Public Speaking

58 CHAPTER^5 Selecting Your Topic and Purpose

Consider Your Personal Interests

A basic principle of topic selection is to choose subjects you know and care about or

those you wish to investigate further. Brainstorm your personal interests and experiences

to generate a number of possible topics.^6 What is your major? Your occupational goals?

Your hobbies? What music do you like? What irritates you? How should society change?

Unique life experiences also make good topics. You are who you are because of what you

know and what you’ve experienced. What topics in your family background, jobs, travel,

or recreational interests might interest others?^7 Here are some ways students created

speeches around their interests and experiences:

•   Leif, an engineering major, actually built a hovercraft. He chose to explain the

technology of that type of vehicle. (Read his outline in Chapter 11.)

•   David, a nursing major, explored the topic of male nurses.

•   Lishan, a student from China, compared and contrasted the Western celebration of

St. Valentine’s Day with the Chinese Double-Seventh Festival, sometimes called the

Chinese Valentine’s Day. (Read his speech in Appendix B.)

•   Emily chose the topic of introversion to explain her personality.

Questions

1. Should students avoid topics such as abortion or sexual issues, which often have
   political and religious underpinnings and which arouse emotional responses? If so,
   what topics should be avoided and why?


2. How should your class balance First Amendment rights to speak freely—even about
   culturally taboo topics—against your responsibilities as outlined in Weinstein’s five
   principles or the dialogical and democratic principles described in Chapter 3?


3. Identify a political, religious, sex-related, or money-related topic of your choice that
   needs to be discussed because honest discussion could actually enhance Weinstein’s
   five ethical principles.

Most people have never
built a hovercraft like Leif,
but they can still find topics
among their interests and
experiences.

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