ENGLISH 10 STUDY GUIDE

Types of Information Sources

Primary Information Sources

- A primary information source provides direct or firsthand information

about an event, person, object, or work of art. Primary sources are
contemporary to what they describe. They are original materials which
have not been interpreted, condensed, or evaluated by a second party.

Here are some examples of primary information sources.

 Diaries
 Experiments
 Poems
 Personal correspondences
 Speeches
 Paintings
 Interviews
 Annual reports of an organization or agency
 Patents
 Court records

Secondary Information Sources

- A secondary information source analyzes, interprets, or discusses

information about a primary information source. Secondary sources
are subsequent to what they describe, as they are produced at some
point after a primary information source appears. Papers written by
students typically contain mostly secondary sources.

Here are some examples of secondary information sources.

 Textbooks
 Biographies
 Magazine articles
 Book reviews
 Histories

Tertiary Information Sources

- A tertiary information source lists, compiles, or indexes primary and

secondary information sources. These sources are most often used to
look up facts or to get a general idea about something.

Here are some examples of tertiary information sources.

 Almanacs
 Chronologies
 Directories
 Manuals
 Handbooks
  Guidebooks
 Indexes
 Statistics

The specific types of primary, secondary, and tertiary information sources

you might use when writing a paper depends upon the subject of your
paper. For example, if you were writing about the Civil War, you might use a
Civil War soldier's diary as a primary source, a book about the Civil War as
a secondary source, and a list of Civil War battle sites as a tertiary source.

CRAAP is an acronym for Currency, Relevance, Authority,

Accuracy, and Purpose. Use the CRAAP Test to evaluate your
sources.
Currency: the timeliness of the information

 When was the information published or posted?

 Has the information been revised or updated?
 Is the information current or out of date for your topic?
 Are the links functional?   

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

 Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?

 Who is the intended audience?
 Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or
advanced for your needs)?
 Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you
will use?
 Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: the source of the information

 Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?

 Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
 What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
 What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?
 Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?
 Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?
o  examples:
 .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .gov (U.S.
government)
 .org (nonprofit organization), or
 .net (network)

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content

 Where does the information come from?

 Is the information supported by evidence?
 Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
  Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal
knowledge?
 Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?
 Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Purpose: the reason the information exists

 What is the purpose of the information? To inform? Teach? Sell?

Entertain? Persuade?
 Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
 Is the information fact? Opinion? Propaganda?
 Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
 Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or
personal biases?

RHETORICAL APPEAL
A rhetorical appeal is the formal way of talking about how you use different
methods to persuade someone. Let's imagine you're ten years old and you really
want a new video game for your birthday. You approach three people: your dad,
your mom, and your grandma.
Ethos is the appeal to the authority and reputation of the speaker or
writer. Let’s say you want to know more about what it’s like to be a female
CEO in corporate America. Would you trust a man to tell you? Or let’s say
you want to read a compelling argument against the death penalty. Would
you read an essay written by a serial killer on death row?
We want the author or speaker to have credibility. 
Your writing style can make you seem fair-minded, thoughtful—cool even. It can
also make you seem smug, affected, or obsessive. Present yourself in a way that
inspires trust, and then your audience will believe almost anything you have to say.

Pathos is the appeal to the emotions. Anytime your writing has an

emotional impact you are dealing with pathos. Consider the following two
statements:

I think we need to provide more mental health instruction.

I lost my daughter to suicide.

Which statement pulls at your heartstrings? The second one of course.

You can appeal to people’s emotions in many ways. You can make them cry, you
can make jokes, and you can show outrage. Even the most seemingly objective
writing styles will contain some element of pathos.

Logos is the appeal to logic. Anytime you build a case by presenting

logical reasons (causal explanations, syllogisms, etc.), you are using logos.
PERSUASION AND THE ETHICS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

PERSUASION
- Process of changing or reinforcing attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors
 Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
 Ethos—credibility

 Pathos—emotional appeal

 Logos—logical appeal (reasoning & evidence)

 People will be persuaded by one or more of these reasons

QUALITIES OF POSITIVE ETHOS
 Credibility—whether you are qualified to speak on a given topic
 Competence

 Character

 Establish Credibility
 Competence—informed, skilled, knowledgeable

 Trustworthiness—believable and honest

 Dynamism—energy (charisma)

 Enhance Credibility
 Initial

 Derived

 Terminal

 Strengthen your Ethos

 Share audience concerns

 Cite reputable experts

 Use personal experience

 Be clear and interesting

 Consider different points of view

 Deliver with dynamism

APPEALING TO EMOTIONS (PATHOS)
 Fundamental to motivating an audience
 Never a substitute for logical arguments and available evidence
 Dimensions of emotion = pleasure, arousal, power
 Be ethical when using emotion. Use:
 Concrete examples

 Emotion-arousing words

 Visual images to evoke emotion

 Appropriate metaphors and similes

 Appropriate fear appeals

 Appeal to several emotions; hope, pride, courage, etc.

 Ethical Considerations
 Avoid deception and manipulation
 Recognize and respect power of emotions
 Avoid distraction and disorientation
 Don’t overwhelm audience
 Use emotional appeals to supplement and complement well-reasoned
arguments

BUILDING AN ARGUMENT (LOGOS)

 Use logic and evidence to persuade
 Logic—System of rules for making inferences

 Reasoning—Process of drawing conclusions from evidence

 Evidence—Facts, examples, statistics, expert opinions

 Claims
 Debatable assertion by speaker

 Takes a side on an issue and invites debate

 A statement with which you want your audience to agree

 Types of Claims

 Fact

 Value

 Policy
Types of Claims
FACT CLAIMS
Claims about the truth or falsity of an assertion
 Involve existence, scope or causality
 Questions about past / present
 Predictions of the future
 Require empirical proof: real examples, statistics, and expert testimony
VALUE CLAIMS
Claims about the worth, rightness, and morality of an idea or action
 Involve what we consider good or bad, right or wrong
 Focus on what we believe to be appropriate, legal, ethical or moral
 Determine how we should evaluate facts, ideas or actions
POLICY CLAIMS
Claim about whether a specific course of action should or should not be
taken
 Determine our future actions
 Deal with how to solve problems
 Evaluate options by costs, feasibility, advantages and disadvantages
 “Should” is either stated or implied
Two kinds of policy claims:
1. Speeches to gain passive agreement - Goal is to convince audience that a
given policy is desirable without encouraging the audience to take action in
support of it.
2. Speeches to gain immediate action - Goal is to convince the audience to take
action in support of a given policy
TYPES OF PUBLIC SPEECHES

INFORMATIVE SPEECHES

An informative speech involves a knowledgeable speaker transferring some of their

knowledge to their audience.
An informative speech is one in which the speaker relays knowledge to an audience
on a specific topic. There are four distinct categories of topic:

 things, people, or places

 methods
 events
 ideas

SPEECHES ABOUT OBJECTS

For the purposes of this type of informative speech, anything that is visible and
tangible is considered an object. Object speeches seek to impart knowledge about
this object to the audience. Whether your object is the human body or the most
recent episode of Family Guy, informative object speeches provide a comprehensive
overview of your object as topic.

It's important that object speeches have a purpose: using our previous examples,
you may discuss the complex, myriad ways in which the endocrine system
functions and how it regulates metabolism; similarly, you may describe how Family
Guy serves as a modern form of satire in pop culture. It's one thing to spout off
facts about an object, but there must be a purpose to those facts.

SPEECHES ABOUT PROCESSES

A process is the manner in which something is created, made, done, or works. An

informative speech about a process then describes how something is made, done,
or works. Processes could include anything from how the modern Electoral College
works to how an ice cream sandwich is made on the factory line. Informative
process speeches work to help your audience both understand the process, and
possibly be able to replicate the process for themselves (if applicable).

SPEECHES ABOUT EVENTS

Any occurrence that happens is regarded as an "event. " A speech about an event
then, describes the occurrence in full: the time, date, location, and circumstances
of that occurrence. Like all informative speeches, event speeches must also serve a
purpose. You may talk about how the Battles of Lexington and Concord came to be
known as the "shot heard 'round the world," or describe the experience of your first
week at college. In either case, your speech must have a purpose to it.
SPEECHES ABOUT CONCEPTS

Concepts refer to ideas, beliefs, theories, attitudes, and/or principles. When

speaking about concepts, you may have to find concrete ideas in order to make
abstract ideas more relatable and tangible to your audience. Whether discussing
the theory of the origins of the universe to whether there's any truth to the phrase
"love at first sight," concept speeches break down complex ideas into manageable
chunks of understanding for your audience.

CRAFTING AN EFFECTIVE INFORMATIVE SPEECH

A narrowly focused speech topic can really hone in on an object, process, event, or
concept, thus making it easier for the audience to understand that topic. A broadly
chosen topic usually entails lots of different kinds of information, which might
complicate the informative quality of a speech and confuse the audience members.
A narrowed focus also makes researching more manageable for the speech writer
and increases his or her ability to understand that topic thoroughly before
presenting it to others.

When writing an informative speech, pick out a small number of key points on your
specific topic that you want the audience to take away from your speech. Use these
points to develop an organizational structure to your speech, which should include
an introduction, body, and conclusion. This structure will provide a trajectory that
guides your audience as you elaborate the key points of information. Having a
structure gives you, as the speaker, an opportunity to introduce the key points in
the introduction and revisit them in the conclusion, increasing the likelihood that
the audience will walk away with the key knowledge about your topic.

PERSUASIVE SPEECHES

In a persuasive speech, a speaker attempts to persuade the audience to adopt

his/her position in relation to a topic.
Key Points

 A persuasive speech intends to persuade the audience to adopt the position

of the speaker.
 Know your audience: in order to be persuasive, the form and content of your
speech must take into account what the audience knows and how it wants
to be addressed.
 An appeal to ethos is used to show the character of the speaker and make
him/her more credible.
Key Terms

 Audience: A group of people within hearing; specifically a group of people

listening to a performance, speech etc.; the crowd seeing a stage
performance.
 Pathos: That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or
excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions,
such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or
expression; pathetic quality.
 Persuade: To successfully convince someone to agree to, accept, or do
something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence.

INFORMATIVE VS. PERSUASIVE SPEECHES

Many speeches will contain elements of both informative and persuasive speeches.
Key Points

 An informative speech aims to inform the audience about a specific topic.

 A persuasive speech aims to persuade the audience to perform a certain
action or convince the audience to adopt the belief or opinion of the speaker.
 Many speeches will combine features of informative and persuasive
speeches.
 Know the audience: the types of knowledge they possess, the core beliefs
they hold, and what motivates them to undertake actions.
 Considering the purpose of the speech will help determine if the speech
should use more of the features of informative or persuasive speeches

Key Terms

 Informative: Providing knowledge, especially useful or interesting

information.
 pathos: That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or
excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions,
such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or
expression; pathetic quality.
 Persuasive: Able to induce to believe by appealing to reason or
understanding; convincing.

Speeches for Special Occasions

Some special occasions require speeches that are different than speeches aimed at
informing or persuading audiences.
Key Points

 Special occasion speeches tend to be shorter speeches, commonly less than

ten minutes.
 Special occasion speeches are commonly addressed to a particular audience.
 Depending on the context, special occasion speeches can be funny or sad.

Key Terms

 Context: the situation in which something happens.

 Toast: to engage in a salutation and/or accompanying raising of glasses
while drinking alcohol (or other appropriate beverage) in honor of someone
or something.
 Pathos: an appeal to an audience's emotions or sensibilities.
PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS
PRACTICE

Even great speakers practice their speeches beforehand. Practice out loud
with a recording device or video camera and then watch yourself to see how
you can improve. If you are feeling brave, practice in front of a friend or
family member and ask for feedback.

1. Talk about what you know: If possible, choose a topic for your speech or
presentation that you know a lot about and love. Your passion for the topic
will be felt by the audience, and you will feel less anxious knowing that you
have a lot of experience to draw from when other students ask you
questions.
2. Concentrate on your message: When you focus on the task at hand, anxiety
is less likely to get out of control. Concentrate on the main message of your
speech or presentation and make it your goal to deliver that message to the
other students in your class.
3. Grab the audience's attention: Most of your fellow classmates will pay
attention for at least the first 20 seconds; grab their attention during those
early moments. Start with an interesting fact or a story that relates to your
topic.
4. Have one main message: Focus on one central theme and your classmates
will learn more. Tie different parts of your talk to the main theme to support
your overall message. Trying to cover too much ground can leave other
students feeling overwhelmed.

PREPARE

Being prepared to speak in public can also be important if you have social
anxiety disorder. Feeling confident and prepared to give your speech may
help lessen your feelings of anxiety. Some of the things that you can do to
prepare include:

1. Visit the room: If you have access to the classroom where you will be
speaking outside of class hours, take the time to visit in advance and get
used to standing at the front of the room. Make arrangements for any audio-
visual equipment and practice standing in the exact spot where you will
deliver your speech.
2. Rack up experience: Volunteer to speak in front of your class as often as
possible. Be the first one to raise your hand when a question is asked.
Your confidence will grow with every public speaking experience.
3. Observe other speakers: Take the time to watch other speakers who are good
at what they do. Practice imitating their style and confidence.
4. Organize your talk: Every speech should have an introduction, a body, and a
conclusion. Structure your talk so that the other students know what to
expect.

MANAGE YOUR ANXIETY

Taking steps to deal with your feelings of anxiety can also make public
speaking easier. Some of the things that you can do:
 1. Tell someone about your anxiety: If you are speaking in front of a high
school or college class, meet with your teacher or professor and describe
your public speaking fears. If you're in elementary or high school, share your
fears with your parents, a teacher, or a guidance counselor. Sometimes
sharing how you feel can make it easier to overcome stage fright.
2. Visualize confidence: Visualize yourself confidently delivering your speech.
Imagine feeling free of anxiety and engaging the students in your class.
Although this may seem like a stretch for you now, visualization is a
powerful tool for changing the way that you feel. Elite athletes use this
strategy to improve performance in competitions.
3. Find a friendly face: If you are feeling anxious, find one of your friends in
class (or someone who seems friendly) and imagine that you are speaking
only to that person.

MAINTAIN PERSPECTIVE

Remember that other students are on your side. Think about a time when
you have been an audience member and the student delivering the speech
or presentation was noticeably nervous. Did you think less of that student?
More likely, you felt sympathetic and wanted to make that person more
comfortable by smiling or nodding.

Remember—other students generally want you to succeed and feel

comfortable. If for some reason the audience is not on your side or you
experience bullying or social exclusion, be sure to discuss this with a
parent, teacher, or guidance counselor.

BE CONFIDENT

Sometimes just knowing what makes a good speech can help you feel more
confident. Focus on some of the following elements and practice them before
you have to speak in public.

1. Develop your own style: In addition to imitating good speakers, work on

developing your own personal style as a public speaker. Integrate your own
personality into your speaking style and you will feel more comfortable in
front of the class. Telling personal stories that tie into your theme are a great
way to let other students get to know you better.
2. Avoid filler words: Words such as "basically", "well", and "um" don't add
anything to your speech. Practice being silent when you feel the urge to use
one of these words.
3. Vary your tone, volume, and speed: Interesting speakers vary the pitch (high
versus low), volume (loud versus soft), and speed (fast versus slow) of their
words. Doing so keeps your classmates interested and engaged in what you
say.
4. Make the audience laugh: Laughter is a great way to relax both you and the
other students in your class, and telling jokes can be a great icebreaker at
the beginning of a speech. Practice the timing and delivery of your jokes
beforehand and ask a friend for feedback. Be sure that they are appropriate
for your class before you begin.
5. Smile: If all else fails, smile. Your fellow classmates will perceive you like a
warm speaker and be more receptive to what you have to say.
A WORD FROM VERYWELL
It's natural to feel frightened the first time you have to speak in front of your
class. However, if you fear continues, interferes with your daily life and
keeps you awake at night, it may be helpful to see someone about your
anxiety.

Try talking to a parent, teacher, or counselor about how you have been

feeling. If that doesn't get you anywhere, ask to make an appointment with
your doctor. Severe public speaking anxiety is a true disorder that can
improve with treatment.