• Unit 7: Supporting Ideas and Building Arguments

    This unit covers topics which establish the substance of your speech. Many inexperienced speakers focus their efforts on the main points or major arguments of their speeches, but only cursorily attach to those elements synthesis of ideas – the details and connections which establish their real impact. The result is that student speeches tend to use the same type of support, over and over again, creating a dull sameness that causes the attention of audiences to sag even as they lose respect for the speaker's motivations and/or credibility. You can avoid this syndrome by absorbing not only the function of supporting details in a speech but also the variety of types and formats you can choose from to keep your speech interesting and influential. This unit will focus on providing you with information and advice on how to use various types of supporting evidence to strengthen any arguments made in your speech.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.

    • 7.1: Using Research as Support

    • 7.2: Types of Support

    • 7.3: Using Support and Creating Arguments

    • 7.4: Unit 7 Exercises