Choose and Refine a Topic

1. Choose Your Topic.

   • That matters to you.

   • Appropriate to the speaking occasion, and audience.

   • Narrow Your Topic.

Stages:

1. Decide.
2. Refine.

​

​Define Your General and Specific Purposes

Communication Skills

Planning Public Speaking

Like a conversation.


Uses and builds on skills and principles we've discussed previously.

Public speaking

90 %

Choose and refine a topic

Choose Your Topic.

• That matters to you.

• Appropriate to the speaking occasion, and audience.

• Narrow Your Topic

Define Your General and Specific Purposes

Stages:

1. Decide.
2. Refine.

GOAL:
Increasing listeners understanding, awareness, or knowledge about some topic.

​​Inform

Persuade

​GOAL:
To interest, amuse, or please

listeners.

​​Entertain

​GOAL:
Aim to change or reinforce people’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors or to motivate people to act.

Behavioral objective or observable response that will indicate you achieved your communication goal.

​

​Specific purpose

Thesis statement

​What is it?

The main idea of an entire speech.

• Ineffective

• Effective

Steps in Planning Public Speaking

1. Identify the broad topic.

2. Narrow the topic.

3. Define a general purpose.

4. Determine a specific purpose.

5. Develop a thesis statement.