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Selecting Your Speech Topic
How can you come up with a topic for a speech?
"The time has come," the walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
Of cabbages - and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures through the Looking Glass
There are two general sources of information on the "many things" that can be topics:
- Personal experiences
- Reference materials
Personal Experiences
- If a speaker is involved with a topic, the audience is likely to become involved.
- Try to relate the information in a way that is interesting to you and to the audience.
- Personal involvement, interest, and enthusiasm generate response.
- Possible topics include:
- Family
- Profession
- Interests
- Experiences
- What you've seen/learned/deduced
Reference Materials include:
- Books
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Audio or video tapes
- Movies
- Internet
- Radio or TV
Additional Tips:
- Be open to inspiration from many sources.
- Consider a humorous or provocative approach to a mundane topic.
- Ideas can be elusive, so record them as soon as possible and keep them in a file.
- John Steinbeck: "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
When Evaluating Topics,
Consider:
- Your audience - their knowledge, experiences, and interests.
- The occasion - is there a specific purpose - to inform, persuade, commemorate, entertain?
- Your abilities - knowledge and interest, credibility, preparation.
(Adapted by Rachel Harjes from the Toastmasters International Better Speaker Series module, "Selecting Your Topic")
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