles or Miami with diverse

populations. Sioux Falls officers, on the other hand, have more in common with police

officers in smaller cities in Michigan or Washington State.

To test figurative analogies, be sure the comparison is clear and makes sense. Can

your listeners make the necessary connection of ideas?

Use Visual Evidence

In a culture where visuals are everywhere, we commonly rely on evidence portrayed

in pictures, images, and symbols to support ideas. Images can tell a story or put forth

an analysis of a topic—or both. In short, visuals give us information and let us “see

reasons.”^40 How bad is the disaster’s damage? Why should I donate to that organization?

A photograph of people in need who benefit from your gift provides a reason.

Literal images show the actual subject under discussion^41 and help you fulfill

your cognitive, affective, and behavioral speech goals. In her classroom speech on the

figurative analogy states

similarities between two

otherwise dissimilar things;

requires an imaginative

connection

literal images show the

actual subject

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