Selecting and Narrowing a Topic

Analyze Your Audience

  • Audience analysis is vital for achieving speech goals.
  • Consider audience diversity in backgrounds and opinions.
  • Balance addressing differences and focusing on commonalities.

Demographic Audience Analysis

  • Demographics include age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, education level, religion, ethnicity, and nationality.
  • Tailor examples to appeal to diverse groups.

Psychological Audience Analysis

  • Considers audience's attitudes, beliefs, and values toward topic, speaker, and occasion.
  • Assess audience knowledge of the subject.
  • Establish credibility by appearing competent, trustworthy, and engaging.
Captive vs. Voluntary Audiences
  • Captive audience: Required to attend; build common ground to overcome resentment.
  • Voluntary audience: Choose to attend; meet expectations related to humor, clarity, or interactivity.
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values
  • Attitudes are likes and dislikes.
  • Beliefs are what we believe to be true or false, based on teaching, experience, or faith.
  • Values relate to what we see as right or wrong, good or bad.

Situational Audience Analysis

  • Considers the physical setting of a speech.
  • Visit the venue beforehand to anticipate and adjust to the environment.

Determine Your Purpose, Topic, and Thesis

General Purpose
  • To inform: teach the audience using factual, objective evidence.
  • To persuade: influence beliefs, attitudes, values, or behaviors.
  • To entertain: amuse the audience.
Choosing a Topic
  • Brainstorm to generate potential topic ideas quickly without judgment.
  • Choose a topic that:
    • Is familiar and interesting to you.
    • Is appropriate for the occasion.
    • Is relevant to the audience.
    • You have resources to research.
Specific Purpose
  • A one-sentence statement of the speech's objective.
  • Audience-centered and agrees with the general purpose.
  • Should address one main idea and be realistic.
  • Example: "By the end of my speech, the audience will be better informed about the effects the green movement has had on schools."
Thesis Statement
  • One-sentence summary of the central idea to be explained or defended.
  • Content-centered, unlike the audience-centered specific purpose.
  • Incorporated into the spoken portion of the speech.
  • Should be declarative and focused.
  • Example: "Biomass is a renewable resource that releases gases that can be used for fuel."