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Speech the topic include in the Oral Communication
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- 2. Select a TopicThat Will Interest the Audience • Audience’s attitude is “What’s in it for me?” Two other ways to determine whether a topic is boring or interesting are to (1) ask your instructor and • (2) survey classmates several weeks before your talk by asking them to rate several potential speech topics as “very interesting,” “moderately interesting,” or “not very interesting.”
- 3. Select a TopicYou Care About • You must select a topic that you are exciting or interesting about. • It shows something you are eager to communicate to others. • Enthusiasm is contagious. If you are excited, your excitement will spread to your listeners. • In case, your delivery will probably come across as dull and unconvincing
- 4. Select a TopicYou Can Master • Speak on a subject with which you are already thoroughly familiar— or about which you can learn through research. • Here are several ways to probe for topics about which you already know (or can learn) a lot. • In case, a speech on a subject about which you know very little, some listeners (who know the subject well) point out your omissions and errors.
- 5. Ways to probefor topics • Personal Experiences start your search with the subject on which you are the world’s foremost expert—your own life. • Work experience (past and present) • Special skills or knowledge (managing money) • Pastimes (hobbies, sports, recreation) • Travel • Unusual experiences • School interests (academic and extracurricular) • Concerns or beliefs (politics, society, family, etc.)
- 6. Brainstorming • Try brainstorming(so called because it is supposed to create intellectual thunder and lightning). • Write down whatever pops into your mind. • For example, if you start off with the word helicopter, the next word that floats into your mind might be rescue and then the next word might be emergencies, and so on. • Don’t censor any words. Don’t apply any critical evaluation. • Simply write whatever comes into your mind. Nothing is too silly or bizarre to put down.
- 7. People comedians Tracy Morgan Stephen Colbert talkshow hosts Places Washington, DC Smithsonian Jefferson Memorial Things e-book reader Kindle tablet iPad Health healthy food dried cranberries pomegranate seeds blueberries Music Adele Rihanna Taylor Swift Sports pitchers lefthanders knuckleball perfect game Current Events depletion of fish in oceans mercury in tuna farm fish Social Problems traffic accidents smartphones texting teenage drivers driver education
- 8. Narrow the Topic •Too broad: Native Americans • Narrowed: Shapes, colors, and legends in Pueblo pottery • Too broad: Prisons • Narrowed: Gangs in federal and state prisons • Too broad: Birds • Narrowed: How migrating birds navigate
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- 10. Purpose • To inform •To Educate • To Persuade • To entertain
- 11. The Specific Purpose •After you have chosen a topic and determined your general purpose, your next step is to formulate a specific purpose, stating exactly what you want to accomplish in your speech. Here is an example: • Topic: Student loans • General Purpose: To inform • Specific Purpose: To tell my listeners how to find student loan services that are trustworthy and fair
- 12. • Topic: PreservingYosemite National Park • General Purpose: To persuade • Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to support steps to reverse overcrowding and neglect in Yosemite National Park • Now you have a sharp focus for your speech. You have limited yourself to a topic that can be covered adequately in a short speech.
- 13. Limit the Statementto One Major Idea Resist the temptation to cover several big ideas in a single speech. Limit your specific purpose statement to only one idea. • Poor: To persuade the audience to support efforts to halt the • destruction of rain forests in Central and South America, • and to demand higher standards of water purity in the United • States • Better: To persuade the audience to support efforts to halt the • destruction of rain forests in Central and South America
- 14. Make Your Statementas Precise as Possible • Strive to formulate a statement that is clear and precise. • Poor: To help my audience brighten their relationships • Better: To explain to my listeners three techniques people can use to communicate more effectively with loved ones
- 15. Achieve Your Objectivein the Time Allotted • Don’t try to cover too much in one speech. It is better to choose a small area of knowledge that can be tightly focused than to select a huge area that can’t be covered completely. • Poor: To tell my audience about endangered species • Better: To convince my audience that international action should be taken to prevent poachers from slaughtering elephants
- 16. Don’t Be TooTechnical • You have probably sat through a speech or lecture that was too technical or complicated for you to understand. Don’t repeat this mistake when you stand at the lectern. • Poor: To explain to my listeners the biological components of the Salmonella enterica bacterium, a common cause of food poisoning • Better: To explain to my audience the steps to take to avoid food poisoning
- 17. The Central Idea •The central idea is the core message of your speech expressed in one sentence. It is the same as the thesis sentence, controlling statement, or core idea—terms you may have encountered in English courses. • If you were forced to boil your entire speech down to one sentence, what would you say? That is your central idea. • If, one month after you have given your speech, the audience remembers only one thing, what should it be? That is your central idea.
- 18. Devising the CentralIdea • Specific Purpose: To persuade my listeners to support government funding of radio transmissions into outer space Central Idea: Most scientists agree that radio transmissions are the best means for making contact with extraterrestrial civilizations (if any exist).
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