Thursday, January 24, 2008

Got a Topic for Public Speaking?

A friend comes around one day and asks, "Why do children watch so much television until they forget about socializing?"

If you are a parent yourself, preparing a speech topic for a PTA assembly, this will be an appropriate discussion topic. You can grab the chance to educate parents about the influence of television on children, and remind them to encourage their children to mingle with peers and the neighbourhood friends.

Nevertheless, will this topic attract the attention of teenagers or university students? Is this a major concern in their everyday lives? If they listen to you, will they gain benefit almost immediately?

Public speaking students always start their speaking challenge with informative speech. This type of speech is easier to begin with, compared to persuasive and argumentative speech. It's a speech genre almost anybody can handle - provided you pick a suitable topic.

The first rule is to investigate your audience. You can do a simple survey by merely checking if friends would be interested to learn about hacking? employability? communication skills for IS professionals? animal testing? illegal immigrants? etc.

Next, pick a topic that you feel comfortable presenting and discussing in front of so many people. Avoid topics that have been a taboo in your life, or sensitive issues, prejudices, etc.

Doing an extensive research on your topic will help you play the role of the "expert" - at least, that you know 70% and your audience have a grasp of 30%...on the topic. Basically, as a speaker, you have to inform the crowd about your topic.

Because you "are" the speaker, the audience will assume that you have some extra information to share with them. Think about this - if it's not significant, it might as well be a one-minute conversation topic at the cafe, or bus-stop.

A careful analysis on both, yourself and your audience, will help you take off gracefully. Later, you can start to worry about other aspects of success in public speaking like content, delivery and language.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking??? Yes, it's time to share, and it's good to learn from each other. Seniors in public speaking, what were among the best topics you have delivered? For the juniors, if you're still searching for a suitable topic, tell us about it and see what kind of feedback you can get from this community. All the best.

21 comments:

Munira said...

so its like different topics for different type of audience rite.. guess that's logical, people wont be too interested to listen to stuff that didnt have any beneficial values to them..

nalini said...

speaking is an important skill nowadays...public speaking,in a way is the best way to bring up the speaking talent among youngsters....

Dr. Zue said...

Yes, mun. The best way to kick-off is to work on a topic which your audience would like to listen to. Then, they can respond and relate to your content and reminders. Nevertheless, some speakers may choose to talk about a topic foreign to the audience in order to educate them about it. Others may want to talk about animal testing, HIV/AIDS, education, or cancer, particularly to create and instill awareness among the public. For a graded public speaking assignment, the rule of thumb is to ckeck your knowledge on the topic and get support from the audience- even a group of ten peers will do.Besides, it's good to assume a specific role - a scientist, NGO representative, social activist, etc.

Anonymous said...

that's an awesome topic to talk about...i mean we all have lived through it, experienced it... how does a child who's stuck to the telly all day grow up to be? his PR skills...anti social behavior ? weirdo...

OR...would it be a good thing to actually minimize socializing in this ethically corrupted world of modern day that we live in....

Think about it...

Anonymous said...

When I was in high school, one of the topics that I did was about my stay in West Africa. So that helped me play the role of an "expert" as the audience was like hooked on what I was saying. Guess because it was interesting enough for them to hear how it really was in Africa from someone who has actually been there. Hehe

But you're right about that. It did make me feel rather comfortable talking about something I do know and have experienced.

I was asked to do the topic of "The Best Thing In Life" as the impromptu speech. I chose "Life" as my subject. So, the scope is wider. And since I was given 5minutes *if I'm not mistaken* to prepare the speech where I had to speak for 10minutes, my subject helped a lot.

Overall, public speaking has opened me up and I believe through all those experiences, I'm more confident in what I say and do.

It's useful when I have to convince people to believe in what I say. I create reasons, reasonable enough for them to consider that is.

And owh yeah, I think what has helped my confidence level a lot is reading. I wasn't enrolled into an English class of some sort when I was little. I was brought up with books. Loads of books. I even asked for Enid Blyton's series for my birthdays. That was a thing of the past though. Hehe

And using the language helps to practice.

So, there. My opinions on the topic =)

ara said...

I remember the oral prsentation in school when I was talking about sexual disorientation and everyone was listening so quietly and it was so awkward! How do yo acually get a topic that 30 people or maybe more can all have similar interest in? That first part is difficult but after you find it, i guess it become so easy! Like 'a piece of cake'!

Aaron Immanuel said...

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. Public Speaking can improve our talking skills in a Professional ways.

huda said...

hopefully this will guide me to get better in public speaking coz it content the important skills on public speaking....

Aliya Shereen said...

Actually, i find that public speaking is something that is very interesting if the speaker knows how to play their part talking about interesting things which will captivate the listeners and make them eager to listen more to it. Of course it depends on what topics that they chose to speak on and if I am to given the chance to speak on, I would like to talk about "Affordable Travelling". One of my dreams in life is to go travel around the world as there are too many things to discover in life and I believe we should live our life to the fullest by exploring new things about other countries and cultures. There are loads of things to talk about when it comes to travelling such as the dishes, cultures, traditions, architectures, historical value and etc. And the fact that it is not that hard to achieve the dreams affordably. Nowadays we could do almost everything via internet and I found that there are many websites which promotes auction for airlines tickets to any countries that desired. The process is like bidding the price of the ticket and if you got lucky then you will get the ticket at a reasonable price and of course lower than the proper tickets selling. Somehow you got to be alert and aware of the security and whether you can actually believe in it. Apart from having affordable airline tickets, there are also ways to find affordable accomodations as well in the internet. I once come across this website of one hotel in Singapore where they rent one hotel room suite for a dollar a night. There are other hotels in other countries that do the same marketing strategy too and it just the matter of luck where you can actually find it. Well, I think I've said it enough for now about the topic that I think would be interesting to talk on for public speaking. And I really would like to share my knowledge upon this matter with everyone who have the same interest as mine someday.

Ahmad Raimi said...

Hello. Choosing the exact topic might grab listener attention. Otherwise the listeners will feel bored and don’t show any interest to hear our speech. Try to give a speech about recent news that happen either in Malaysia or global. Peoples that didn't know about that news will attract to know about it while those peoples that know about this news might become more interest to know it more.

Let’s say the hot topic about some massive big holes that found in all around the earth. This hole recently has been discovering by a lot of geologist. For a normal people like us, we might think that those holes just nothing but normal holes created because of mother nature. But for those scientists, they still want to figures out what situation could form those big holes. They doing some research in order to identify how could that holes could be that big. For example, a big hole on Caribbean ocean. If we think logically, there no reason how could that big hole appear in the ocean. The scientists believe that, long time ago there might be a big meteor that hit that ocean and in result making a big holes to that ocean.

As for me, I would like speech something about computer. The thing that I know the most. If we talk about something that we didn't know much, we can't generate good idea in order to catch listener attention. Like example if a man, giving public speaking about woman fashion, listener might become bored because a man giving away a speech about woman fashion. Suppose the speaker should give a speech about man fashion so he can generate any good idea and listener will become interest to hear it.

eymo said...

"what are the first things that accross ur mind about speaking"
well...talking about speaking? public speaking? talking about something? there will be a lots of ideas, different ideas in each an every one. maybe there will be some points that are the same but the way we present it, make us different from others. All of us can talk, every day we talk but can you talk in public? can you talk in public and grab their attention at least 70%? if you are the person who say NO to the all anwser,well as you can see the problem that occurs to you is low self-confident in you. then, after you have built the confidents in you, there will be lots of ideas or point that you want to share with others. these all points that all in your mind will lead you to be successful in giving the good presentation or public speaking on a topic. besides, this will make you be more acknowledge on how to grab the audience attention. people will like you more in public speaking.

p/s: you can practice infront of a mirror.

mypencil said...

Actually I’m still confused either I need to comment for this article or just grab any topic to talk about. So I call my friend and ask her what to do, and she said I can choose any topic, thanks to her. So today, I would like to talk about an advantage of the internet.

As you know, the internet has become the need for everyone without limit of ages who use the internet in their daily life. Students are using internet for an assignment, employee for their work or task and even kids using the internet for entertainments. Using internet, you can do anything from news across the corner of the world, wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing or paying your bills is all at your finger tips. Internet has great potential and lots to offer. However, like every single innovation in science and technology, internet has its own advantages and disadvantages. But today, I would like to talk about the advantage of internet and I will talk about disadvantage on the next comment.

Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. The search engines like Google or Yahoo are provided and you can find anything, from how to make a cup of coffee till how to make a time bomb, you can find all of it via internet. But it is depend on how you use the internet as well.

Entertainment is another reason why internet is important. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found and shared on the Internet. By clicking and sometimes using your credit card, you can download anything freely.

Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking, purchasing tickets for your favorite movies, guidance services and so on. So you don’t need to waste your time or money to do it manually.

So now, you all know the important of an internet, right. There are still more advantages but I think I better stop it now because I don’t have enough time for that. And I will continue this topic later. So see you after then. Good bye.

Anonymous said...

it's true,public speaking is an important skill in our life. with public speaking we can share our experience,knowledge and most important thing it can develop our confident level.successful public speaking means connecting with an audience.why not,we as a adult guide our child to active or atleast involve in public speaking.with this,it can develop their confident and they can make their social life.who knows,one day they will became a leader or a good speaker..

dila said...

I never enter any public speaking competition before. But i realized how important public speaking especially for student who just graduate. So, skill in public speaking is important for us to make sure that our audience get the point that we want to delivery and not only that, to be a good speaker we also need to do a lot of practice because practice make prefect!.. :)

Aaron Immanuel said...

There are millions of people throughout the world that are suffering from a fear of public speaking. One way to overcome fear of public speaking is speak out anyway even though you are in fear because it’s possibly the most reliable way to gain confidence in speaking. Be afraid, be nervous, be hesitant, but do it anyway.


You won’t be very good at the first few times, but practice makes perfect. Simply make it a goal to do it and finish it. Once you are done it a few times, and you will realize it that it won’t kill you, you will be less afraid to do it the next time. And if you keep doing it, eventually you will start to get good on it and may even learn more new skills and lately, you will enjoy it.


I think one of the reasons people fear public speaking is that they expect too much of themselves. It’s like being afraid of flying a plane when you’ve had no instruction. Of course you’re going to fail. If the pilot calls you up to the cockpit and says “land this plane,” it’s a safe bet you’ll crash if you try it.


But at least when you fail or unsuccessful at public speaking, it isn’t normally fatal. Failure is actually one of the best ways to learn it, as my lecture says always that “IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE YOU WILL LEARN FROM THE MISTAKE BUT YOU WONT REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE”. It’s the same way we learn to walk and talk when we’re toddlers. We stumble and stutter until we get it right. Just as you wouldn’t expect a white belt in Karate to be able to break a brick, you also wouldn’t expect a first-time public speaker to be as polished as a pro. But sadly, people demand such a level of performance of themselves, expecting that if they’re going to speak publicly, they will better be outstanding. And since this is not going to happen, it generates fear.


But the fear largely goes away if you set realistic expectations to stink your first few times.
Remember the scene from the movie The Spiderman 1 where Peter Paker tries to use his super power to swing between two buildings and falls to the ground? It shows that everyone will fall at the first time. The same goes with public speaking. You are going to stink your first time. Get over it.


Unfortunately, in the real world it can be hard to find opportunities to speak where you aren’t expected to be good. People assume that if you volunteer to speak, you must be good. But it’s reasonable for people to demand that speakers be good, since most people don’t want to listen to a poor speaker. It’s boring because of the topic that chooses by the speakers. And don’t worry because in this world there is no want is PERFECT but try to do more PRECTICE to become a PROFESSIONAL SPEAKER.

diya said...

nowadays,speaking is important in our life because we need to apply it to get to know people,to find jobs in the future,to attend any meeting or anything else.my last experienced during my school and work time,skill to speak in front of people was different.what i mean here,during our secondary school,the audience was among my friends.so i know their level in english and also can know what will be their interest during at that time but this public speaking was different during my work experienced.i'm facing with people that had knowledge about bussiness and also matured people that know almost everything.it a little bit awkward when i need to give a speech in front of them eventhough it was just a practice for me before i met my client.i think,i need to make up my confidence level and also improve my english.so that,i can face this part in the future. :D

Faezah said...

Before this i never join any competition but I think public speaking is a true in community life..It is a way to express our ideas and to have an impact on issue that matter in democratic society..So, the point is that public speaking make a difference in things people care about very much. This is what most of us to do in life ;)

shaheera said...

Salam. I'm kind of freaking out about public speaking! I was actually supposed to give the speech because i have to talk to someone that i didn't know. I was just really shy and would get very very nervous..I have no problems talking to my friends or anyone face-to-face, but when I have to give a speech on the stages, I still feel nervous.I'm afraid to get embarrassed, to forget what are you going to say or that you mispronounce some word and also afraid that people may notice that you were afraid and shaky while talking..Public speaking requires lot of encouragement at least by near and dear ones.

Munira said...

In Unit 1 in our text book, we have learned that there are 7 things that will effect our listening skills;

1. Your interest in the topic
2. The importance of the information
3. The length of the message
4. The complexity of the message
5. The delivery of the message
6. Your personal problems
7. External distractions

I am writing this down because the same factors will also affect the audience's listening ability to your speech and it would be wise to take everything into consideration.

Like a lot of people had already pointed out, we should choose a topic that would be of interest to the audience. What is it that they want to know about? Security? Education? Work stuff? People will generally pay attention to things that might affect them in some way even though they might not be all that interesting, especially if it's concerning their safety. People may not care about the insects like bees at all and would probably try to avoid speeches concerning that topic, mainly thinking it's a 'waste of my time'. But think about how they would react if the topic is actually about the advance of a swarm of killer bees to their immediate surroundings and how to ward them off. Think they will be interested then?

Then there's the length of the speech. When concerning this you should probably learn more about an average person attention span and what to do so that they would not suddenly 'switched off'. The complexity? Even if the topic is interesting, how do you expect people to listen if they don't understand a word you're saying? It has everything to do with how you deliver your message across. Even a hot topic like the advance of a swarm of killer bees will sound dull if you don't deliver it right. I'm not really sure about personal problems and how it applies to speeches though. Maybe this means you should avoid topics about sensitive issues and all. And for external distractions, well, try to remember all the small things like switching off your handphones so it wouldn't disturb your speech.

So if you can choose a great topic to work at, and later consider all of the factors I've mentioned above, I'm sure your audience will probably be hanging on to your every words and grasp the message fast.

RAMESH said...

HI MAM...speaking is really is very important in our lyf...so v should b redi 2 give speech infront of ppl..nowadays,speaking is important in our life because we need to apply it to get to know people,to find jobs in the future,to attend any meeting or anything else...I have no problems talking to my friends or anyone face-to-face, but when I have to give a speech on the stages, I still feel nervous.I'm afraid to get embarrassed, to forget what are you going to say or that you mispronounce some word and also afraid that people may notice that you were afraid and shaky while talking....i think,i need to make up my confidence level and also improve my english...thx mam...

Anishwaran s/o Raman said...

Hi Dr.Zue
English has a wide influence through out the world across.Learning and masterring another language makes a better platform for the future career. Learning another language is knowledge rather than you learned nothing. So how do the language influence others???
Okay, if u want to voice out your ideas and opinion, you need to be good in language. You can make others to stick around with your ideas if u able to speak well.More over, it build confident and easily influence others.The more you practice, the more you gain confident.Thank you.