Your greatest and most reliable source of information will be at your local library. As already mentioned, most states these days have interconnected their local public libraries into a book-sharing system, which means that the entire collection of every library in your state is available to you—without having to travel!
Begin your library research by finding your state’s interlibrary loan website, then search through their catalog by subject. You can then request any books be sent to the library nearest you; when you’re done with those books, simply return them to the same library.
(This process may require that you have a library card at a member library in your state. If you don’t already have a library card, get one! You’ll use it for the rest of your life.)
Next, you’ll want to visit your local library in person, because many of their most valuable research tools cannot be taken home. The first and most valu-able of these resources is the librarians themselves!
These are the people who spend their professional lives immersed in books, and they possess a vast breadth of knowledge. In fact, many larger libraries have personnel who specialize in research, known as research librarians. Ask these experts to point you toward materials on your topic, and you’ll save a great deal of time.
Following are some of the vast resources that you’ll find at your local library.
Books
Books are the best source of in-depth and detailed information on any topic you can think of. They will cover your topic in far greater detail than any website or periodical, simply because books have more space devoted to the subject than websites or periodicals can conveniently afford.
Another important feature of books is that you (and your audience) can refer to them at a later date.
Websites can change or disappear overnight, but that book will be on your library shelves for years to come.
Finally, books will address many aspects of your topic, enabling you to refine your speech. If you want to speak on horses, there will be books available that discuss the care and feeding of horses, how to raise riding horses, how to breed racehorses, the history of domesticated horses, what equipment is used to train horses—and, of course, books on horses in general.
Simply browsing along a library shelf can give you valuable ideas on how to narrow your topic.
Periodicals
Periodicals include magazines, trade journals, aca-demic journals, newspapers, and many other publica-tions that come out periodically. These are a valuable resource for information that needs to be up to date. If you’re speaking on healthcare issues, for example, you’ll certainly want to investigate books on the subject—but you’ll also want to consult relevant peri-odicals to gather some recent facts and statistics.
You’ll quickly discover that there is a whole world of periodicals in print, and simply browsing through your library’s periodicals section will prove over-whelming. The best method is to consult the library’s best resource, as previously discussed: the librarian.
This is especially true if your library has a dedicated research librarian, because that person is familiar with the immense selection of periodicals on file, and can quickly direct you to the best sources.
The librarian will also be able to direct you to indexes and search engines that are specifically dedicated to periodicals, known as periodical indexes. These indexes are generally computerized to make search faster and easier. (Your state library might even have a periodical index available on its interlibrary website.) They are up-to-date listings of thousands of periodicals that work just like a library card catalog, permitting you to do a search by subject to find out which issues of what publications had articles on that topic. Some of the most commonly used periodicals indexes are the Reader’s Guide to Peri-odical Literature, the Social Sciences Index, the Human-ities Index, and the Education Index.
Remember: When in doubt, ask a librarian.
Microfilm and Microfiche
Many periodicals, such as newspapers, make their back issues available in micro-formats. Microfilm and microfiche are miniature photocopies of each page in a periodical, and they utilize special viewing machines that magnify those pages and even allow you to print them out. In this way, libraries can retain newspapers and other periodicals indefinitely, allowing you to read the current events of last century.
This can be especially useful if you want to dis-cuss a certain trend in your speech. Returning to our horses example, you might want to discuss how horse racing has changed in the last 50 years. You might find it useful to consult periodicals from 50 years ago to see what was being written about the subject, and you’d find those periodicals available in microfilm format.
Reference Materials
I mentioned encyclopedias in connection with their modern online equivalents, but those books are still printed today as well. Your local library will be well stocked with an array of reference books that will prove invaluable in your research. Here are just a few examples:
n encyclopedias
n dictionaries
n atlases
n books of quotations
n almanacs
n yearbooks and date books
n indexes and cross-indexes
n government documents –doing Your HoMework–
Exercise
Use this form when doing library research:
n Book title:
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n Author:
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n Publisher:
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
–doing Your HoMework–
n Copyright date:
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n Call number (the number used by the library to find the book):
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n Notes:
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n Begin your research inside your own head, brainstorming for anecdotes, personal experiences, and insights that can add spice to your speech.
n Don’t rely solely on internet research; use your library!
n When in doubt, ask a librarian.
n take notes! you might think that you’ll remember what you’re reading or that great idea that just came to mind—but you won’t. Write it down.
n Write down complete citations for all research material so that you can refer back to it at a later date.
n summarize the main ideas of your research, perhaps at the top of the document, in terms you can quickly reference and understand.
tips
doing Your HoMework
–doing Your HoMework–
leSSon
a
s William Penn wisely remarked, the primary goal of any speech is to be understood, not to impress the audience with eloquence. Yet there are secondary goals to one’s speech, beyond simple commu-nication. Your secondary goal might be to teach the audience a new skill, or you might want to persuade the audience that one type of toothpaste is better than another, or you might simply want to entertain with warm and funny stories of the bride and groom.Whatever your speech occasion may be, you will have two goals in mind before you even begin. The first goal is firm and fixed—to communicate and be understood—while the second goal will determine the type of speech you write. There are probably as many types of speech as there are speeches given, in the sense that every speech is unique, but we can categorize most speeches into four groups:
n Informative
n Demonstrative
n Persuasive
n Special Occasions
LESSON SUMMARY
Whatever your reason for speaking, this chapter will help you understand and achieve your goals on any speaking occasion.
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.
—William Penn, 1644–1718