Unit 5: Finding a Purpose and Selecting a Topic
More often than not, the purpose and topic of your speech will be determined for you by outside factors such as the context of your speech and its audience. Nevertheless, it remains your responsibility to narrow the topic of your speech such that it suits the nature of your audience, your own interests, and other factors associated with the setting and occasion. This unit examines all of the elements in the speech context which should influence your decisions. The operational word in the preceding sentence, however, is "should". Many inexperienced speakers do not take the time to fully analyze those elements which "should" determine the nature of their speech. The relationship between purpose and audience is one example of this problem. The only time an effective communicator does not analyze his or her audience with respect to the purpose of a speech is when he or she does not care how an audience receives or reacts to its message. To understand how important this is, consider the four goals of communication, three of which you will encounter in this course: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, and to express. Teachers inform, politicians persuade, comedians entertain, but who expresses? One answer could be artists. What impact does a poet seek in presenting a poem? To answer that, consider first what impact a communicator has with the other types: to inform someone of something, to persuade someone to do something, to entertain someone. But there is no "someone" at the other end of "to express", is there? And what about communicators who are not artists, but who also seek to express themselves anyway? One example of this occurs when an angry person swears. The problem that arises with expression, which could be defined as communicating with no consideration of context or audience, is that the speaker has little control over the effects, as the frequently offensive nature of swearing illustrates. In this unit, you will study the various purposes of speech-giving, as well as tips and suggestions for selecting a topic for your speech.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify the general purpose of a speech based on its content;
- recognize the common forms of informative, persuasive, and entertaining speeches;
- name the four primary constraints of topic selection;
- describe relationships between a speaker's traits, audience polling, topic selection and the purpose of a speech; and
- choose the most appropriate tip for creating specific purposes under a given circumstance.
5.1: General Purposes of Speaking: To Inform, To Persuade, To Entertain
Read the Chapter 6 introduction and Section 6.1, paying attention to the sample speeches. The challenge for many first-time speakers is putting the parts of a speech together. Learning what the parts are is easy, but understanding how one part influences another is not an intuitive matter for most. This is why the best way to proceed is to read transcripts and watch videos of speeches. Attempt the exercises at the end of the section.
This article gives an overview of the three general purposes of public speaking (informative, persuasive, and entertainment) the most common speaking occasions.
5.2: Selecting a Topic
This section ends with a set of questions about how appropriately you have chosen your topic. The questions are very important because poorly-chosen topics are difficult to develop and deliver. Before you put a lot of time into a topic, you should answer the questions in this section. Neglecting this step can result in a lot of wasted time and effort. After you read, attempt the exercises in section 2.
This article provides additional information about selecting a speech topic and establishes the importance of topic selection. Topic selection goes hand in hand with developing a specific purpose, which is another important tool for organizing your thoughts.
Watch this video, which provides helpful suggestions for making topic selections and generating ideas when you draw a blank, such as considering your audience's interests and your traits as a speaker.
5.3: What If You Draw a Blank?
Review this section about making adjustments to a speech while delivering it. Attempt the exercises at the end of the section.
5.4: Specific Purposes
This section suggests how to identify a topic that will help you to develop a speech efficiently. This can save you time and effort and lead to a speech with a much greater impact on your audience. Attempt the exercises at the end of the section.
Watch this video to learn more about developing a general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea statement for a speech.
5.5: Unit 5 Exercises
After you finish this unit, respond to the assessment questions. If you get any of them incorrect, review that material from the chapter.