Selecting a Topic

• Searching 

• Selecting 

• Evaluating 

• Purposes of Speeches

• Topic Selection to Thesis Statement: A Three-Step Process

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​Selecting a Topic and Purpose

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• begins with catagoies that prompt you to think of topics.

Catagorial brainstorming

• ​occurs when you write down all possible topics you can think of.

Individual brainstorming

• Conduct a personal inventory-consider featues of your life such as experiences, attitudes, values, beliefs, interests and skills

• Current topic identification items found in the news, on the media, and on the minds of people in your audience

• Interest searching - start research early because there is too much information available

​How to choose a topic that interest you

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-content meets audience's expectation

-topic linked to audiences concerns

-narrowed to fit the time allotted​

Significant, timely & tailored.

You

The audience

The situation​

​Appropriate to

​General

• Inform - seeks to increase audiences's level of understanding or knowledge about a topic

• Persuade - seek to influence, reinforce, or modify audience members' feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values or behaviors

• Special Ocassion​ - presentation that highlights a special event

​Purposes of Speeches

Specific purpose - indentifies your purpose as an outcome or a behavioral objective

• Includes general purpose, intended audience, and precise goal

Good purpose statements are:

• Declarative

• Complete statements

• Descriptive and specific

• ​Focus on one idea​

Good writing is good writing, but that doesn't mean you can't orchestrate it or tweak - John Travolta

How to write a thesis statement for a speech

​“A talk is a voyage with purpose and it must be charted. The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there.”- Dale Carnegie