Often, the first question a person will ask when presented with a requirement to give a speech is, "What am I going to talk about?"  However, two other questions should also be answered at this point -- "Who is my audience?" and "Why am I giving this speech?"

This page will focus on the first of three key elements in the early stages of speech preparation:  Topic Selection, Audience Analysis, and Purpose.

Topic Selection

A good speech topic fits criteria which can be represented by the acronym MAAM.

M - Meaningful

The most important thing to remember about topic selection is that you should choose something that is interesting and important to you.  This is especially true when you are speaking extemporaneously, since so much of what you will actually say during the speech must come from your mind spontaneously to fill in the key-word outline.   Also, an important element of good speech delivery is enthusiasm for your subject.  So the first step in choosing a topic is to inventory possible topics from your interests and experiences. 

A second characteristic to consider is that the topic should not be trivial, that it should be appropriate and meaningful for a college-level audience (for Basic Oral Communication class - if you were speaking to a different audience, different topics might be appropriate and meaningful).  Be careful about choosing topics that are too generic, however; you don't want to give basically the same speech that any other person would give.  See if you can find a unique approach to the topic.  For a list of topics that are often overused, click here.  

A-A - Adapted to the Audience

Audience factors will be discussed more thoroughly on a separate page; however, there are three important factors to remember about your audience in relation to choosing a topic.

• We think of an "audience" as a thing, but it is actually a collection of individuals.  It may be difficult to find a topic that is going to be highly interesting to an audience as diverse as the one you will face in Basic Oral Communication.
• What will your audience be interested in?  How does that match your interests?
• "There are no dull topics, only dull ways of developing them."  If you are interested and enthusiastic about your subject, keep with it even if you are afraid your audience may not have the same level of interest.  Challenge yourself to come up with a creative way to spark interest in your audience.

M - Manageable

There are 3 important issues to consider in terms of how well you can manage your speech topic.

• Will it fit the time limit?  You will probably need to narrow your topic, often quite severely, in order to fit the time limit for your speech.  It is better to cover 2-3 points in some detail than to try to cover many points on the surface.
• Can I manage my emotions?  If you are deeply involved emotionally in the topic, it may be difficult to keep your emotions from influencing your performance in the speech.  Certainly, passion and deep commitment to a topic can make a speech memorable.  But breaking down into tears or uncontrollable anger will probably destroy the effect you wanted.
• Can I find the information I need for support?  Be realistic.  If your sources are not on hand in our library or available online, you will need to use interlibrary loan, which takes time.  If you are interviewing sources, you will need to find a time that  is convenient for an interview.  Give yourself plenty of time, but also realize if you are going to need more time to gather information that it is better to save the topic for a later speech than to give one with skimpy support and documentation.