Week 4 — Research & Supporting Materials
Why this matters
A nurse citing the unit's protocol at a shift handoff, a resident quoting a traffic count at a neighborhood meeting, and a job candidate backing up a claim in an interview all win trust by saying where their evidence came from.
In plain language
This week your speech gets its proof. You learn the three kinds of supporting material (the evidence that backs up a point): examples, statistics, and testimony. You learn how to tell whether a source deserves your trust, using a five-question credibility checklist (a short list of questions you ask before you use a source). You learn to read a number in plain words and ask who counted it. Then you learn the oral citation (saying out loud who made your source, what it is, and when it appeared), and why a chatbot's citations must be checked before you say a word of them.
- Already covered: ethics and fabrication (Week 1), audience analysis (Week 2), purpose and central idea (Week 3).
- This week: three kinds of support, the credibility checklist, statistics in words, and the oral citation.
- How they connect: this week's evidence keeps your central idea's promises.
- Where we're going next: Week 5, Organizing the Speech.
Focus
What counts as proof in a speech, and how do you say out loud where it came from?
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
- [ ] sort evidence as an example, a statistic, or testimony
- [ ] judge a source with the five-question checklist
- [ ] say an oral citation that names who, what, and when first
To-do
Plan your week
- Read Chapter 4 (about 45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
- Do the tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
- Do the Speech Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
- Take the quiz.
This week's checkpoint: find one real source and say its oral citation, who, what, and when, before the evidence.
You've got this
Ask your instructor if a step snags.
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