Carefully review your assignment and then choose a meaningful topic that satisfies your instructor's requirements. Librarians are happy to help you brainstorm potential topics and/or point you toward databases providing topic ideas. Bring your assignment description (and outline template) with you when you visit the Research Help Desk.
If you can't think of any ideas, you can browse through these databases. Be sure, though, to remember that this is an informative speech. So, if you pick an idea that covers an issue, you just focus on the facts of the issue and not the opinions and interpretation of it.
Do some background reading to get more acquainted with your topic and help figure out the story you want to tell in your speech. Preliminary reading is a great help in developing your main points, as well as identifying useful search terms for future database searching.
The point is not to start gathering your actual sources -- though you may very well find some along the way -- but to get comfortable with your topic by consulting engaging, easy to understand sources.
Your professor will provide samples of organizational pattern(s) appropriate for various types of speeches. For instance, some speeches lend themselves to a chronological order, where others work well as a cause-effect presentation, and so on. As you do your background reading, pay attention to how the sources you find organize information on your topic. What works for you? Will it work for your audience? Decide upon your organization and begin to sketch out the story you want to tell.
After you land on an effective organization pattern, your job is to find the best sources possible to help you tell that story in a compelling -- and credible -- way. As you begin to gather the best sources, be sure to pay attention to the number and type of sources required by your professor.
After you've done some background reading and have an idea of the points you want to make in your speech, it's time to dig deeper and find evidence to support those points .
The MJC Library & Learning Center subscribes to over 100 databases. Listed below are some of our most popular databases; MJC research librarians are happy to point you toward the best database(s) for your choses topic. A complete list of MJC Databases can be found HERE.
You can also search Google to find information on the Web for your speech.
Finding information isn't the challenge in today's information environment. Your job is to find reliable information. You can use the CRAAP Test criteria to evaluate your sources, along with lateral reading strategies in which you look up authors, publishers and ideas in multiple sources to get a clear idea of who is providing the information you are considering.
Your citation style will affect your paper in three places:
Click on the appropriate link below to learn how to format your paper and cite your sources according to a particular style.
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Text: (209) 710-5270
