Persuasive Speaking Topics
How to choose a great persuasive speech topic for your public speaking class
Having trouble thinking of a good topic for your persuasive speech? Here are a few tips to help you think of a great topic.
I taught public speaking classes to college students for many years, and one task that was difficult for many students was finding a good persuasive speaking topic for their persuasive speech assignment. Need some help? Here are some tips to help you come up with a great topic. (And if you're suffering from public speaking anxiety, read this article about how to get over your fear of public speaking.)
HOW TO FIND A GREAT PERSUASIVE SPEAKING TOPIC:
- Pick something you feel strongly about. If you don't feel strongly about your topic, how are you going to persuade the audience to feel the same way? Students sometime say, "But I don't feel strongly about anything!" Yes you do. Sit down with a piece of paper and brainstorm. If you like baseball, give a speech for or against salary caps. If you like rap music, give a speech on why rap music is not as violent as many people think. You get the idea.
- Avoid your "hot button" topics. Don't pick something you feel too strongly about. Hot button topics are issues you feel so strongly about that it's hard for you to understand where the other side is coming from. In order to give a good persuasive speech, you need to understand the other side's point of view, because how else will you change it?
- Pick something controversial. It doesn't have to be extremely controversial, but you do need to present a topic that not everyone agrees with. Otherwise there's no persuasion going on, and it's not a very good persuasive speech. For example, don't give a speech on why smoking is bad for your health. Who's going to disagree with that? Instead, try giving a speech for or against a campus-wide smoking ban. Now you have some controversy and a super topic.
- Avoid "tired topics." Tired topics are those that students pick all the time and that your instructor has heard over and over again. Yawn. Be creative. Here are a list of tired persuasive speaking topics to avoid.
- Pick a current event. Having trouble thinking of a topic? Go read a newspaper. What's going on in the world? If there's an election, endorse a candidate or a ballot referendum.
- Pick a campus or local issue. Are there controversial issues around campus? Are there controversial issues in your college town? These topics will be very relevant to your audience members.
- Pick an issue of interest to the audience. Give a speech about cell phones, or music downloads, or tuition hikes, or something the audience cares about. If they don't care about your issue, they won't be persuaded.
- Pick a smaller part of a big issue. Don't try to change people's mind about a huge issue in your short speech, because you can't. Think you can change your classmates' mind about abortion in a 6-8 minute speech? Of course not. However, you might change their minds about a portion of this issue, like parental notification laws.
- Be cautious with issues that some audience members might find offensive. Speech topics that some students might consider to be racist, anti-gay, or something along those lines are not great topics. Think about this: the object of this speech is to persuade your audience. If some of your audience members feel offended on a personal level, they sure aren't going to be persuaded. I'm a huge free speech advocate, but you might consider finding another outlet to express certain ideas than a persuasive speech.
Want some more specific ideas? Here's a list of great persuasive speaking topics to consider and fun persuasive topics for speeches and essays.
Do you have any ideas? Join the discussion!
The copyright of the article Persuasive Speaking Topics in Study Skills is owned by Naomi Rockler-Gladen. Permission to republish Persuasive Speaking Topics must be granted by the author in writing.
