Making it Stick: Supporting Materials
A.
George Campbell identified four species of “moral
reasoning”—arguments
that may not be as certain as science or mathematics,
but carry greater probability than most appeals.
See the article on
Campbell from The Rhetoric of
Western Thought, cited here.
1.
Campbell called this kind of reasoning,
“moral” because he believed arguments based on these types has moral force.
This gives rise to “the rule of good reasons”
a.
If someone presents a sound argument based on this type
of reasoning, the audience is morally obligated to accept it.
b.
However,
if the audience can present better reasoning using these types to refute the
position presented, the other person is morally obligated to accept it.
2.
These four species or types are:
“Experience,
Campbell points out, is based upon
our own observation and provides a useful method of proceeding inductively from
a particular example to a universal premise. Further it enables us to isolate
the constituent elements of a fact. When an experience is replicated by
experimental research, its persuasive appeal is substantially strengthened.”
Business arguments often rely on both individual and corporate experience. "Our
competition failed in their first attempt at supply-chain automation. It's a
risky proposition. We better step carefully." "The last time I did this much
advance research on a customer, I closed one of my biggest deals ever. This kind
of preparation does make a difference." "Bob, do you remember that last
time this machine broke down? Didn't you figure out a way to fix it? I'm sure
you can fix it again."
“Analogy,
in Campbell’s view, is an ‘indirect
experience, founded on some remote similitude.’ The more distant or ambiguous
the relationship between two objects or events, the less rewarding is the
comparison. Because of this shortcoming the analogy generally is a weak form of
support. To offset this inherent problem, Campbell
recommends that numerous analogies be used, but primarily for defensive
reasons. Thus while it cannot advance truth, it diminishes the power of an
opponent’s refutation.”
Analogy is perhaps the most common business argument. Case studies serve as
examples from which managers draw analogies to their own companies. Leaders
assume that what works or doesn't work in one instance will work the same way if
applied to another situation. Of course, this kind of reasoning quickly breaks
down if there are too many dissimilar elements between the two situations.
Still, most business decisions are based on analogy.
“Campbell
lifted testimony from the inartistic plane described by Aristotle to the level
of artistic proof.”
“Again
he argued that testimony is experiential in nature because it is based upon the
observations of others. Similarly, he maintained that it provided the source
material for many disciplines including philosophy, history, grammar,
languages, jurisprudence, criticism, and revealed religion. But Campbell
added a new dimension when he asserted that testimony is stronger for single
facts than is experience. The latter has a higher position only when it leads
to a generalized conclusion resulting from experimental studies. Even this
advantage can be offset in part, Campbell
added, with concurrent testimonies that support a particular
observations.”
Business men and women often quote the borrowed experience of others. For
example, they site customer testimonials as evidence when trying to make a sale.
They site the latest management guru when arguing for a new program. Middle
managers use the comments of line workers to reinforce the appeals to senior
management. Campbell lays a significant amount of weight on testimony; its
value, however, is only as great as the perceived credibility of the source.
Often, therefore, testimony functions as borrowed ethos.
“What
Campbell hoped to do was to devise
some type of method that would assist the communicator in establishing a strong
probability when the elements of experience, analogy, and testimony were
contradictory and incapable of further experimental validation. With the aid of
mathematics, one might predict on the basis of past experiences stored in his
memory what the likely statistical probability of an occurrence may be. In this
sense it is demonstrative. But one might also use reason for the purpose of
balancing all of the possibilities inherent in both sides of a question. The
calculation of chances is then made on the grounds of degree of moral
certainty. This kind of proof which relates mathematics and logic to experience
and chance can be illustrated, concluded Campbell,
‘in the computations that have been made of the value of annuities, insurances,
and several other commercial articles.’”
Notice
that Campbell, writing in 1776, refers to exactly the kind of financial
calculations that drive business decisions today. We use financial and
statistical evidence to establish trends and from which we make assumptions
about the future performance of an investment, a company or a production
process. We use calculations to reveal weaknesses in a system on both the micro
and macro levels. Because we regard statistical evidence as objective and as
pure "information," we forget that we use this evidence to present arguments and
exert influence.
3. These form the core of evidence for most arguments in
business communication.
B.
Overall,
there are several different types of support material you can use.
From Ehninger, Douglas, et al. Principles and Types of Speech Communication.
9th Ed. Glenview, IL:
Scott, Forseman and Co., 1986.
This list covers the same types
that Campbell listed and adds a few
others.
a.
Explanations of What.
Kenda
Creasy, Miami University,
offered this explanation of a hospice in a speech on that subject:
A
hospice is an alternative method of terminal care comprised of a team of
doctors, psychologists, clergy, and volunteers who-basically-make house calls.
A hospice’s aim is to help people die with as little discomfort and as much
serenity as possible, involving family and friends along the way, and usually
taking place in the person’s home. Hospices do not cure; instead, they make
medical, psychological, and spiritual help available to both the patient AND
his family, before and after the funeral. As one health analyst put it, “A
hospice is really more of an idea than a place.”
b.
Explanations of How.
P.
Dorothy Gilbert introduced a speech on chair-caning by elaborating on the
process:
The
intricate patterns of cane or reed you see on chair seats make the process seem
mysterious and all too artistic for most of us. On the
contrary. As I will demonstrate to you today, anyone can learn to cane a
chair in order to restore a valuable antique or to save a family heirloom.
Chair-caning involves five easy-to-learn steps. First, soak the cane to make it
pliable; then, clean out the holes through which the cane will be stretched.
Next, weave the cane or reed through the holes in four to seven operations.
Fourth, tie off the pieces of cane underneath the chair. And finally, lace a
heavier piece of cane over the holes to cover them. Let me describe each step,
one at a time.
c.
Explanations of Why.
Wendy
Fletcher, University of North Dakota, uses a “why” explanation in answering the
question “What causes heart disease?”:
Epidemiologists
have associated a number of risk factors such as excessive smoking and high
concentrations of cholesterol with heart disease. However, not everyone who
possesses the risk factor suffers a heart attack, and many people who do have
heart attacks are not members of the high-risk groups. While there are many
theories concerning heart disease, one of the more widely accepted was
developed by Meyer Friedman and Roy Rosenmann of the Mount
Zion Hospital
and Medical Center
in San Francisco. This theory links
heart disease to a specific behavior pattern-the Type A or coronary-prone
personality. They have characterized the Type A
individual as marked by “excessive time urgency, impatience, competitiveness,
aggression and hostility.” As a result, the Type A person is often in a state
of internal stress that may be largely self-imposed and not necessary for
coping with the environment. Persons lacking Type A
characteristics are classified as Type B and are at a lower risk level for
having heart attacks and other related diseases having heart attacks and other
related diseases.
a.
Figurative Analogies.
Dr.
Louis Hadley Evans, minister-at-large for the Presbyterian Church, drew these
figurative analogies to distinguish between the terms deist and theist:
To
you the world is what: a clock or a car? Is it a huge clock,
that God once made, that He wound up at the beginning and left it to run
of itself? Then you are a deist. Do you believe that it is rather a car that
God once made, but that does not run without His hand on the wheel, without His
ultimate and personal control? Then you are a theists
b.
Literal Analogies.
In
arguing for a needed revision in the way job incentives are viewed, Caroline
Bird compares what happened during World War II and what could happen today:
Most
job incentives now assume that we’re all living in the 1950s when the top
managers who set them up were young men starting out. We need to redesign jobs
around the lifestyles of the 1970s. And as F.D.R. said when he asked for the
first 50,000 airplanes, “The engineers can do it if they really try.”
It’s
comforting to think back to World War II when we think of this future
restructuring, because the engineers did it. They did it by making the jobs fit
people. They broke tasks up so that women could do them and blacks could do
them, and people could do them part time if needed. They simplified tasks for
the newcomers and made them more efficient for everyone. 6
Charlton
Heston provides another illustration of a literal analogy, again using past
history as a guide to the present:
Less
than forty-five years ago, we saw the same phenomenon in Europe
we see now. The enemy was Hitler then, but the fear of war was just as real.
Then, as now, this fear led many to propose the most irrational compromises,
the most cringing accommodations. Winston Churchill, out of office and vilified
as a war-monger, fought to stem the tide. A rich lady labourite
chided him once at dinner. “Tell me, Mr. Churchill,” she said, “Why do you try
so hard to persuade us that Hitler is a bad man?” “If I do not succeed, Madam,”
said Churchill, “I’m afraid you will find out.” They did. We may well find out
in our time.
c.
Tests for analogies.
i.
How
similar are the parallels that are drawn?
ii. The
central question is whether the similarity on which the argument is based
outweighs any differences which could be put forward.
a.
Hypothetical Illustration.
Pam
Williams, Ball State
University, uses a hypothetical
illustration with an unexpected twist:
Suzanne
and Jack are going on a trip. They’ve been preparing for weeks, making sure all
their shots, papers, and passports are in order. However, as they board the
plane to leave, they are warned repeatedly, “Don’t drink the water, it’s bad
for you.” Suzanne and Jack aren’t going to Mexico.
They don’t live in New York City or
Chicago. Suzanne and Jack live in France
and they are coming to the United States.
i.
Because
you can manipulate the details of your illustration, the audience may be
understandably reluctant to accept your premise without further support. Be
sure to provide that support.
b.
Factual Illustration.
Kathy
Weisensel of the University of
Wisconsin
used her personal knowledge of two retarded persons in removing beliefs that
such individuals are ineducable and incapable of leading happy and productive
lives. With reference to her brother, David, she noted:
Under
Wisconsin law he was entitled to school until age
twenty-one, and he spent all those years in a separate special class. There he
learned the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics. After graduation
he was employed by the Madison
Opportunity
Center, a sheltered workshop for
the retarded. He leaves home each morning on a special bus and returns each
evening after eight hours of simple assembly-line work. While he is by no means
self-supporting and independent, he loves his work, and he is a happy man and a
neat person with whom to share a family.
There
are three major questions to consider when using factual illustrations to
support or explain an idea:
1.) Is
the illustration clearly related to the idea that is to be clarified or stretch
the credulity of the listener in making the connection of little use.
2.) Is it
a typical example? An audience often is quick to notice unusual in an
illustration; if your illustration appears peculiar or odd to the exception
rather than the rule, it will not prove very convincing.
3.) Is it
vivid and impressive in detail? The primary value of an illustration is the
sense of reality it creates. If this quality is absent, the advantage of using
an illustration is lost.
c.
As you integrate illustrations into your speech,
determine whether they meet the tests of relevance, fairness, and vividness of
detail.
d.
Remember
that in general, real illustrations are better the hypothetical.
An undeveloped illustration or example.
Instead of describing a situation with a detailed narrative, you simply refer
to it in passing.
Jane Scott of the University
of Iowa opened a speech on
architecture with a brief reference to a well-known building enabled the
audience to orient itself to her topic:
“You
all are familiar with Old Capitol, the beautiful pillared building you pass
each day walking from class to class. It’s a perfect example of federal period
Georgian architecture, the subject of my speech this morning.”
a.
Instances may be piled one upon the other until you
have firmly established the impression you wish to create.
Note,
for example, how James K. Wellington demonstrated the serious nature of his
claim that “creative and imaginative students often are not recognized by their
teachers”
We
should remember that the following persons were all identified as low achievers
or misfits:
Einstein-4 years old before he could speak; 7
before he could read.
Isaac Newton-was rated a poor elementary school student.
Beethoven-music teacher said, “As a composer, he is hopeless.”
Thomas Edison-teacher told him he was too stupid to learn
anything.
F. W. Woolworth-worked in a dry goods store at 21, employers
would not let him wait on customers; “didn’t have enough sense.”
Walt Disney-fired by a newspaper editor; “no
good ideas.”
Winston Churchill-failed 6th grade.
a.
Magnitudes.
U.S.
Representative Tom Steed of Oklahoma
employed such a combination in a speech on governmental red tape and paperwork:
Government
agencies print about 10 billion sheets of paper to be filled out by U.S.
businessmen-enough to fill more than 4 million cubic feet. Paperwork stemming
from federal, state, and local governments averages about 10 forms for every
man, woman, and child in the United States.
Official records stored around the country total 11.6 million cubic feet, or an
amount 11 times greater than the volume of the Washington
Monument. Paperwork generated by
Washington
alone in one year would fill Yankee Stadium from the playing field to the top
of the stands 51 times.
Brenda
Theriault of the University of
Maine
at Orono, arguing that there is “very little nutritional value in a hamburger,
chocolate shake and fries,” simply noted that “of the 1,123 calories in this
meal, there are 15 calories of carbohydrates, 35 calories of protein, and 1,073
calories of fat.” The audience did not need an analogy to understand the “nutrition”
in a typical fast food meal.
b.
Segments.
i.
Used
to isolate the parts into which a problem can be subdivided or to show aspects
of a problem caused by discrete factors. This descriptive approach is
especially helpful when you wish to break a complex topic into its component
parts.
In a
speech before a Public Affairs Council, Federal Elections Commissioner Joan
Aiken sought to de-emphasize the importance of political action committees
(PACs) in the campaigns of individuals. As support for her position, she
segmented PACs’ contributions in terms of both dollars and percentages:
In
the 1980 election, there were 2,266 candidates running for the Senate and
House. They raised a combined total of $240.1 million, $37.6 million of which
came from non-party PAC sources. Corporate-sponsored PACs contributed 4.9
percent of the money received by Democratic candidates and 6.4 percent of the
money received by Republican candidates. Organized labor gave 9.62 percent of
the money received by Democratic candidates and only 0.65 percent of the money
received by Republican candidates. Obviously, the overwhelming majority of the
money raised for House and Senate candidates came from
individuals. 14
J.
Thomas Cristy presented a breakdown of the financial statement of the American
Cancer Society as part of his argument that the society is “a leading force” in
the suppression of certain types of cancer research:
According
to the 1978 financial statements of the American Cancer Society, of the 140
million dollars taken in, less than 30 percent went for research; more than 56
percent went for salaries and office expenditures.... The statements also point
out that 200 million, of the Society’s 228 million dollars of assets, is
invested. This makes the ACS a prime banking and investment firm.
c.
Trends.
Pat
Schroeder, U.S. Representative from Colorado,
noted several trends which suggested social change for women in a speech at
Kansas
State University.
One trend was the increase in women’s participation in education and careers:
Look
at education: Over the past century, the number of undergraduate degrees
awarded to women climbed slowly but inexorably. In 1870, 15 percent went to
women; by 1930 the number had risen to 40 percent. The GI bill era reversed
that trend, but only temporarily.
By
1970, the gap was narrowing again. In 1980, women received 49 percent of all
undergraduate degrees.
And
female students were now majoring in such traditionally male fields as
engineering (up 830 percent between 1972 and 1982); agriculture (up 429
percent); business (up 247 percent); architecture (up 130 percent); and
computer science (up 123 percent). Similar changes were occurring in the
professions: between 1972 and 1982, women receiving degrees in law quadrupled
from 7 percent to 30 percent; medicine more than doubled from 9 percent to 23
percent; dentistry went up sharply, from 1 percent to 14 percent; and
veterinary science almost quadrupled, from 9 percent to 33 percent.
d.
When
you use statistics keep these cautions in mind:
i.
Translate
difficult-to-comprehend numbers into more immediately understandable terms.
1.) In a
speech on the mounting problem of solid waste, Carl Hall pictured the immensity
of 130,000,000 tons of garbage by indicating that trucks loaded with that
amount would extend from coast to coast.
ii. Don’t
be afraid to round off complicated numbers.
1.) “Nearly
400,000” is easier for listeners to comprehend than “396,456”; “over 33 percent”
is preferable to “33.4 percent,” and “over one-third” is even more preferable.
iii. Whenever
possible, use visual materials to clarify complicated statistical trends or
summaries.
1.) Hand
out a mimeographed or photocopied sheet of numbers; draw graphs on the
chalkboard; prepare a chart in advance.
2.) Such
aids will allow you to concentrate on explaining the significance of the
numbers, rather than making sure the audience hears and remembers them.
iv. Use
statistics fairly.
1.) Arguing
that professional women’s salaries increased 12.4 percent last year may sound
impressive to listeners until they realize that women are still paid almost
one-quarter less than men for equivalent work. In other words, provide fair
contexts for your numerical data and comparisons.
a.
Can capture a compelling statement.
Gary
Hart used testimony to clarify the sense in which “economic man” does not exist:
In
1967, Robert Kennedy wrote: “The gross national product measures neither our
wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our
compassion nor our devotion of country. It measures everything, in short,
except that which makes life worthwhile; and it can tell us everything about America-except
whether we are proud to be Americans. “19
b.
Functions as ethos on loan.
Cheri
Lindsley of Trevecca Nazarene
College sought out such information
in buttressing her argument in favor of home childbirth:
Dr.
Robert Bradley, author of Husband-Coached Childbirth, tells us that the
conditions most conducive for an ideal, peaceful, and undisturbed childbirth
atmosphere are “most nearly met by the environment of a mother’s bedroom in her
own home and the reassuring nearness of familiar and loved faces rather than
those of strangers.”
c.
Identifies an Opponent’s position
Representative
Schroeder paraphrased the comments of another and used them as a basis for her
response:
When a nurse or a high school math teacher with a college education
is paid less than a liquor store clerk with a high school education, there is
something wrong with our wage standards, not to mention our values.
One
of the naysayers, Phyllis Schlafly, was in Colorado
recently. She said that liquor store clerks should be paid more than nurses
because they lift heavy boxes; and tree trimmers should be paid more than
teachers because they work outdoors.
Fine, let’s pay nurses the same as surgeons, because they both work
indoors. And secretaries the same as lawyers because
neither lifts heavy boxes. Furthermore, the kids who deliver our
newspapers should be paid six-figure salaries because they drag around heavy
bundles and brave the elements.
d.
Note
that the use of paraphrase is an acceptable way to introduce the opinions of
others; care must be taken to insure that the paraphrase is an accurate
representation of the person’s views or statement.
e.
Follow these guidelines:
i.
The
person quoted should be qualified by training and experience as an authority.
He or she should be an expert in the field to which the testimony relates.
ii. Whenever
possible, the statement of the authority should be based on firsthand knowledge.
iii. The
judgment expressed should not be unduly influenced by personal interest. An
authority with a strong vested interest in the issue is suspect.
iv. The
listeners should realize that the person quoted actually is an authority. They
should be aware, or be made aware, of the speaker’s status; for the testimony
to be effective, they should be disposed to regard the source favorably.
a.
Restatement is the reiteration of an idea in different
words; repetition uses the same words.
b.
Provide
no real proof but often has strong persuasive impact.
c.
Advertisers repeat and restate their messages.
Walter F. Mondale, speaking at the 1980 Democratic
National Convention, incorporated repetition of a phrase in heightening the
impact of his view of the Democratic party and those
who speak on its behalf:
When
we speak of peace, the voice is Ed Muskie’s. When we speak of workers, the
voices are Lane Kirkland’s and Doug Fraser’s. When we speak of compassion, the
fire is Ted Kennedy’s. And when we speak of courage, the spirit is Jimmy Carter’s.
When we in this hall speak for America-it is America
that is speaking.
Gail Niles of Bethel
College uses restatement to
advantage in discussing “legalese”:
Please
get out a pencil and paper; I have a short quiz for you. Translate the
following into English: “We respectfully petition, request and entreat that due
and adequate provision be made, this day and the date hereinafter subscribed,
for the satisfying of these petitioners’ nutritional requirements and the
organizing of such methods of allocation and distribution as may be deemed
necessary and proper to assure the reception by and for said petitioners of
such quantities of baked cereal products as shall, in the judgment of the
aforesaid petitioners, constitute a sufficient supply thereof.”
Finished?
Good. The correct translation is “Give us this day our daily bread,” and the
passage was in that obscure and difficult language, American legal English.
