types of supporting Material 8.3 169
- Use a definition only when needed. Novice speakers too often use a definition
as an easy introduction or a time-filler. Resist the temptation to provide a
definition unless you are using a relatively obscure term or one with several
definitions. - Be certain that your definition is understandable. Give your listeners definitions
that are immediately and easily understandable or you will have wasted
your time and perhaps even lost your audience. - Be certain that your definition and your use of a term are consistent throughout
a speech. Even seemingly simple words can create confusion if they are not
defined and used consistently. For example, Roy opened his speech on the
potential hazards of abusing nonprescription painkillers by defining drugs
as nonprescription painkillers. A few minutes later, he confused his audi-
ence by using the word drug to refer to cocaine. Once he had defined the
term, he should have used it only in that context throughout the speech.
Analogies
An analogy is a comparison. Like a definition, it increases understanding; unlike
a definition, it deals with relationships and comparisons—between the new and
the old, the unknown and the known, or any other pairs of ideas or things. Anal-
ogies can help your listeners to understand unfamiliar ideas, things, and situa-
tions by showing how these matters are similar to something they already know.
There are two types of analogies. A literal analogy compares things that are
actually similar (two sports, two cities, two events). A figurative analogy may
take the form of a simile or a metaphor.
LITERAL ANALOGIES Student speaker James compared insects with ocean
crustaceans when he advocated utilizing insects for food:
Crustaceans are literally the insects of the sea: They’re both arthropods.
But where crustaceans feed on trash, insects feed on nature’s salad bar.^16
James’s comparison is a literal analogy—a comparison between two similar
things. If your listeners are from a culture or group other than your own or the
one from which the speech derives, literal analogies that draw on the listeners’
culture or group may help them to understand more readily the less familiar
places, things, and situations you are discussing. Literal analogies are often em-
ployed by people who want to influence public policy. For example, proponents
of trade restrictions argue that because Japan maintains its trade balance through
stringent import controls, so should the United States. The more similarities a
policymaker can show between the policies or situations being compared, the
better his or her chances of being persuasive.
FIGURATIVE ANALOGIES In his speech accepting the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize
on behalf of the European Union, Nobel Committee Chair Throbjørn Jagland de-
scribed two paintings that hang in the town hall in Siena, Italy: