Conduct a Personal Inventory

Topics that interest you will naturally stem from your hobbies, school or job experiences, family background, religious and spiritual beliefs, political opinions, etc. Start thinking about your personal interests and “brainstorm” for an idea you think will spark the interests of your listeners. Use the following questions to conduct a personal inventory. Your interest in one of these topics will make a great start for a speech and will assist you with connecting with your audience.

1. Are you interested in places?
2. Are you interested in people?
3. What careers are you interested in?
4. What activities do you enjoy?
5. What good events are you interested in?
6. What goals have you set for yourself?
7. Do you have any significant personal values?

Whatever topic you choose, you should keep in mind the purpose of your speech. Be aware that how you answer the question “What will my speech be about?” is often determined by the question “Why am I giving this speech?” Some common purposes for speaking are to provide entertainment, report or disseminate information, and present an opinion, attitude, or conviction.

Now that you have selected a topic, you need to ask yourself, “Can I handle this topic? Have I given enough thought to my audience, as well as enough thought to my own knowledge and experience regarding the subject?” For example, I assigned my class to present a “how to” speech, and one female student selected “how to elk hunt.” As she was presenting, she only referred to her boyfriend and how he was an elk hunter. The class could see that she didn’t have much credibility or experience in the field of elk hunting, so she didn’t ever connect with her audience.

Let me say a word here about narrowing down your topic. If you bite off more than you can chew, you’ll wind up frustrated that you can’t say everything you want to say in just ten minutes. The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance contains an incident that illustrates this common predicament. A student who wanted to write a five hundred word essay about the United States complained to the teacher that she couldn’t think of anything to say. Her teacher suggested that she limit her topic to just Bozeman, the town they lived in. The paper was due and the student still couldn’t think of anything to say. Her teacher told her to narrow her topic down to the main street of Bozeman. Later, when the student came back in real distress because she still couldn’t think of anything to say, her teacher responded with, “Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.” The student came back to the next class with a five thousand word essay. “I sat in the hamburger stand across the street,” she said, “and started writing about the first brick, and the second brick, and then by the third brick it all started to come and I couldn’t stop.” ²

The narrowing down to one brick destroyed the student’s “blockage” because it forced her to do some original and direct seeing, rather than rely on things she had heard other people say or things she felt expected to say. ³ The same principle applies to writing speeches. Narrowing down your topic not only makes it more manageable for a short presentation, it also forces you to think creatively and do more original thinking.

We talked about the importance of knowing your audience in lesson 2. When you choose your topic, it is especially crucial that you imagine how your listeners will respond to the subject matter. Will they find it interesting or over their heads? Will they be amused or offended at your remarks? Will you be giving them useful, practical information or just taking up their time? Really, the most important thing to remember as you think about your topic in relation to your audience is this: if you are interested and enthusiastic about your topic and you present it with sincerity and clarity, chances are that your audience will be interested in what you have to say, too.