Are you one of those people who can take something apart and then easily put it back together again because you noticed—and remembered—where every piece goes? If so, you’re one step ahead in the process of building a good oral presentation. Paying attention to the details in your speech, whether it comes naturally or not, can help you reinforce the points you’re trying to make.
Supporting details can be facts, statistics, definitions, studies, examples, or direct quotes—they just need to show that your main points are valid. In a presentation about surprising uses of mushrooms, for example, you might focus on their health benefits, which is the topic of the two summaries below. The first one summarizes an article published in the International Journal of Microbiology titled “Edible Mushrooms: Improving Human Health and Promoting Quality Life,” and the second one summarizes a patient-information sheet from the National Cancer Institute called “Medical Mushrooms.” Read these two summaries and look for details about the role of mushrooms in promoting health.
Mushrooms are good sources of many vital nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Low in calories and high in nutrition, mushrooms are an important part of a healthy diet for humans. In addition to being delicious, mushrooms are also considered to be nutraceuticals, foods whose chemical components fight disease and improve health.
Mushrooms’ antitumor properties work by activating the immune response of the host organism, rather than by killing tumor cells. Other chemicals produced by mushrooms, called beta-glucans, also stimulate the human immune system and protect it from harmful microbes and environmental toxins. Beta-glucans also protect humans from infectious diseases and cancer, and they aid patients’ recovery from chemotherapy and radiation.
In Asia, mushrooms have been used to treat infections for hundreds of years. Medicinal mushrooms are also used to treat lung diseases and cancer. In China and Japan, medicinal mushrooms have been safely used along with standard cancer treatments for more than 30 years.
Two kinds of medicinal mushrooms, the turkey tail and the reishi, have received the most attention by cancer researchers in China, Japan, and South Korea. Laboratory studies in both animals and humans have reported promising early results, but neither turkey tail nor reishi has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as a cancer treatment in the United States.
Let's Practice
Can you identify the details in each summary that would support a claim about the wonders of fungi? Use these questions to figure out what details belong in a presentation that addresses this topic.
Summary 1
Mushrooms are good sources of many vital nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Low in calories and high in nutrition, mushrooms are an important part of a healthy diet for humans. In addition to being delicious, mushrooms are also considered to be nutraceuticals, foods whose chemical components fight disease and improve health.
Mushrooms’ antitumor properties work by activating the immune response of the host organism, rather than by killing tumor cells. Other chemicals produced by mushrooms, called beta-glucans, also stimulate the human immune system and protect it from harmful microbes and environmental toxins. Beta-glucans also protect humans from infectious diseases and cancer, and they aid patients’ recovery from chemotherapy and radiation.
Summary 2
In Asia, mushrooms have been used to treat infections for hundreds of years. Medicinal mushrooms are also used to treat lung diseases and cancer. In China and Japan, medicinal mushrooms have been safely used along with standard cancer treatments for more than 30 years.
Two kinds of medicinal mushrooms, the turkey tail and the reishi, have received the most attention by cancer researchers in China, Japan, and South Korea. Laboratory studies in both animals and humans have reported promising early results, but neither turkey tail nor reishi has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as a cancer treatment in the United States.
What details in the first summary relate to the role of mushrooms in promoting health?
What information in the second summary relates to the role of mushrooms in promoting health?
Which detail from the second source would likely be MOST surprising to a general audience?
How could you use the details in these summaries to give a speech about mushrooms?
| Your Responses | Sample Answers |
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Mushrooms provide vital minerals and vitamins when consumed, and they contain chemicals that can help the body fight infections and even cancer. |
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Mushrooms have been used as medicine for hundreds of years in Asia and are currently used along with standard cancer treatments there. Turkey tail mushrooms and reishi mushrooms, which are the main ones used to treat cancer, are not approved for that use in the United States. |
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Most likely, the fact that in Asian countries mushrooms have been used along with standard cancer treatments for more than 30 years would be surprising. |
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You could explain mushrooms’ nutritional benefits and give specific examples of the nutrients they contain as proof. Then you could mention the use of mushrooms to fight disease in Asian countries and give examples of some research studies as evidence. |
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