Developing a dynamite topic

Consider …

• the speech situation
• the audience
• your interests (strong feelings)
• interesting and compelling content

Brainstorm: Mind map

The trolley problem

Should you push the man? Mindmap it.

Nicholos’s answer

Brainstorm: Free association

1. Let’s decide on a word.
2. You do a chain of 10 word associations (2 minutes).
3. Share where you land, and perhaps your path.

Brainstorm: AI

Ask perplexity.ai for 6 novel topics related to your “under-appreciated” speech.

WARNING: Remember our AI policy.

Socrates

The big three

All public speeches can be categorized by one of three general speech purposes:

• to inform or teach (increasing listeners’ understanding or awareness)
• to persuade or seduce (altering listeners’ beliefs or encouraging specific actions)
• to celebrate, honor, or mourn (bringing a community together in speech on a specia loccasion, such as a birth, a death, or a toast at a party) (Gunn 2017, loc. 151)

ex. exemplify

In a small group, identify a topic and craft a thesis statement in each of these three types – as Gunn did with salt.

Wrap up

Consider and note which of the genres you think are most difficult to pull off and why.

Which of the genres you think are most difficult to pull off and why.