Once you’ve identified your purpose and approach to your topic, you may think the next step is to start writing or outlining your presentation and begin designing your presentation aids. Certainly, if you’ve given serious thought to the rhetorical situation, you should already know a great deal about what you want to say. But knowing what you want to say isn’t enough. You also need to find and select relevant, varied, interesting, and valid supporting material.

Supporting material consists of the ideas, information, and opinions you use in a presentation to support your purpose. Well-chosen supporting material helps you inform, persuade, entertain, and/or inspire your audience. It can also enhance your credibility, substantiate your claims, and generate audience interest.

Whether you’re an expert on the topic or learning as you research, you always need to verify and cite your sources during your presentation. This chapter will help you find, verify, use, and cite supporting material to make your presentation more interesting, impressive, and memorable.