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Looking for speech topics? Don't know what to talk about? No sweat! I will show you how to find good ideas for a speech. Just follow the six steps, and in the end you have developed a speech topic that will surprise your audience.

Speeches can be about everything. Think about subjects, people, events, places, problems, causes and effects, and values in your community, school, college, city, state or country.

The major guideline is: look for topics that are interesting to you and your public, and that meet the requirements of the occasion.

Okay, lets start generating ideas.

Step 1. First, check out the rules of the public speaking assignment. If there are no specific rules or requirements, then always choose to show how to do something, how something is done, how to make something, or how something works.

Step 2. Find out what you like to talk about or love to do. Think about your favorite objects, products, people, animals, events, places, processes, procedures, concepts, policies, and special skills in your personal or professional life.

Step 3. Find out what your listeners think are interesting speech topics. Therefore determine the interests and needs of your audience and write them down. Ask yourself: What do they want to learn?

Step 4. Review the short list and make a decision. Pick out the topic that is interesting to you and your public, and that fits the public speaking assignment.

Step 5. Research just one new single aspect of that topic. Try to find an creative angle of approach. For example, look for information that is new to your audience. To help you researching: look for amazing facts, figures, stories, statistics, survey results, personal and professional experiences, quotations, comparisons or contrasts.

Step 6. Make a rough outline of arguments, pros and cons, main and sub points, steps, stages and your tips.

And there you are! Now you have a topic as well as a blueprint for your speech.

Tip: Use my additional checklists for good speech topics. Keep your eyes and ears open everywhere you go. It will help you at unexpected occasions when you quickly have to come up with a speech.

About the Author

(c) Copyright 2006 Jim A. Peterson, staff editor of http://www.speech-topics-help.com. Jim has over 10 year's experience in the speech writing business. His website offers how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and many free speech topics.