Selecting a Speech Topic
Before you sit down to write a speech, you first need to figure out what you’ll be speaking about. Pick something you’re passionate about. If you’re going to be speaking to a room full of people, they’ll need to feel your energy and enthusiasm for your topic. When writing a Persuasive Oratory, consider questions like:
What’s something wrong with the world that you desperately want to fix?
What’s something commendable that you want to encourage others to do?
If you only have a few minutes left to live, what’s one message that you absolutely must pass on before you go?
When writing an Informative Oratory, consider questions like:
What’s something really neat that you want to share with others?
What’s something you can’t believe you never knew before?
How can you improve someone’s life by cluing them in to something they’ve been oblivious to?
In some events, you won’t have the luxury of selecting your topic from out of thin air. In Congressional Debate, you’ll be speaking for or against a particular bill that you probably didn’t write. In the other debate events, you’ll be either affirming or negating a resolution that was set in advance. In these instances, though, you still get to bring your own perspective to the discussion at hand, so while you don’t have complete and total freedom in deciding what you’ll talk about, make sure what you decide to focus on is something you can fully support with zeal.