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SPE 151 Introduction to Speech

This guide will help you locate, evaluate, and cite credible sources for your three speeches: Demonstration, Informative, and Persuasive.

Demonstration Speech

Information need: Find sources to support what you're demonstrating in your speech. Consider where you will most likely find information on your topic to help you choose your search tool.

Google is the best search tool for your Demonstration speech. If you want to demonstrate how to throw a football, YouTube videos from football pros or articles from NFL.com will be useful. Do you know someone who has experience throwing a football, like a former high school football coach? You may choose to interview them because they are also an authoritative source of information on this topic.

Even for demonstration purposes, you should still strive for authoritative sources.

Google Search Tips for Finding Demonstration Speech Sources

  • Phrase your search as a question. For example, "how do you throw a football?"
  • Cross search Google images, news, or videos.
  • When evaluating websites for credible sources, look past the site's domain (.com, .edu, .org). It only tells you what kind of website it is: commercial, education, non-profit (possibly). Evaluate the content itself. Who wrote it? What kind of experience do they have?

Google can help you find information for all of your speeches. Use these search tips for better results:

  • Use "quotation marks" for phrase searching ("endangered species").
  • Search a specific domain (endangered species site:.gov)
  • Search a specific site (site:EPA.gov endangered species)