EN2100 Speech Guide

You'll need to do some background research first to develop a good speech topic.

Some good places to find background information:

• Encyclopedias and reference books
• Credible websites
• Library databases

These Library databases and ProCon.org help you find topics for speeches, credible information on those topics, and citations to other credible resources. When you're ready, move on to refining your topic.

Now that you've done some background research, it's time to narrow your topic. Remember: the shorter your speech, the narrower your topic needs to be. Here are some suggestions for narrowing and defining your topic:

• Is there a specific subset of the topic you can focus on?
• Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
• Is there an unanswered question on the subject?
• Can you focus on a specific time period or group of people?

Describe and develop your topic in some detail. Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence, as much as you can:

I want to speak on ____(what/who)____

and ____(what/who)____

in ____(where)____

during ____(when)____

because ____(why)____.