1. CHOOSING A TOPIC AND DEVELOPING A STRATEGY
SPEECH110
C.ShoreFall 2015
East San Gabriel Valley, ROP

2. Learning Objectives
6.1: State when it is appropriate for you to choose the topic of your speech and when the choice is beyond your control.
6.2: Identify the characteristics of a good topic.
6.3: Proceed through the steps involved in choosing a good topic.
6.4: Define strategic plan and explain the steps for developing and implementing one.
6.5: Formulate statements of the specific purpose and thesis of your speech and illustrate how these statements will influence other strategic decisions.
6.6: Analyze your thesis statement to figure out which issues you need to discuss and which ideas need support.

3. 6.1: Topics Elements of a topic may include: For this class
Commitment to a cause
Reputation
Occasion
For this class
All topics must relate to the 2016 Presidential Elections on Nov. 3, 2015

4. 6.2: What Makes a Good Topic?
Importance to the speaker
Interest to the audience
Worthy of listeners’ time
Appropriateness of scope
Appropriateness for oral delivery
Appropriateness to the rhetorical situation

5. 6.3: How to Choose a Good Topic
Conduct a personal inventory
What issues do I care about?
Which of my experiences might be generalizable?
Which of my interests overlap with those of the audience?
Brainstorm
Use categories or topoi to start
Narrow the topic
Move from most general ideas and make more specific

6. 6.4: Developing a Strategic Plan
Identifying the Purpose
Providing new information/perspective
Agenda setting
Creating positive/negative feelings
Strengthening commitment
Weakening commitment
Conversion
Inducing a specific action

7. 6.4: Developing a Strategic Plan
Identifying the Constraints
Constraints arise from:
Audiences in general
Your specific audience
Your ethos as a speaker
Nature of your topic
The rhetorical situation
Identifying the Opportunities
Information advantage
Audience analysis

8. 6.4: Developing a Strategic Plan
Selecting the Means
How will you. . .
Lead the audience?
Structure the speech?
Use language techniques?
Present the speech?

9. 6.5: Developing the Purpose Statement and the Thesis Statement
General purpose:
Ex.--To inform, (persuade or entertain)
Specific purpose:
Ex.--To inform students of cheating on campus
The Thesis Statement
Ex.: Far more students cheat than most of us think.

10. 6.6: Analyzing the Thesis Statement
Identifying the issues
Determine what the speech must cover
Direct your research
Possibly modify your thesis
© Monika Graff / The Image Works

11. 6.6: More on Thesis Statements
Hemingway – The six word novel
“For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”
Characters: A woman and the man who got her pregnant.
Setting: newspaper ad
Plot: Obviously, the woman became pregnant. She began preparing for the baby's arrival, which is evident from the fact that she bought or was given some new baby shoes.
Conflict: The fact that the baby shoes were never used indicates that the baby died either before or during birth — quite a conflict for a young mother-to-be.
Theme: The theme of this story is dealing with loss — specifically the loss of a child. Are the baby shoes kept as a reminder of the loss or in hope of having another child? Are they destroyed in a fit of anguished rage? No; they are put up for sale, giving us a glimpse of how the characters are dealing with the loss as well as some of the considerations that went into the decision to sell the shoes.

12. 6.6: Identify the thesis Katy Perry: Firework
Taylor Swift: Blank Space
Hozier: Take me to church
Firework
Directly: Baby you’re a firework
Implied: You are important
TSwift
Directly: I’ll put your name in my blank space
Implied: Let’s date
Hozier
Directly: Take me to church
Implied: I am homosexual and still worship the lord

13. Take Away
6.1: State when it is appropriate for you to choose the topic of your speech and when the choice is beyond your control. *
6.2: Identify the characteristics of a good topic.
6.3: Proceed through the steps involved in choosing a good topic.

14. Take Away
6.4: Define strategic plan and explain the steps for developing and implementing one. *
6.5: Formulate statements of the specific purpose and thesis of your speech and illustrate how these statements will influence other strategic decisions.
6.6: Analyze your thesis statement to figure out which issues you need to discuss and which ideas need support.