Day Five: Developing Your Speech by Yana Cornish Hamilton College

Choosing Speech Topics

Select and narrow your topic:  Consider audience  Consider occasion  Consider yourself

Choosing a Good Topic:  What type of presentation is it?  What topics interest you?  What do you know about these topics?  What topics will appeal to your audience?

Type of presentation  Informative - instructs, explains, describes, etc.  Persuasive - seeks to change audiences opinions and/or behaviors.  Entertainment - tries to amuse, interest, divert, or “warm-up” an audience.  Some skilled speakers will try to do all three…a professor may lecture to inform his or her students, but also try to persuade students that the information is important and interesting, while trying to entertain students so they will pay better attention to the information.

What do You Know?  Everyone is good at something and knows more about a certain topic than others.  You are an expert about your work experiences, personal experiences, skills, etc.  Many of the best presentations are based on or related to personal experiences.

Audience Interests  Think about ways to make your speech appealing to your audience.  Example: If you are interested in interpretation of dreams, relate the theories to common dreams most people have experienced.  Find the links between your interests and the interests of your audience.

How to select a topic:  Brainstorming  Listening and reading about things  Talking to other people  Searching the web

Finding a Topic:  I’ve always wanted to know more about...  If I had an unexpected week off, I would...  If I could give away a million dollars, I would…  If I could make one new law, I would…  I’ve always wanted other people to understand…  My favorite topic of conversation is…

Web sites that may help:  depot.com/speeches/persuasive-speech- topics.htm depot.com/speeches/persuasive-speech- topics.htm  ech.htm ech.htm  cspeaking/topics1.html cspeaking/topics1.html  k/persuade.html k/persuade.html   writers.com//persuasiveinformativespeeches. htm writers.com//persuasiveinformativespeeches. htm

Narrowing the Topic  ExampleMusic Folk Music Irish Folk Music The Popularity of Irish Folk Music in the U.S.

Developing your speech  Determine your purpose: –To inform –To persuade –To entertain  Formulate a specific purpose: –What you want your audience to be able to do after your speech. –“At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to…” –…list, explain, describe, write, support, know, understand, etc.

Developing your speech  Develop Central Idea: –One-sentence summary of the speech Examples: –Maintaining your car regularly can ensure that it provides reliable transportation. –Toxic-waste dumping is a major environmental problem in the US today. –Censorship of textbooks threatens the rights of students.

Developing your speech  Generate main ideas: –Subdivisions of the central idea Examples: –“Education benefits people in five ways:…” (each is a main idea) –Historical step-by-step description of events –Description of reasons behind your topic

Activity  Brainstorm 3 topics for each of the purposes: –To persuade –To entertain  Write 3 questions about each of them  Survey at least 5 people  Select topics best suited to the audience in our class and yourself

Activity:  Review Draft 1 of your informative speech outline  Share it with another student, let him/her make suggestions.  Make necessary changes.