Introduction

One of the biggest constraints that one will encounter in RCM 401 or any speech class is choosing a suitable topic; it can often be hard to develop an exigence that your audience will accept and want to alter, change or fix.

Aside from being one of the largest constraints, choosing a topic is the first constraint that you will overcome.  Without a general topic or idea it is impossible to come up with an exigence and resulting action that you would like your audience to take.

When preparing for your speech and choosing your area of focus, keep these four things in mind:

1. Choose a topic as soon as possible
2. Choose something that you are personally invested in or that you have interest in
3. Be relevant, keeping your audience in mind
4. Avoid googling topics; be creative and original

It is important to consider that each person selects a topic in a different manner, if you are stuck on choosing or thinking up a topic remember to think on a broad scale that can be narrowed down later.

Brainstorming Ideas

Personal Connection

• Pull ideas from things that you are personally interested in, this could include things such as politics, athletics, cars, animals, etc.

Current Events

• Look at what is currently happening in the world, your community or with your specific audience
• You could draw information from news articles, tabloids or television

Things that Bother You

• By looking at things that currently bother or annoy you, it helps you develop your exigence and it may be easier for you to connect to a specific topic that way
• This can also help you develop an action specifically a persuade to stop action

Credibility

• It is also important to consider subjects or areas that you are able to establish credibility in
• Credibility can connect back to your own personal interests, or maybe it is a topic you have done a lot of research on in the past

At this point you should now have a list of hobbies, interests, current events, and possibly an area where a specific exigence can be drawn from. The next step is to develop the exigence further or to identify a problem in these specific areas.

Example

John likes BIKING. His problem or exigence could then be that not enough people WEAR HELMETS when they go biking. This then gives him an action to work with, asking people to wear helmets when they bike. From here, John can develop his argument around this.

The following picture is an example of how John can put his ideas onto paper, and narrow down his topic to a more specific exigence, action and specific points:

After determining a basic exigence, consider the following concept proposed by Bitzer:

John’s fact would be that many people suffer from concussions as a result of not wearing helmets while biking. John’s interest would be that helmets should be worn to prevent head injuries and that he always wears a helmet when he bikes to school.

This concept will help you to further develop your speech and focus on your audience’s needs and how your audience can help to alter or change the exigence.

Narrowing Down Topics

Now you might have several potential ideas to use but are stuck on determining the better topic. Try to use the following chart; it will help you list and visualize each point including ethos, logos, pathos as well as how you think the audience will perceive the speech and if they are able to fix your chosen exigence.

Once you have filled in the chart you can look and see which topic or idea has the most points in each of the sections, this will help you choose the best topic to start with but will also give you a place to look back to when your choosing your topic for the next speeches. Perhaps the chart will allow you to choose all three of your topics at the beginning of the course rather than the night before the speech is due.

Another useful tool you can use to help select a topic from your list is the following website: Topic Venn Diagram

The Venn Diagram website outlines three different areas that each topic can fall under: topics you know, topics you love, and topics your audience will appreciate. These areas are very similar to ethos, pathos, and logos and having a good balance of all three provides the most persuasive topic with the largest audience impact.

The website explains where each topic can fall using a Venn diagram rather than a chart format and categorizes the topics ranking them dependent of which zone the fall into, it is also broken down with examples and how to enhance each of the speeches dependent on the zone that they fall into.

Resources

Still stuck on finding a suitable topic? Check out some of these resources.

Video:

• Finding Speech Topics:

Tool:

• Mind mapping for technical individuals: https://bubbl.us/mindmap

Tips for Selecting Topics in RCM 401

Keep in mind that in RCM 401, you are generally required to give four speeches. The first two are persuade to act speeches, the second is a persuade to stop, and the last speech is a recast of one of your previous.

When choosing your first speech topic it might be useful to brainstorm or keep a list of other topics to look at come the next round of speeches and so forth (ie. keep the chart or Venn diagram to look back at). It is also very important to consider round four where you will be recasting one of your speeches.

With the recast in mind try to have at least one speech that could be modified either through the specific action or that could have a more focused or different view this will make round four easier for you. Establishing a second argument that coincides with one exigence maybe something that the chart or mind mapping can help you to accomplish as it will allow you to draw several areas from one specific personal interest that will help you recast a different argument or view.