Informative Speakers are Knowledgeable
Informative Speakers are Knowledgeable
Even if you plan to give a speech about an activity you have done all of your life, you will still need to seek out additional sources for your speech. Recall in the earlier discussion of credibility that citing a number of reputable sources will make you appear well-informed and more trustworthy. By all means, you should cite and use your own experiences with the topic, but if you want to appear objective, you will need to show that your ideas and experiences correspond with others.
In our information age, people are fortunate to have unlimited and free access to information on virtually any topic they can imagine via the internet. However, good speech writers know that it is important to use a wide range of sources when constructing their speeches. Start by asking what you know, find out what the experts know, and then move to find out what information other sources can provide (2). Explain not only how something is done, but also why it is done for a great speech (13). This variety gives a speech depth and a level of interest that cannot be achieved merely by sitting in front of a computer monitor. A “List of Interesting Source Material” is provided at the end of this module in the Activities section.
