Watch the videos below before choosing your topic!
Requirements for a persuasive speech topic:
https://youtu.be/MvVYFO3ZzHQLinks to an external site.
Persuasive Speech Body Point Patterns –
https://youtu.be/smottxgY4AILinks to an external site.
Banned topics: You may NOT choose the following topics:
Abortion (this is the ONE topic that I think is too personal/divisive, however, you reframe this women’s rights to/not to contraception that may impact abortion)
Religious conversion. By this I mean you cannot use this class as a platform to convert someone to your religion or abandon their religious or non-religious belief system in some way. It’s not the appropriate forum.
Legalization of Marijuana – waaaaaay too overdone and usually leads to far too much giggling during a speech to be considered college level.
Anything that is non-controversial:
For instance: Don’t text/drink and drive (everyone agrees you should not do that – no one argues FOR drinking and driving. You can choose to persuade us that policies should/should not be put in place to curb these behaviors, or argue that current punishments are too strong/not strong enough).
Or, preferences you have, such as “People should drink Dr. Pepper instead of Coca-Cola” or “Apple vs. Android” or “So-and-so is the best football player” – these topics lack the scholarly element and are too difficult to find scholarly research to support your point.
Go for topics that are more specific, more relevant, and allow you to dig deeper than the surface. This is a college course–avoid writing a high school level speech.
After watching the videos and finding a topic through the LibGuide, ANSWER ALL OF THE QUESTIONS BELOW, worth 30 points:
You should have a “KEY WORD” in the subject line that relates to your topic and explains your position. Such as “Anti-Death Penalty”
Write your Specific Purpose statement. “By the end of my speech, my audience will…” Make sure this statement is for a Persuasive Speech and not an Informative Speech. If you are not sure,
view this video on the differences in Specific Purposes between an Informative and Persuasive speechLinks to an external site.
. Note: A persuasive specific purpose statement WILL NOT include the words “understand,” “know,” “be informed,” “learn about” or anything that indicates your purpose is to inform the audience instead of persuade them.
Answer ALL SIX of these questions:
Have you watched all the videos on choosing a topic and body patterns? If no, stop now and do that.
What is your argument?
What is the opposing position? (Opposing position means the opposite of your argument)
How does this topic affect persons in this class/the audience who will be listening to you? Why should they care?
What will your Body Point Pattern be? Must be one of the choices from the video:
Write out the main points of your speech in that body point pattern:
Copy and paste in the three (minimum) research sources as MLA formatted works cited entries that you will use in your speech.
MLA Style Format – https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html
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