Supporting Points

Supporting points are used to provide evidence to your audience.

The more types of evidence you give, the more listeners prefer it. Alternate the types of evidence you provide, e.g. move from a story, to a statistic.

Offer Examples

There are three kinds of example:

• Brief
• Extended
• Hypothetical

Share a Story

• Make it compelling
• Use anecdotes

Draw on Testimony

• Expert
• Lay-person

Give Facts and Statistics

• Facts must be shown to come from a credible source
• Statistics should be used sparingly
• When using statistics, make sure:
  • they are reliable
  • you provide context
  • you avoid cherry-picking
  • you are not treating them as unchanging truth