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Public Speaking Outline

An Outline for Your Informative Speech. To help you organize your informative speech, try placing your ideas and thoughts in the following outline tool:

Introduction - start your speech strong by using a "hook" or attention getter. Then give the big picture of your informative speech, your central point (or thesis statement) and then an overview of where you are going (what you will say) during your speech.

1. A "hook" or attention getter - A few sentences to draw in your audience right from the start. What will peak and capture their interest right from the beginning? Maybe it's something unexpected, surprising, or witty.

2. You and the topic - Introduce yourself and briefly describe your interest in the topic/what it has to do with you. This is to earn rapport and credibility with your listeners, especially if they don't know you personally.

3. Thesis statement - a succinct statement of your purpose and the specific topic that you will discuss.

4. Importance, significance, relevance - Answers the "who cares" question. Why is the topic important, significant, and relevant to your audience? Make this clear so that they will be able to see how your speech will be useful to your listeners.

5. Signpost - where your speech is headed. Describe in general what you intend to cover so that your listeners won't get lost and will know what to expect.

The body of your speech - the main points and evidence (examples, data) to support your case. You will likely have time for three main points or so. Each main point needs to be supported by examples and supporting data, and diagrams, photos, and visual images.

• Transition - Let the audience know you are diving into the main part of your speech.

• Main point - Here are the central points you are making in your informative speech.

• Examples and supporting data - Support your claims by providing examples and supporting data.

• Diagrams, photos, and visual images - Sometimes a good diagram or picture is worth a thousand words in explaining or illustrating something. Consider using one or two good ones to help strengthen your case.

Conclusion - Once you have presented your main points, you need to end strong! The conclusion consists of a reminder of the main points you gave, along with a memorable concluding remark.

• Transition - Let the audience know you are drawing to a close so they are not caught off guard.

• Summarize the main points - Briefly restate the main points so your audience is clear on what you have presented.

Concluding remark - End with a good, memorable, strong statement. Let the audience applaud before you ask for questions.

Topics to consider

Advertising, Africa, Agriculture, Animals, Antarctica, Anthropology, Antique, Applied Sciences, Archaeology, Architecture, Aromatheraphy, Artificial Intelligence, Arts, Asia, Astrology, Astronomy, Australia, Aviation, Backpacking, Beauty, Biographies, Biology, Bird Flu, Books, Cheerleading, Chemistry, Children, Cities, Climate, Communication, Cooking, Countries, Business, Cars, Celebrities, Culture, Dancing, Demographics, Design, Drinks, Ecology, Economics, Education, Engineering, Entertainment, Ethnic Groups, Etiquette, Europe, Family, Fashion, Finance, Food, Games, Geography, Government Hiking, History, Home, Industries, International Organizations, International Relations, Labour, Languages, Law, Lifestyles, Literature, Manufacturing, Maps, Martial Arts, Mass Media, Medicine, Military, Movements, Movies, Museums, Music, Mysteries, Mythology, Myths, National Parks, Nature, News, North America, Oceania, People, Performing Arts, Personal Life, Pets, Philosophy, Physics, Politics, Popular Culture, Psychology, Radio, Reference, Religions, Science, Society, Sociology, South America, Space, Sports, Sports Events, Technology, Telecommunications, Television, Tourism, Toys, Travel.

Good Informative Speech Topics: Decision Time

Review your short list of ideas for good informative speech topics. The main questions are: Is it not too simple or too complicated? If appropriate: can you cover the speech topics in the given time limit?

Good luck with selecting good informative speech topics!

40 Informative Speech Topics

1. Ways to help the countries of Africa.

2. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

3. What is BarMitzwah?

4. Who is John Wayne Gasey?

5. Who is Edward Casey?

6. Famous temples in the Maya culture.

7. Roman Empire

8. The Great Train Robbery.

9. Samurai warriors of ancient Japan.

10. Plants, animals and other organisms that live in the oceans.

11. Tornadoes chasers

12. The planets, moons, asteroids, comets and dwarf planets in our Solar System.

13. How the American Civil War began.

14. The secrets of crop circles.

15. If I was a journalist for one day, I should...

16. Does Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster exist?

17. Yoga for beginners.

18. Why the unsinkable Titanic sank.

19. Mysterious stories of the Bermuda Triangle

20. How Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas.

21. Different types of whales; marine life happens to be a very good informative speech topic.

22. How the Greeks organize their Ancient Olympics.

23. The travels of Marco Polo.

24. How animals can survive the extreme cold of Antarctica.

25. History of our National Anthem.

26. How to plan a geology field trip.

27. Aerodynamics in sports equipment.

28. Architecture: building and construction styles.

29. Futuristic vehicles in transportation.

30. The most famous tricks of Houdini the magician.

31. The Rat Pack

32. Any serial killer

33. Tesla

34.

Persuasive Speech Topics How To Guide

|Persuasive speech topics starting point: how to's and lists of examples of good persuasive topics for public speaking speech writing and speech class assignments. |

|Lets start my collection of how-to tutorials with the two Golden Rules Of Thumb for persuasive speech writing and speaking. |

|First, state facts, values or policy claims to get your listeners change their views or to convince them to act. |

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|FACTS |

|Persuade that your fact is true. Prove that your claim is the best and defend yourself against oppositional ideas. |

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|Example: Persuade your audience that space exploration is beneficial. |

|VALUES
Persuade that something is right or wrong, moral or immoral, valuable or worthless. Appeal to the beliefs, morality and values of your listeners. |

|Example: Persuade your speech classmates that cheating at school is absolutely unacceptable. |

|POLICIES
Persuade that there is a problem and get the audience to agree with your solution. Motivate them to act or change attitudes, policies or policy regulations. |

|Appeal to human needs, reason and emotion. |

|Example: Persuade your audience that school uniforms is beneficial. |

Debate Topics

1. Should school students face a mandatory drug test?

2. Should the African Union copy the European Union cooperation model?

3. Should students be required to wear a school uniform?

4. Are the Olympic Games a waste of money? Or other debate speech topics on huge sports events.

5. Should all African conflicts be handled by African countries themselves, and not by third parties?

6. Is our nation still unprepared for disasters? Or other debate topic themes about safety.

7. Should school prayer be prohibited?

8. Should skateboards be prohibited on sidewalks?

9. Should minorities be treated differentially?

10. Should the age to vote be reduced to 16?

11. Should 16 year old people be allowed to get a tattoo? Or other speech ideas on for example ear and body part piercings?

12. Should the Double Jeopardy Rule - nobody can be tried twice for the same offence - be abolished?

13. Could a President serve for more than two terms?

14. Should the use of animals in sports and entertainment be banned?

15. Should there be a curfew for people under 18 years to reduce crime?

16. Does Hollywood movies have a bad influence on the world?

17. Should homework assignments be limited to a maximum of three nights a week?

18. Do school authorities have the right to search students’ lockers? Or other education related debate topic issues.

19. Do adopted children have the right to know who their biological parents are?

20. Should there be a green tax on aviation fuel?

21. Should factory farming of chickens be banned?

22. Are certain persuasive issues not appropriate for debate speech topics? 


Debate Strategies

While debating is a form of art, involving aspects from showmanship to critical thinking, there are certain strategies that are commonly used to shape the direction of a debate.

Moral High Ground

One such strategy is to adopt the Moral High Ground, consigning the other parties to appear weak, unethical. In this strategy, the party will try to illustrate the moral benefits that their side of the debates brings to the table. i.e. more environmentally aware, pro-human rights etc.

Model Construction / Destruction

Often, in the process of debates, each party will need to build a conceptual model of the topic on which to base the debate. Thus merits will be given to the team with the better model.

The model can be assessed on the following count.

• completeness

• timeliness

• feasibility

A model can be attacked as well by highlighting undesirable effects. e.g. Floodgate effect that can follow a policy, the social backlash that could happen. That your small action can open up the floodgates.

Famous Quotes

• "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

• "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde

• "Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin

• "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. - Wayne Gretzky

• "Happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you got". - Garth Brooks

• "Honesty is the best policy." - Benjamin Franklin

• "If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded." - Maya Angelou

• "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

• "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra

Deep and Reflective Quotes

• "We get into a rut. We play tennis, we go to a movie, we watch TV, but I keep saying, `John, there has to be more.'" - Chris Evert, after winning 146 tennis championships.

• "And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln

• "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' - C. S. Lewis

• "If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." - C. S. Lewis

• "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." - C. S. Lewis

• "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."

Funny Quotes

• "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same." - Oscar Wilde

• "The average person thinks he isn’t." - Father Larry Lorenzoni

• "If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is 'God is crying.' And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is 'Probably because of something you did.'"- Jack Handey

• "Avoid fruits and nuts. You are what you eat." - Jim Davis

• "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." Winston Churchill

• "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is NOT for you." - Unknown

• "Men are like port-a-johns. All the good ones are taken and all the bad ones are full of crap!" - Unknown

Stupid Quotes

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM in 1943

• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles in 1962

• "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." - Brooke Shields

• "If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure." - Dan Quayle

• "It is wonderful to be here today in the great state of Chicago" - Dan Quayle

Science Quotes

• "A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid." - James D. Watson

• "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." - Ernest Rutherford

• "The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

• "My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists as all." - Stephen Hawking

• Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." - Werner Von Braun

• "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein

Political Quotes

• "Ich bin ein Berlinner." - John F. Kennedy

• "Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain." - John F. Kennedy

• "A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln

• "If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" - Abraham Lincoln

• "In my country we go to prison first and then become President." - Nelson Mandela

• "Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave badly around women. And I hope I never get into that." - Bill Clinton

• "I think we agree, the past is over." - George W. Bush

Good Speech Quotes

• "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

• "Become who you are." - Friedrich Nietzsche

• "Ideas are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny." - Carl Schurz

• "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

• "History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again."

• "The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about." - Wayne Dyer

• "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life." - Plato

• "Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." - C. S. Lewis

• "Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." - C. S. Lewis

• "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

• "Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do." - Thomas Jefferson

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." - Francis Bacon

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