Question of Fact Speech Guidelines
Question/Claim of Fact – The purpose of a question of fact is to prove something exists or does not exist, happened or didn’t happen. Like a jury in a courtroom. The defendant is guilty or not guilty and why you think that. Your job as the is to prove to others something has occurred. You examine the evidence, draw a conclusion based on your research of the idea, event, topic and then prove to us it exists or doesn’t exist.
For example: “I am going to prove to you today that the abominable snowman truly exists.”
“Today I will prove to you plagiarism is growing problem in the political arena”
“I am going to prove to you many college students at our university are below the poverty line and bordering on homeless.”
There is no call to action. You are not trying to get your audience to do anything. All you want to do is begin the first step in persuasion and prove to your audience a problem exists and affects us. You must provide your own credibility on the issue. Why do you see this as a problem and how does it affect us.
Look at your topic – what is the opposing thought on it? Prove to us one side or the other is happening or exist. How in the world can we even begin to do anything (later speeches) until we first see there is a problem.
It is very close to being an informative speech and you may feel like it is but your INTENT for providing us this information is persuasive in nature. You want us to see differently – to begin to recognize issues and their effects on each of us. So your outcome/goal (specific purpose) is persuasive.
Posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
