Refine the Topic and Purpose
Once you have an idea for a topic and have established a general speech purpose, you’ll need to narrow your focus to align with the nature of the occasion, audience expectations, and time constraints.
IDENTIFYING YOUR GENERAL SPEECH PURPOSE
If your speech goal is primarily to increase the audience’s knowledge of a topic or to share your point of view, your general purpose is to inform.
- If it is primarily to effect some degree of change in the way your listeners view or do something, your general purpose is to persuade.
- If it is primarily to mark a special occasion, your general purpose will be variously to entertain, celebrate, commemorate, inspire, or set a social agenda.
Narrow the Topic
As you narrow your topic, carefully evaluate it according to audience interests and knowledge, the purpose of your speech and its occasion, how long the speech should be, and how much time you have to do research. Imagine, for example, how your approach to the topic “Hit British T.V. Shows in the U.S.” may change as you consider the following factors:
- The speech is for an informative speaking assignment.
- The time limit is five to seven minutes.
- You remember seeing an online article about the topic but can’t remember where and how you found it.
Just as brainstorming can be used to discover a general topic, it can also be helpful in narrowing one. One way of doing this is to brainstorm by category. What sorts of categories can you break your general topic into? For the general topic of British T.V., some related categories are sitcoms, actors and actresses, and crime dramas. As you brainstorm by category, ask yourself, “What questions do I have about the topic? Am I more interested in what the particular programs are, who stars in them, or why they are so appealing to American audiences? What aspect is my audience most likely to want to hear about?” You can also use topic mapping or trend searching to narrow your topic.
NARROWING YOUR TOPIC
- What is my audience most likely to know about the subject?
- What are my listeners most likely to want to learn?
- What aspects of the topic are most relevant to the occasion?
- Can I develop the topic using just two or three main points?
- How much can I competently research and report on in the time I am given to speak?
Form a Specific Speech Purpose
After you’ve narrowed the topic, you need to refine the speech goal. You know you want to give an informative speech, or a persuasive one, but you now need to decide more specifically what you want to accomplish with the speech. The specific speech purpose lays out precisely what you want the audience to get from the speech. To determine the specific purpose, ask yourself, “What is it about my topic that I want the audience to learn/do/reconsider/agree with?” Be specific about your aim, and then state it in action form, as in the following, written for an informative speech:
| GENERAL TOPIC: | Consolidating student loans |
| NARROWED TOPIC: | Understanding when and why consolidating student loans makes sense |
| GENERAL PURPOSE: | To inform |
| SPECIFIC PURPOSE: | To inform my audience about the factors to consider when deciding whether or not to consolidate student loans |
Although the specific purpose statement is seldom articulated in the actual speech, it is important to formulate it for yourself in order to keep in mind exactly what you want your speech to accomplish.