Chpt 5 Developing Significant Topics

Question 1

Great Topic

Answer 1

Need time to research
Topic with focus
Think carefully about topic
Spend time refining and narrowing the topic
Plan to be effective

Question 2

Thoughts on a topic

Answer 2

Focus on what you know and care about
Take inventory of my personal concerns
Relationship to community issues
My intellectual and educational interests
My career goals
My leisure activities

Question 3

Jumpstart my topic choice

Answer 3

List all my interests and identify matters of public concern that I am motivated to learn more
Decide what to talk about

Question 4

Find topics of Public Concern

Answer 4

Reading papers
Listening news
Online news
Issues on community, nation, world
Form my own opinion and arguments

Question 5

Great Speech

Answer 5

Takes a lot of work
Learn more about topic
Use research to support my knowledge, opinion, experience

Question 6

Choosing a topic I’m interested in

Answer 6

Choose to gain more knowledge about the subject
Form your own opinion
Do research (newspaper, periodical, books)
Do your best work in preparation
Worthwhile presentation for your listeners

Question 7

Identify possible Topics

Answer 7

Think about my interest and experiences

I will give a better speech if I care about the topic

Question 8

Personal Inventory

Answer 8

Thoughtful look at what I really know and care about
Think about issues that affect me and my community
Inventory of my own intellectual and educational interests
My career goals
My leisure activities and interests
This helps me generate topics that are meaningful to me and audience

Question 9

Personal Concerns and Community Issues

Answer 9

Begin my search for a topic by looking at issues and questions that are important to my community and me

Question 10

Questions that start me thinking of a topic

Answer 10

What is going on in my life that bothers or concerns me

What is happening outside my world that is unfair, unjust, need of reform

Question 11

Intellectual and educational Interests

Answer 11

Consider important topics that you would like to know more about
Ask following questions:-
-what do I like to read
-what interesting things have I learnt from TV, movies
-what courses, or issues covered in my courses have interested me?

Question 12

Career Goals

Answer 12

What do I hope to do with my life

Question 13

Leisure Activities and Interests

Answer 13

Things I do for fun, pleasure, enjoyment may be source of topics
be aware my topics may not be substantial important to audience

Question 14

Starting point for topic search

Answer 14

Intellectual and educational interest
Career goals
Personal Concerns
Social concerns
Favorite leisure activities

Question 15

Steps to narrow topics

Answer 15

Consider situation

Consider audience

Question 16

Steps to narrow Topic

Answer 16

Choose topic
Refine my topic by:
-consider how situation will influence my speech
time constraints
audience

Question 17

Fine tune preliminary my topic

Answer 17

Refine purpose
conduct research
develop arguments
supporting material
organize ideas

Question 18

Fine tune steps

Answer 18

consider audience
decide precisely what I hope to accomplish
consider situation

Question 19

Consider Situation

Answer 19

Does topic relate to recent events of concern to my listeners
Would I be able to convince my listeners to care as much about my topic
Do I have time to cover topic well

Question 20

Consider Audience

Answer 20

• what does audience already know
• what common experiences with audience
• how diverse is audience

Question 21

Ethical Consideration in selecting a topci

Answer 21

commit to becoming knowledgeable about the topic thru careful research
behavioral standards
don't make up information
don't distort statistics
don't misquote material

Question 22

Ethical Consideration to adhere to

Answer 22

Accuracy
Fairmindedness
good taste
sound judgment

Question 23

Accuracy

Answer 23

don’t mis inform, mislead, harm
speaker responsibility to research carefully
know what you are talking about and believe in what you are saying
learn more about topic
cite a variety of reputable sources
makes you more credible and is part of ethical consideration

Question 24

Objectivity

Answer 24

Audience perception of a speaker’s honesty or fair-mindedness in considering diverse points of view

Question 25

Subjective

Answer 25

based on experience
values we learn
religious feeling
political biases
expectations for social behavior
preexisting opinion, biases or feelings

Question 26

Fairmindedness

Answer 26

open to research findings
willing to modify opinion based on research results
don’t challenge or avoid info that is against existing opinion

Question 27

Strong well reasoned stand on an issue

Answer 27

thoroughly researched your topic

come to a thoughtful conclusion

Question 28

Purposeful speech

Answer 28

speaker aims to get responses from listeners

Question 29

Speeches and their purpose

Answer 29

response from audience is understanding with informative speech
persuasive speech= influence the way listeners feel, what they believe, how they act
ceremonial speech= reinforce values and build community unity

Question 30

Formulate general and specific purpose

Answer 30

contemplate situation
evaluate own interests
consider audience interests

Question 31

Determine purpose

Answer 31

consider response you want from audience
eg. you want audience to understand
or you want audience to change their mind or act
as you refine topic, you translate it into specific statement of audience response you want

Question 32

3 General Purpose

Answer 32

Informative purpose
Persuasive purpose
Ceremonial purpose

Question 33

Persuasion

Answer 33

More than just telling what to do or believe
More than giving facts or statistics
More than simply stating opinion
More than asking, recommending, demanding
Give the audience good reasons for accepting our claims
Listeners feel strongly about an issue, agree with you, take some definitive action

Question 34

Ceremonial Purpose

Answer 34

Community building
Honor someone, celebrate an event of shared significance
pay tribute to someone we have loved or lost
ceremonial speaking uplifts us, comforts us and reinforces our sense of community with others
Articulate and reinforce shared values
Ask following questions:-
- what brought us together
- what defines us as a community
- which of our accomplishments gives us most pride
- what are the principles we cherish
- honor our heroes, praise their accomplishments
- present an award, honor graduates, motivate listeners to serve their communitites
Offer encouragement and inspiration to our listeners
- hard work, determination, desire to succeed will pay off
Reaffirm and strengthen the shared values that define our communities and cultures
marking a special occasion
paying tribute to an important person in my life

Question 35

Test specific purpose statement

Answer 35

make sure it aims for specific response from audience
reflects the realities of the situation
is clear and ethical

Question 36

Specific purpose statement

Answer 36

describes response you want from audience
shaped by:-
goals of speaker
situation you speak in
potential benefit to audience
recent events
demands of the situation

Question 37

Specific purpose statement

Answer 37

ultimate response the speaker hopes to achieve

crafting the specific purpose statement carefully is vital in clearly focusing the speech

Question 38

Test specific purpose statement

Answer 38

calls for audience response
realistic (time for speech, how motivated are listeners, setting impact on outcome of speech)
clear (state what audience should believe or do)
ethical (avoid conflict of interest)
choose topic for best interest of audience

Question 39

Thesis statement

Answer 39

grows from my specific purpose statement
embodies main idea of speech
focused without details
my speech in a nutshell
the heart of my speech
helps me focus my research and plan my speech

Question 40

Construct a Thesis statement

Answer 40

-single sentence declarative (not question)
embodies idea
accomplish specific purpose
helps listeners understand, feel, believe
-clear and specific without details
all the ideas in one thought
-focused and limited in scope

Question 41

Avoid common thesis mistakes

Answer 41

don't write as question or topical phrase
not a preview of speech
not complex and hard to follow
not excessively detailed
not too many ideas