Selecting Supporting Material
Now that you have found materials on your topic, you need to select the material that best supports your speech. Remember to evaluate the information according to primary vs. secondary characteristics and scholarly vs. popular characteristics. In addition to these, you should also evaluate the information for currency and credibility.
Currency. The topic of your speech will dictate what a current source will be for you. For example, a speech about World War II would include sources from the last 60 years. However, if your speech topic is about dieting and exercise you would need very current sources since information about this topic changes constantly. The library also includes many books, videos, encyclopedias and much more. While these sources may contain a lot of information, they may not be current enough for your topic. Since we place emphasis on the use of peer-reviewed sources of information whenever possible, it will be necessary for you to make use of the UT Libraries.
Credibility. Basically stated credibility is how much trust you and your audience place in a source. This can usually be determined by the author and the soursce.
- Author. To evaluate the credibility of an author try to determine the author’s affiliation. Are they affiliated with a university or government organization (usually preferred) or is this person a staff writer for a magazine? This information is often available at the beginning or end of a source; however, you can also search the internet for the author and see what you find.
- Source. To evaluate the credibility of a source find out information about the publisher. The most credible publishers include professional organizations or societies, universities, research centers, or scholarly presses. The reputation of a source or publisher will also help to determine its credibility. For example, the New York Times is considered more credible than the National Enquirer.
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