Tired Persuasive Speaking Topics

Avoid these overused persuasive speech topics in your public speaking class

Jan 13, 2007

Some persuasive speech topics have been used too often and need a rest. Here are a list of some tired public speaking topics to avoid.

Looking for a great persuasive speaking topic to use in your public speaking class? Here's one important tip: be creative, and avoid tired topics that the instructor and the students have heard over and over again. The audience is likely to get bored and tune you out. And since the instructor has heard this topic before, he or she knows what kinds of mistakes students make when giving a speech about this topic, and will be on the lookout for these errors.

Does this mean you definitely should not give a speech about one of these topics? Not necessarily. If you feel very strongly about one of these topics and want to give a speech about it, go ahead. Or choose a creative and more interesting variation of one of these topics.

Here is a list of tired persuasive speaking topics that you probably want to avoid:

The death penalty. In my experience, this is by far the number one tired topic chosen by students. I have no idea why, as I doubt many students have personal experience with the death penalty.
Why you should join a fraternity or sorority. There's nothing wrong with this topic, but everyone on campus has heard these arguments before. Your audience will tune you out.
Why marijuana should be legal. If you choose this topic, you need to give an excellent speech or the class will dismiss you as a stoner.
Why the drinking age should be 18. See #3.
Abortion. This topic isn't as tired as you think, but everyone has heard these arguments before.
Why you should wear your seat belt. Or why you should wear your helmet. This is not new information.
Why you shouldn't smoke. Also not new information. Why you shouldn't binge drink is kind of a tired topic too, but it's more timely.
Why you should use a condom. An important message? Yes. A new message? No. If you do this speech, for gosh sakes, don't demonstrate how to put a condom on a banana.
Why you should give blood. Another useful topic that unfortunately has been overused.
Why you should recycle. See #9.
Violence in the media. This topic is both tired and difficult. There's so much information out there about violence in the media, and lots of it is conflicting. Sex in the media also is a tired topic.
Why you should adopt a pet. This speech always goes the same: cute pictures of kitties and doggies, followed by horrible stats about how many animals are put down. The get your pet spayed or neutered speech is not as tired, but avoid any cheesy references to Bob Barker.
Affirmative Action. There's nothing wrong with a controversial topic, but this one has been overused big time.

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