Speech

Suggested speech topics Spring 2020

Interesting potential topics

Explore these potential speech topics

Informative speech Topics

1. 60 words and the war without end 2. Acoustic cat 3. Alan Turing 4. Anneliese Michel 5. Berdache 6. Chicken sexing 7. Chuck Wepner 8. Clive Wearing 9. Cognitive biases 10. Cuttlefish 11. Dunning-Kruger effect 12. Edward Snowden 13. Entanglement, quantuum physics 14. Fear pheromone 15. Gate control theory 16. George Stinney 17. Ghost boy 18. Internet Research Agency 19. Intrusive thoughts 20. Jason Padgett 21. John Reid/Saul Kassin 22. Kids for cash scandal 23. Kim Peek (rainman) 24. Krista and Tatiana Hogan 25. Leonard Peltier 26. Mary Babnik Brown 27. Mary Celeste 28. Mimic octopus 29. Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome 30. Nim project 31. Phineas Gage 32. Prince Rupert’s Drop 33. Stephen Wiltshire 34. Tania Head 35. Tetris Effect 36. The Tiger, John Valient 37. Umwelt & Umgebung 38. Unraveling Bolero 39. Urbach-Wiethe disease 40. Voynich Manuscript 41. Wieliczka Salt Mine

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Suggested speech topics Spring 2020

Persuasive speech Topics

1. Leonard Peltier; political prisoner or criminal? 2. The Mary Celeste: Haunted 3. John Reid interrogation system: Is it getting false confessions? 4. Edward Snowden: patriot or traitor? 5. Nim project: unethical treatment of a primate or necessary research? 6. The 1%: is our economic system broken? 7. In God We Trust: Is it time to take it off our currency? 8. Civil Forfeiture: should it be legal? 9. Is the U.S. police force becoming too militarized? 10. College students should… 11. College professors should… 12. Social networking is… 13. Stolen Valor: Should it be a crime 14. Social Justice Warriors 15. Should the U.S. government be allowed to spy on it’s citizens 16. Free will: real or illusion? 17. How reliable is wikipedia?

Guidelines for choosing a persuasive topic: 1. Don’t pick something that’s a personal preference, such as…

a. “Everyone should own a dog”

b. “Why Star Wars is better than Star Trek”

c. “Why you should work for Chickfila”

2. It should be something provable.

a. This is not provable; “Why America is the greatest country in the world.”

b. Nor is this, “Ghosts are real.”

c. These are more provable: “America is a great country,” or “These is some evidence that ghosts are real.”

3. It should be something controversial enough to warrant giving and listening to the speech.

a. “I want to persuade you today to listen to music!” Who is this speech for? Who’s not listening to music?

b. Or “I want to convince you today to laugh.” Who doesn’t want to laugh more?

c. On the other hand, try taking the less popular position. “Today, I want to persuade you to cry more".

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