Speech Topic Sources
Where to Draw Ideas for Speeches
Personal:
- Ice Breaker mentions
- Favorite Hobby
- Favorite Sport
- A personal object
- Impact someone had on you
- First job (part-time/full-time)
- A boss
- A teacher
- A lesson learned
- Learning to drive
- Traits as a kid
- A vacation or business trip
- Sideline talent
- Interests
- Most famous person encountered
- Favorite relative
- An incident
- A conversation
- Opinions on any subject
- Hero or someone admired
- Favorite movie or favorite actor
- Favorite food/recipe or restaurant
- Favorite quote or story or poem
- Favorite book
- Something you are knowledgeable about
Reference Materials:
- Magazine and newspaper articles
- Television/Internet news stories
- Books
- Television shows
- Website information
- Website indexes of links
- Sunday comics
- Billboards and other advertisements
- Dear Abby and other advice columns
- Community happenings and politics
- Historical event or person
- Toastmaster subjects or manuals
- Background of a famous person
- How/why something works as it does
- Explain a process or procedure
- Explain a concept or theory
- Research a subject you care about
- Research something to teach others
- Origins of some word/phrase
- How something came to be as it is
- Origins of a well-known company
- Philosophy of a specific leader
- Solution to some societal problem
- Demonstration of something
- How to do/accomplish something
Inspiration:
Take advantage of your moments and opportunities for flashes of inspiration.
Look for deeper meanings. Some occasions to do so:
- Quiet times
- Mundane tasks
- On a walk
- Commuting
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Watching a school play
- Listening to music
- Watching a fire/candle
- Exercising
- Showering
- Waiting in line
Five things to consider for each speech you give:
- The speech objectives in the manual -- what do you need to accomplish
- Your personal speech objective -- a one or two-sentence objective of what you want your audience to get from your speech after you are done
- The audience:
- what are their backgrounds, interests and experiences
- any terms need to be defined for the audience
- The environment:
- what props/equipment are needed to best present your speech
- what is happening immediately before and after your speech
- Your own abilities:
- will you have sufficient interest/enthusiasm about your topic and/or the way you present it
- will your audience consider you competent to speak on the subject
- can you do it in the allotted time
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