Selecting a Topic
The Speech Only You Can Give
"I've got no idea what to talk about!"
Have you ever heard someone say that? Or said it yourself? I have.
No idea…
Can you believe it?
Look around. This room alone is full of potential speech topics. There could be one right in your hand.
Take a look at your hand. What does it make you think of? Let your imagination run free.
You might like to write the word "hand" on the back of your programme and do a bit of word association.
How about caring hands, doing things by hand - the old way, hand-me-downs… Can you think of another one?
Do any of those thoughts trigger an idea for a speech? And that's just the beginning. You can do the same exercise with any object, sound, smell etc.
See? The problem is not a lack of ideas. You know what the problem is?
It's too many ideas! Too many voices in your head, clamouring, "Choose me, choose me!" While another, louder voice over-rides each one and says, "Naah, that won't work!"
The challenge is to choose one topic from all those ideas. A topic that you know you can run with and turn it into a great speech.
A great speech is the speech that only you can give.
Think of your first Toastmasters speech. The Icebreaker. This is the speech where you tell us what you want us to know about you. Out of a whole universe of possible topics, you have to zoom in and focus on what you are most familiar with. Yourself. And it works, because it's the speech that only youcan give. You become personally involved in your topic and the more personal involvement, interest and enthusiasm you can bring to your speech, the more likely your audience will respond in a positive way.
But you don't have time to tell everything in an Icebreaker Speech. How could you possibly fit all there is to know about you in 4 to 6 minutes! So you still have lots of material for more great speeches!
You might have briefly mentioned your family. But we still haven't heard about your family customs, your views on child rearing, or your last family trip to Lumbago.
Maybe you mentioned your job, but didn't have time to tell what your job entails, and how you feel about it.
Your ice-breaker may have included some of your interests. If you're keen on sports, you could tell us about the great game you won, or if you're like me you could tell how you opted for safer activities after being hit in the eye with a cricket ball.
You could talk about your passion for music, collecting toenail clippings, or your current campaign against nose pickers.
Any of these would make a great speech, because you are personally involved in the topic. It's the speech that only you can give. No one else can tell it from your viewpoint.
And it's the viewpoint that turns your topic into a do-able speech. It's a bit like taking a photo. When I showed my friends a photo I had taken of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, they said, "I've never seen the bridge from that angle before." I had stood and snapped the photo from a place they hadn't thought of. And that made it more interesting.
It's the same with a speech. Take it from your perspective. No one else has seen it from where you stand.
Like a camera, your speech should only cover what you see in the view- finder. I remember the day my third grade teacher took us all outside to draw a landscape. But first, he got us to each make a little cardboard frame to look through. We were told to hold up the frame and to draw only what we could see within it. Narrow the focus. If something is happening on a global scale, zoom in on one person and tell how it affects them.
There are so many angles to every topic. Don't serve the whole pie at once. Cut off one slice. And save the rest for another time. Tonight I could have talked on "How to Become a Better Speaker" but that subject is too broad. So I've focussed on the small slice of "Selecting a Topic." There are still plenty of other slices in the pie.
To narrow the focus, ask yourself, what is the purpose of this speech. What is the central theme, the thought that I want my audience to remember? See if you can define your purpose in one sentence.
Let's see, suppose you are going to speak about …sailing!
So you write…
The purpose of this speech is to persuade, inform or entertain (choose one) my target audience with the thought that (never "about")... sailing is fun. Or sailing is not for the seasick.
Once you have decided on the thrust of your message, you know what kind of information and anecdotes you'll need to put the point across to your audience.
Make sure your topic is appropriate for your audience and the occasion. Most of our speeches are presented in a Toastmasters Club setting, which gives us plenty of scope with a sympathetic audience. But if you're speaking to the local football club a speech on needlework mightn't go down too well. And a group of teenagers mightn't be enthused about retirement plans.
But a lot of topics can be adapted to fit the occasion. Let's suppose you have a passion for a particular subject - how can you make it meet the objectives for your next speech?
For instance, I like cats, as most of you know. I haven't used that topic for all my speeches, but it would be possible.
For my Icebreaker speech, I could have described myself from my cat's viewpoint. For my second speech where I had to speak in earnest, I could have spoken against cruelty to cats. An informative speech could be about cats in history and a persuasive speech could be on the advantages of owning a cat and so on.
I've heard of some people doing a second CTM, by speaking on a different facet of Toastmasters for each speech.
The ideas are endless. And they'll come to you when you are least expecting them. Sometimes a table topic will trigger an idea. One of my speeches evolved from a table topic that I didn't answer very well at the time, but I thought about it after I went home and the idea grew. An idea might develop from your reaction to a news item or something in a book you are reading.
Don't let the ideas just evaporate. Keep a notebook to jot down ideas and any relevant facts or anecdotes. Then when it is time to give that speech, choose the topic that you know that you can run with. Tell it from your point of view. It will be a great speech, because it will be the speech that only you can give.
MAMALADE
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