Facts and Statistics

Facts and statistics are an incredibly useful tool when giving a speech. They can add credibility to what you are saying, and they can effectively drive home your point when you use proper fact/statistic placement. Facts and statistics appeal to an audience's logical side, which can create an effective juxtaposition with appeals to the audiences mental side. I think that facts and statistics are best used as a kind of punctuation throughout the speech. You want to use them as the Bang! Bam! Zowee! Parts of your speech. They are like exclamation points; totally useful when you use them in the right spot, but when you have a whole paragraph of nothing but exclamation points you lose the oomph that that particular form of punctuation provides. When you inundate your audience with cited facts and statistics, you audience may very well lose interest. I think it is best to appeal to your audience through a variety of methods , such as examples, testimony, definitions, and stories. Hitting your audience with a rainbow of these tools is sure to keep your audience engaged throughout your speech. Hooray!