Types of Supporting Materials

Documents

1. Receipts, photos, memos, manuscripts, maps, charts, graphs, paintings, drawings, journal entries, photos, etc.

2. Texts (see below)

3. Statistics – used with citation data and source.

4. Testimony – the direct observation or personal experience of someone other than the speaker

4.1. Can be verbal or written or recorded (audio/video)

5. Examples – (see below)

6. Personal Experience – what the speaker has directly experienced

7. Common Knowledge – Be careful with this – don’t fall into “Ad Populum Fallacy!”

8. Direct Observation – what the speaker has directly seen

Examples

1. Brief Examples – directly relate to audience’s likely knowledge and experience

2. Hypothetical Examples – these are the “what if someone took” or “imagine a poor child” stories

3. Anecdotes – a story with a punch-line that emphasizes your point

4. Case Study – a fully developed scenario exploring and explaining the point you wish to make

Texts

1. Books

1.1. Scholastic, Popular, Fiction, Non-Fiction, etc.

2. Journal Articles

3. Reference Works

3.1. Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, P.D.R., etc.

4. Magazines

5. Newspapers

6. Government and Scholastic Publications

7. Web Pages