Imagine you are giving a speech, “Helping the Homeless.” Which form of support (e.g., examples, narratives, testimony, facts, or statistics) would be best for this topic if you were speaking to high school students? The local community? City government officials? Explain why you chose the particular forms of support for each group.
Discussion Post One: “When creating a speech for “Helping the Homeless” I would first consider the audience I was talking to therefore I would be able to gather material that would be the most beneficial for them to hear. When speaking to high school students I would keep into consideration that I would need to use engaging and relevant things that would be more than me just talking to the audience. I would be using tons of examples as well as objects so that the students would want to focus on the speech instead of others around them. I would also make sure to include narratives, because they would want to hear others stories to know their purpose in wanting to help the homeless.
Secondly, for the local community I would believe that would want to know more of the statistical side, as well as using examples and my testimony. It is known that when people feel like they know you and that they can trust you then they are more likely to support your beliefs in the way that you can help a community.
Lastly, for city government officials my best way I see going about talking about helping people without homes would be facts, statistics as well as a few examples. The reason I believe this would be the best way to go about this is due to the audience. When meeting with people who are well known in the community and their job is to help the city, no speech should be on narratives or a testimony in my opinion.”
Discussion Post Two: “If I was writing the speech “Helping the Homeless”, I would change the for of support depending on the audience. If it was for a group of high schoolers, I would choose analogies. In particular, I would choose a figurative analogy which is “compare two ideas or objects from two different classes,” (Stand up Speak out, 2016, pg. 223). This is they have not experienced much so they wouldn’t be able to relate to narratives and examples. They also wouldn’t care much for statistics. Analogies can compare something they already know and are used to in their lives to a topic such as homelessness. As an example, I would compare giving a classmate a pencil or helping out a friend to helping out the homeless.
In a case where I was giving the same topic speech to a local community, I would use narratives. To be specific, I would choose an informative narrative which are used to “help audiences understand nature and natural phenomena,” (Stand up Speak out, 2016, pg. 221). Using a narrative to support would be ideal for this group because the local community would like to hear about homeless stories in the communities. Narratives also give stories that captivate them as more it can be understood universal as some people in the community may have different intellectual ranges. Narratives will keep them interested while still giving them valuable information. For example, I would tell them a story on how someone who’s homeless in the community life changed after being helped by someone.
For city government officials, facts would be best. This is because facts are “a truth that is arrived at through the scientific process,” (Stand up Speak out, 2016, pg. 215 ). Since government officials are professional, they’d probably want the most irrefutable evidence. Though narratives might pull their heart strings, they would make decisions based on real evidence, not stories. This is because this group is focused on the good of the community, meaning they need hard evidence to make big decisions.”
References
Stand up, speak out: The practice and ethics of public speaking. (2016). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.
