In the past when I have had to give speeches, the point that I have found it most beneficial to include facts and statistics are the moment in the speech where they are most relevant. I have used facts and statistics in the intorduction to try and grab attention, but most of the time I use them in the body of the speech. I feel that the relevance of the facts to the current topic your are going over in your speech is the most important. You don not want to be talking about gun ownership in America and give a fact about how many cars were produced last year.
The only experience that I have had were statistics did not work in my favor was when I gave to many statistics in the speech. I needed to use them in moderation and make them have an impact. By over using them I believe that I diminished the statistics and made my speech very dry.
You had some great observations! Placement of statistics in your speech is so important. Sometimes they can be used as attention getters, and can really be effective in that sense. This is usually when it is something astonishing or surprising, something the audience would not expect. When a statistic is still true and important, yet a little less surprising, it usually fits well into the flow of the body of your speech. That way it serves to support what you are talking about, and also established credibility.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you mentioned over-use of statistics! When they are just regular information, too many can seem repetitive and will make your audience lose interest.
It is true that using facts that are not relevant can be dangerous during a speech. I can also see the problems that can arise from using too many facts. While using facts can be very beneficial, they can also backfire as you mentioned. Using them too often could cause the audience to become disinterested or even bored during your speech. So how does one give a speech and find a way to incorporate facts into it? The key is to get just the right amount of fact, personal story and entertainment.
ReplyDeleteBy marrying these three things you will most assuredly keep the audience's interest and attention. Using relevant facts throughout will also show the audience that you did your homework, yet you get the bigger picture. That is, you do not need to simply regurgitate statistics or facts from your sources because you can summarize a lot of it in your own words. I agree with JournalismGirl about attention getting facts being very helpful, however they still need to be used sparingly.