Finding and Selecting a Topic
The Importance of Choosing a Good Topic
Choosing a good topic is an essential step towards delivering an effective speech.Learning Objectives
Explain the importance of selecting the right topicKey Takeaways
Key Points
- When you tell a story, you want your audience to be engaged, so you choose a topic that will interest your audience. The same goes for speech giving.
Key Terms
- topic: Subject; theme; a category or general area of interest.
Tips for Choosing a Topic
When you tell a story, you want your audience to be engaged, so you choose a topic that will interest your audience. The same goes for speech giving.When you choose a topic, consider your audience. Ask yourself: What topic, or subject, will engage the audience?If you are unsure what topic to choose, consider the following:
- current events (newspapers, other media)
- personal experience
- your hobbies– Does your audience have an understanding of the basics of your hobby or the terms used in it?
- your work–Are there things that you have learned through your work that would be useful to people who are not familiar with your profession?
- books you may have read recently
The trick is to be as relevant as you can to the audience who is listening to you.
Your Areas of Expertise
When selecting a topic consider areas in which you have expertise.Learning Objectives
Explain why choosing a topic in an area in which you are an expert is a good optionKey Takeaways
Key Points
- Considering your expert areas can help you decide what topic you will speak about.
- An expert area is one where you have knowledge that most people do not.
- Choosing an expert area for a topic has an advantage because you already have the knowledge, which makes it easier to explain to an audience.
Key Terms
- knowledge: Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning, etc.
- expert: A person with extensive knowledge or ability in a given subject.
- expertise: great skill or knowledge in a particular field or hobby
Your Expert Areas
Many people have areas in which they are experts.
Expertise: Considering your areas of expertise can be a way to generate a speech topic.
Your area of expertise might be a good topic to give a speech about because you already possess a familiarity with it. One benefit of this familiarity is that it reduces the time you will have to spend on researching. Instead, research will mostly be aimed at refining your expertise, enriching it, and ensuring that you are familiar with the conversation around that topic.
When trying to determine what topic you will speak about, picking an area where you have expert knowledge increases the likelihood that your speech will effectively communicate with your audience. For the audience, you are the authority on the topic that you are speaking about, so it might help to already have authoritative knowledge. A speech whose topic is related to your expert area will draw on your extensive knowledge, making it easier for you to explain the specifics of the topic to the audience.
Your Areas of Interest
Consider areas that you are interested in when trying to select a topic for your speech.Learning Objectives
Select your topic from an area in which you have an interest but are not yet an expertKey Takeaways
Key Points
- An interest is something that you are aware of but don't know much about.
- Think about what intrigues you about the area you are interested in.
- Choosing something you are interested in as a topic will likely turn you from a novice to an authority.
Key Terms
- Interest: A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.

A Stamp Collection: Someone who has an interest in stamps might think about that as a speech topic.
When choosing a topic, think about an area that interests you. Then ask yourself some questions, like "Why do I think this is interesting? " and "What specifically interests me about this topic? " Follow through your initial sense of inquisitiveness and consider how you might recreate this sense of interest in the speech, which would draw your audience in in a similar way to how you initially became interested in the topic. Then consider how you might enrich this interest by researching the area and learning more about it. The goal of your speech is be to navigate the audience through the same journey you went through, from ill-informed interest to informative understanding.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is one method to finding the right topic for a speech.Learning Objectives
Employ brainstorming as a method to help you generate topic ideasKey Takeaways
Key Points
- Brainstorming can be a helpful way to find the topic for your speech.
- Brainstorming is a helpful method to generate a large numbers of ideas in a spontaneous manner.
- During a brainstorming session, give yourself a time limit and then let yourself consider any thoughts you have in considering what the topic of your speech will be.
Key Terms
- brainstorming: A method of problem solving in which individuals or members of a group contribute ideas spontaneously.
Think of a brainstorming session in terms of what happens during a real storm. Think of the ideas as rain. Good storms have lots of rain, and a good brainstorming session should generate lots of ideas. And hopefully your brainstorming session will have a lightning strike, or an "ah-ha! " moment, where you identify the perfect topic for your speech.
Speech Topics: Brainstorming allows you to generate topics for your speech.
Brainstorming is one of many ways to help you find and select the best topic for your speech. Brainstorming should feel less stressful than other methods of generating ideas. Use brainstorming as a creative way to come up with different topic ideas. Use the creative topic ideas that you have generated during brainstorming to help decide what your speech will be about. A well-chosen topic is key to the success of a good speech.

Lightning Strikes: Lightning strikes, or "ah-ha" moments, during brainstorming mean that you are coming up with ideas.
Scoping Your Topic
Once you have generated a variety of ideas, it is time to narrow the topic to ensure it fits the scope of your speech.Learning Objectives
Demonstrate how to narrow your speech topicKey Takeaways
Key Points
- Scoping your topic is identifying the subtopics related to the general topic your speech will address.
- The amount of time allowed for the speech will help determine how narrow or broad the scope should be. A broader scope will take more time to explain, while narrowing will allow you to cover the material in less time.
- If your goal is to include more detailed information, narrowing your scope will allow you to analyze your topic more completely.
Key Terms
- narrow: To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
- topic: Subject; theme; a category or general area of interest.
- scope: The extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is relevant.

Narrow Your Topic: Narrowing your topic is like aiming for the bull's-eye on an archery target.
An important consideration when you begin narrowing in on the specific area of your general topic is how much time you will have to deliver your speech. If you have a shorter amount of time, you will need to narrow the scope of your speech. If you have a little more time, you might be able to cast a wider net when it comes to the topic of the speech. Use time constraints to your benefit, let them guide you to narrow the scope of your speech.
Scoping your topic will not only make the writing of the speech easier, but by narrowing the scope of your speech, you also increase the likelihood that your speech will effectively communicate with the audience. Covering a more narrow scope will allow you to include more detailed information, and cover your topic more fully. When your speech has a focused engagement, it is easier for audiences to follow along and be informed or persuaded, depending on what the purpose of your speech is.