Chapter 28 Chapter 3 Materials: The Bone and Flesh of a Speech

Collecting materials is a very important step in the speech. It is a powerful condition for enriching the topic of the speech and fully proving the argument.The collection of materials should not be carried out blindly, but should follow the principles of orientation, fullness, authenticity, freshness, typicality, concreteness and touching. The so-called authenticity refers to the objectivity of materials, that is, the selected materials do exist in the objective world and conform to historical reality.Only real materials are the most convincing and most conducive to people's formation of firm beliefs.Arbitrary fabricated and fictitious materials are bound to collide with the facts and are bound to be exposed.In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the materials, the source of the materials must be explained, such as who, when, where, what, why and how the cited examples must be clearly stated.That is to abide by 5 "W" and 1 "H" - Who (who), When (when), Where (where), What (what), Why (why), How (how).This enhances the sense of realism and increases the credibility and impact of the message.At the same time, we must know people and discuss things, neither exaggerate the significance of events and elevate the characters' thoughts, nor underestimate the value of events and derogate the characters' morals.For the written materials selected as arguments, they must be strictly checked and checked; they must be good at distinguishing, discarding the false and preserving the true;

The selected materials are not only required to be authentic, fresh, but also typical.Authentic is credible and fresh is attractive; while typical is representative and persuasive because it reveals the essence of things deeply.The purpose of a speech is to persuade and inspire.Therefore, it is necessary to carefully collect those factual and factual materials that can best explain the main idea and represent the most, so as to prevent and avoid the mediocrity of the materials. Typical materials exist in comparison with general materials.Only on the basis of fully mastering a lot of materials, there is room for comparison and distinguishing between superior and inferior.When comparing with a large number of materials, the key to discovering typical materials lies in the speaker's ability to observe and analyze and the level of ideological understanding.For example, in order to illustrate the importance of establishing a correct outlook on aesthetics and life, someone selected a material about a female college student committing suicide among many materials.This female college student loves beauty very much, and often worries about her single eyelid. Later, she underwent surgery at her own expense. Unexpectedly, the surgery was ineffective, and her eyes looked even uglier.She fell into extreme distress and couldn't escape, so she died.Apparently, this stupid act of committing suicide happened to a person who is receiving higher education, which fully demonstrates the necessity of establishing a correct aesthetic and life outlook.

Materials should be sufficient.Speeches require a large amount of detailed collection and possession of materials. It is necessary to understand the occurrence and development of things vertically, and to understand the connections of all aspects of things horizontally; not only to understand the positive materials of things, but also to understand the negative materials of things, so that we can understand things in a multi-faceted manner. , Analyze and compare from multiple angles, so as to avoid subjectivity and one-sidedness in understanding.The more sufficient the materials, the broader the thinking, the more sufficient the arguments, the more correct and powerful the point of view can be clarified, and the convincing eloquence will be produced.Especially academic speeches and court speeches require sufficient evidence and citations.Insufficient materials often make it difficult to justify and achieve the intended goal.

Concrete is more abstract than general.Although some materials are true, fresh, and typical, due to improper handling in detail, even though the ins and outs are clearly explained, it still makes people feel "not tasty" and "not quenching their thirst".This is probably due to the fact that the description is too brief and general.The reason for this situation is that, for example perceptual materials, the necessary rendering of key materials is often neglected; from the perspective of narrative elements, it is often that Why (why) and How (how) are not explained enough .If the content of Why and How is elaborated in detail and rendered necessary, it will appear specific and leave a clear impression on people.For example, "He insisted on working despite his illness, and finally collapsed beside the lathe in exhaustion", which gives people a more general impression.If we further explain why he worked while sick, how he did it, how he became tired, what happened after he was tired, and what happened on the spot at that time, etc., it will give people a much more specific impression.

When collecting materials, we must follow the direction to prevent blindness and arbitrariness.Life is full of many things, books and newspapers are vast, and time and energy do not allow us to record what we see and record what we hear. This is not only unnecessary, but also impossible.We must set the right direction and collect in a planned and targeted manner.The so-called correct direction is to carry out around the topic, and work according to the plan and focus according to the area delineated by the topic.The selected topic should be moderate in size, neither too narrow nor too broad.If it is too narrow, related materials are often missed, and there is no room for maneuver when used; if it is too wide, it is often difficult to grasp the main line and key points, resulting in cluttered and bloated content, weakening and diluting the theme.For example, if you give a speech entitled "Post Success", you may wish to focus on the following aspects: collect the discussion about success and the relationship between parts and the whole from the works of celebrities and sages; Books collect theories about the theory of success and the psychological characteristics of young people and their development trends; collect stories from historical books about young people who aspire to become talents at work; Advanced examples of contributions made above, etc.Once such a range and direction are determined, the collection of materials will be much smoother.

Novel and unique, it is in terms of the audience's feeling.Novelty is the psychological factor that drives people to pay attention.The speaker's arguments are clever and the speech materials are fresh, which can better arouse the audience's sense of novelty and attract the attention of the audience.This is of great significance for deepening the theme and enriching the content.Speakers "follow others" and re-use material that others have overused, which can be boring, even off-putting.Therefore, it is necessary to try our best to prevent and avoid the similarity of materials.To create a sense of novelty, on the one hand, we must pay attention to collecting recent events in real life; on the other hand, we must also be good at collecting those cases that have happened in the past but are not known to everyone.In addition, we must be good at observation and analysis, grasp the seemingly ordinary materials in reality, and dig out new ideas from them.Of course, these are not easy to get, but must be patient and tenacious.Mr. Lu Xun set a good example for us in this regard.He often uses the past to satirize the present, which is very vivid, such as the speech "From the feet of Chinese women, it is inferred that the Chinese are not moderate, and from this it is inferred that Confucius has a stomach problem", using a lot of historical materials and realistic materials, combining ancient and modern, making People feel very fresh and interesting.

In speech activities, pay attention to selecting materials that can increase the audience's interest and impress the audience's feelings.In real life, many touching things seem to be contrary to common sense, unexpected, unbelievable, but within reason.For example, one speaker cited a teacher who kept taking time off from class to go to the bathroom.This kind of thing is obviously contrary to common sense, which is ridiculous.However, when you know that this teacher suffers from bladder cancer and has been urinating blood for a long time. It was not until he was carried to the hospital bed that everyone discovered that he had a large stack of sick leave notes but never asked for leave. In fact, it is reasonable.The speaker used this incident to show the teacher's integrity, which is very vivid and touching.In real life, there are many such cases, the key is to be good at discovering the particularity of such unreasonable cases.In addition, the speech should be touching, talk about people's struggle experience, talk about things related to the audience's immediate interests, and easily achieve the goal.

In short, the collection of speech materials should strive to be directional, sufficient, true, fresh, typical, specific, and touching.Many good speakers have set a good example for us in this regard. The following is the famous American abolitionist, Fu?Part of a speech Douglass gave in London in May 1846: ... This is American slavery; no right to marry, no right to education—the light of the Gospel does not penetrate the dark heart of the slave, and the law forbids him to read.Louisiana law declared a mother to be hanged if she taught her child to read.If a father wanted his son to learn the alphabet, he was whipped at once, and on another occasion the court could kill him at any time.

The cruelty of the slave owners is beyond description. …Hunger, bloody whips, chains, muzzles, thumb clips, cat scratches, nine-tailed whips, dungeons, police dogs, were used to compel the slave to be content with his slavery in America. ... (in the United States) the following advertisements are often published in the newspapers, describing some fugitive slaves with iron rings around their necks and chains on their feet; some with whip marks all over their bodies; —their master burned his initials into their flesh. ...something like this happened not long ago.A female slave and a male slave were united without any legal protection as husband and wife.Their cohabitation was with the consent of their masters, and not by virtue of a right to do so, they formed a home.The master found it in his best interest to sell them.But he did not inquire at all about their wishes in the matter; they did not take it into account.A man and a woman were brought to the auction table amidst the clattering sound.

There was a shout: "Look, who's bidding?" Think about it, it's a couple up for sale!The woman is led to the auction block, her limbs are displayed brutally in front of the buyers as usual, and they can look at her at will like a horse.The husband stands there powerless, he has no claim over his wife; the disposition belongs to the master.She was sold.He was then taken to the auction block.His eyes were fixed on his wife who had gone away; he looked earnestly at the person who bought his wife, begging to buy him with him, but at last he was bought by someone else.He was about to say goodbye forever to the woman he loved, and nothing he said or anything he did could save him from this separation.He begged his new master to allow him to say goodbye to his wife, but was not granted.In excruciating pain, he struggled to rush forward from his new owner, intending to say good-bye to his wife; but he was blocked, and with a severe blow to the head, he was seized at once.He was so sad that when he was ordered to go, he fell dead at his master's feet...

This speech vividly exposed the crimes of American slavery, which really moved people to tears!This has a close relationship with the speaker's selection of materials. The emphasis here is on "one's own". Although reading a book is also a kind of preparation, it is not the best way.Finding materials from books can be helpful, but if a person only wants to get a lot of ready-made materials from books and immediately take them for himself and tell others, it will be difficult to win enthusiastic applause from the audience. The following is a story told by the speech master Carnegie: Years ago I taught a public speaking class for the banking world.This class is held every Friday night from 5:00 to 7:00.Mr. Luo from a certain bank looked at his watch on a Friday afternoon and found that it was already half past four, but he was not ready to say anything.He walked out of the office, bought a magazine at the newsstand, and on the way to speech class, he picked out an article titled "You Only Have Ten Years to Succeed" to read.The purpose of his reading is only so that when it is his turn to speak in class, he can say something without being cold. After an hour of class, he stood up and tried to explain the content of the article with interest and persuasion.However, he didn't digest those contents, so he didn't really become his own. It was just a superficial memory, and he lacked passion when he spoke it out. Of course, it was difficult for the audience to have a deep impression.All he mentioned was what the author of the article said, but Mr. Luo rarely had his own opinion.So I said to him: "Mr. Luo, what we are really interested in is not what the author of this article says, but you and your opinions. Tell us what you have to say. If you don't have anything to say now, we will write the same article. Save the topic for next week. You can read the article again and ask yourself if you agree with the author. If you agree, use your own experience to prove his opinion. If not, tell what is different Different from why, it can be said in this way to attract people and make people impressed." Mr. Luo accepted this suggestion, and after rereading the article, he found that his opinion was completely different from that of the original author, so he thought over, developed, and sorted out his own opinion.When Mr. Luo stood up to speak on this topic again the next week, what he talked about was his own material, the "ore" dug from his own "mine source", so it was real and touching, making this speech very successful. This is preparation, and only your own real experience combined with a thoughtful presentation will succeed. After the general scope of speech material selection is determined, attention should also be paid to choosing concise speech materials.In addition to the fact that the selection of materials must be true and accurate, generally speaking, the selection of refined materials must follow certain standards: the selection of materials should closely follow the theme, choose novel and typical materials, and the selected materials should preferably be targeted. The theme is the basis for material selection.The selection of materials must be closely related to the theme. When choosing materials, it must be considered whether it can effectively support the theme or serve the theme, otherwise, no matter how vivid the material is, it cannot be used.That is to stick to such a principle: choose any material that can highlight and set off the theme, otherwise discard it.Materials that can strongly support the theme generally include: materials that the speaker himself is moved by; materials that the speaker has personally proved; materials that the audience is interested in, etc. In 44 BC, Brutus and others in ancient Rome said that Caesar was a tyrant and ambitious.In order to refute their sophistry, Caesar's important minister Antony defended Caesar at Caesar's funeral. In his defense, he chose the following three materials: "He once conquered the frontier, and all the money he got went to the treasury..." (This is not selfish, but public.) "He also shed tears when he heard the call of the poor." (This is not a tyrant, but a good and sympathetic monarch.) "During the festival that day, you watched helplessly. I used the crown three times to persuade him to become the throne, but he refused three times." (This is not ambition, but humility.) These materials are closely related to the theme, directly support and prove their point of view, thus producing irrefutable persuasion. Typical materials refer to those materials that are the most vivid, representative, and can best reflect the essence of things and embody the theme of the speech.Only such materials can count as ten, and see the big from the small. In Chen Yi's "Inauguration Speech of Acting Army Commander", the theme to be clarified is "the people's army cannot be wiped out by any reactionaries." More than 800 people went to Jinggangshan, and it developed into today's 500,000 army"; second, "the predecessor of the New Fourth Army was the guerrillas in the southern provinces... there were only more than 200 people, and three years later, the New Fourth Army grew to 90,000."From this, it is deduced: "If 800 people have not been wiped out, can a 500,000 army be wiped out? If 200 people have not been wiped out, can 90,000 people still be wiped out today?" It fully proves the theme. On the premise of obeying the theme, the speaker should select materials in a targeted manner.The speaker selects materials in a targeted manner based on the needs of the audience. When organizing and selecting materials, "adapt measures to local conditions and give lectures according to people." and interest.This targeting includes: (1) Choose and use different materials according to the specific characteristics, interests and hobbies of different occasions and different audiences. (2) According to the educational level of the audience, materialize and visualize the material, and choose more materials that the audience can see, hear, and feel. (3) Choose materials that meet the audience's psychology and requirements, and try to combine these materials with the audience's vital interests. (4) Choose materials that can point the audience in the direction and teach the audience the means and methods of action. ⑸ To choose those materials that are correct, accurate, and scientific, so that the audience can believe and obey. (6) According to your own characteristics, you should select materials that you are familiar with and suitable for your identity, so that you can express the theme fully and profoundly.Can be confident and persuasive when speaking. The collection and selection of speech materials are two aspects of a problem, and the two complement each other and are indispensable.Although there is a distinction, there is no priority.In this regard, the speaker should really pay attention to it. After collecting enough materials, screen all the ideas according to the topic of the speech, keep the parts you are satisfied with, and then synthesize them, and finally make them coherent. This process involves many steps, mainly including: generating ideas, putting ideas into Classes, combine each class, then reconsider, adjust and straighten out the relationship between various ideas, and finally determine the main points. When preparing your speech, don't limit your thinking.Jot down anything you think might come up in your presentation, whether it comes across while gathering data or sorting out data you're about to throw away.Use the brainstorming method, focusing on quantity over quality this time.Don't get biased or dismiss any idea, write it down.Now it is not necessary to put the order for what you record.Work faster, even if some of it is just a different expression of another idea or the opposite of some other idea.Finishing cannot proceed unless sufficient raw material has been accumulated. You can organize in many different ways, choose one or several ways that suit you, and combine them. The visual effect or the content of the speech can play a decisive role. A basic, workable outline.The most traditional way of organizing a speech is in a stepped, indented outline format.But don't limit yourself when determining the outline, thinking that you can only outline the outline in formal, complete sentences.Outlining in full sentences is key to your ability to articulate your main points and sub-points, but using the more flexible form of a topic outline can be even more beneficial. Don't waste time on wording or formatting, since you may be trying to organize your thoughts in different ways.Arranging the items in different ways allows them to be organized harmoniously until a compact and clear structure is found. Concept map.A concept map is a way of clarifying ideas by visually representing how certain concepts are related to each other.You can quickly draw simple diagrams in their basic form, represented by circles or boxes with captions in the middle, and connected by lines. Start with your core idea, your theme, and draw a circle or box in the middle of a piece of paper.Then use the organized ideas to expand on it, writing a few main points around the main topic, leaving enough space for future sub-points.Several new ideas will emerge around your original idea; write down the new ideas that come to mind, connecting related points with lines. Adjustable movable ideas.Distribute content across sections of the paper; it can also be similar to an outline, connecting content in a linear fashion.For example, you can jot down your thoughts on sticky notes and stick them on a wall or table.You can group them thematically, moving parts of one group to another until you're happy with the overall structure.Or, if you prefer to think about the problem in a linear fashion, you can create an original outline based on sticky notes written anywhere, including indented subpoints. Another way to do this is to start with notecards where you collected the information and add your own thoughts to the cards.We recommend using note cards when looking up materials, with titles on them.From here you can start to write your own ideas, transition sentences and then use some cards to synthesize them, inserting them where you think appropriate.Like sticky notes, you can change the order and pattern at will, experimenting with different ways of tackling the subject. Fully demonstrate the advantages of each combination, and don't rush to judge and make choices.Allow yourself complete freedom to swap parts around as you please. Through this process, you have prepared several possible points for your speech.The next step is to choose the bullet points that best serve the purpose of your presentation and have the best effect. One look at your thesis statement should give you an idea of ​​the main points that should be included in your speech.Identify the core questions that must be answered.Once you understand what the topic is about, you can use thesis statements to test the points in your outline. In addition, pay attention to picking points that are independent of each other. It is no accident that the main points are called the main points. The main points are the indispensable content of the limited core of the extended theme. To make the point as clear and specific as possible, the main points should be independent of each other.Each should rule out the possibility of belonging to the other.In simple terms, this law is the adage we often say "everything has its place and belongs to it".The challenge for the speaker is to find a structure in which everything can be arranged just right. Sometimes when you try to group items into several points, you find that some items can belong to one point or another.When this kind of overlap occurs, you know that you haven't cleared your mind and found a valid classification system for everything.If you don't know where something should go, your audience won't either. When classifying points, it is most important to follow a single principle, so that all content can be classified into a certain point, and only this point. It is often the case that something is between two bullet points and it is difficult to decide which category to put it in.For the general audience, the best approach is to narrow the scope of the question, eliminate certain ambiguous elements, and leave these questions to be answered when the audience asks if necessary. If an item can be placed in two places, your main points cannot be independent of each other.If an item doesn't fit anywhere, you're digressing. While this rule may sound arbitrary, it's not as restrictive as you might think.As a speaker, you should organize your content and ideas around a few main points.If you make every thought a point, you end up with no chance to expand on any of them.If the subpoints are too numerous, you won't be able to abstract from them what fits the topic of your speech.Besides, if you only have one main point, then you basically only have the main topic, not to mention the so-called tidying up and organizing the speech. Another point worthy of everyone's attention is that if there are more than five main points, the audience will not be able to remember them. Points with the same importance or parallel logical functions are called parallel points.The logical reasoning process used to explain, support or serve the development of other points, the less important points are called sub-points. You must understand in your mind that the relationship between the various points is only relative.Each content of the speech is not only a parallel point, but also a sub-point, which is also a summary of other content. Logical reasoning is similar to explaining the subordination and juxtaposition of content. For example, automobiles are an effective way of transporting goods because the destinations covered by automobile transportation are quite wide; because automobiles are designed in various forms and are flexible; because Cars are relatively easy to maneuver. Clearly the reasons are subordinate to the points they support. Arguments used to support a point when structuring a speech must not be of equal importance or juxtaposed with the point.