ClumsyMonkey.net

What do you think would make a good speech topic?
What have you given speeches on in the past?
What's the worst speech topic you've ever heard of?

Best: The History of Hulk Hogan
Worst: The process of wheat harvesting

i once heard a speech about potatoes. it was uhh..very interesting.

write about something you're passionate about. if you're not interested in it, your audience may find you/the topic boring. the last speech i wrote was on vegetarianism..and i really enjoyed writing it.

talk about manners or expressions or something,
makes it impossible not to express yourself.

cheap but effective

Do something that involves at least a bit of research, because it's alot easier to express facts than to try and go totally on your opinion.

in grade 7, i did my french speech on my brothers.

heh, i did my grade 6 speech on my brother.

i did my grade 6 speech on the mustang roundups, grade 7 it was canadian patriotism, and grade 8 I covered the series of '72. all three of the speeches got me 100%. all of them got me to our schoolwide competition. the last two got me to regionals.

i never won regionals dammit. but they were all last minute efforts anyways

i once gave a speech on the montreal canadiens
i wore my jersey that day to school
i got a 100%
i winged most of it
my friends laughed at me
till they saw my marks
then they got jealous
the next day i boarded a plane and flew away

I needed to do three speeches in the speech class I took. Two were persuasive (one group, one individual) and one was informative (individual).

For the group persuasive, we did gay marriage. We decided to persuade the class that legally it should be allowed.
Google turned up TONS of sites. (Try NetBux from the link in my sig )

For the individual persuasive, I tried to convince the class that Kurt Cobain was murdered. I would definately recommend this topic if you are at all interested in Nirvana. It was very interesting and I also got a high A as my grade!
http://www.cobaincase.com also check out "Who Killed Kurt Cobain" by Halperin and Wallace and the DVD "Kurt and Courtney"

For the informative I did the history (evolution) of jazz. I basically started in the teens and 20s and worked up through the 40s-50s and then just some VERY brief info about its evolution after that. I chose one major musician from each decade between the teens and the 40s to briefly discuss. The only problem with this topic is that it is VERY broad. If you're doing a speech that's under 6 or 7 minutes, DO NOT use this topic. If it's in the 8-10 range (which mine was) you'll need to really sort out what's essential versus what's what is "interesting." If you need to do a 15-20 minute speech (or longer) I would definately recommend this topic.
The book "A Concise History Of Jazz" by John Robert Brown was especially helpful...if you're going to follow it through to the 90's, definately mention the neo-swing period (Squirrel Nut Zippers, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Cherry Poppin Daddies, etc...)

AnnieDreams wrote:What do you think would make a good speech topic?
What have you given speeches on in the past?
What's the worst speech topic you've ever heard of?

good speech topic, how political parties makes mindless zombies of the angry youth, essentially assimilating them into the norm.

speaches from my past include a biography of Oscar de la hoya(i was a finalist for oratory competition), the detailed destruction of gerald mc clelland and how/why that mother fucker deserved it, a few ramblings endorsing a political canidate but mostly bashing others and political policies, and of course my claim to fame, an assult on dress code policy.

worst speech topic - how to make lasanga.

My history of speeches...
grade 4 - Being Sick
grade 5 - Places to visit in Canada
grade 6 - My hockey career (basically just a bragfest for 5 minutes. It was fab haha)
grade 7 - The opposite of Earth (this was like some tripped out thing where by the end I had lost everyone because basically I detailed the opposites of everything and by the end I was barely speaking understandable english)
grade 8 - I don't remember...
grade 9 - Told the story of the 3 little pigs but from the wolf's point of view. I won my class contest for this one and ended up 4th out of all the grade 9's in our school (like 400 students) so I was proud of that one. Made up something about allergy season, or something...

I agree with Dom. Give a speech on things that you are knowledgeable about and are passionate about. If you have confidence in what you are saying, you'll catch the attention of your spectators.

Generally get a persuasive topic and approach it like you are doing a debate.

From what I remember about the finals in my high school speak-off I think the top ones were capital punishment, abortion, ....and I can't remember the third one. But it was something similar.

How about the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/

talk about how stupid crocheting is.

I gave a speech today on e-mail forwards, particularly ones about missing children. I had to make sure it was something no one else was doing, because I changed mine last minute, and two people aren't allowed to both do the same thing.
So I couldn't chose your regular persuasive topic, because someone else was bound to have covered that.
I was way under time.

Last year, I talked about the idea behind Spiritual Machines. I didn't win, and I was sick the day marks were given out, but the teacher seemed impressed.

that sucks that you were under time, i agree with everyone here too, you gotta find something that your really interested in or passionate about, just make sure you don't get too emotional, cause then you end up with a rant that's similar to mine.

Gr. 8 was fun. I did Hairstyles Through The Ages and made various members of the class wear wigs.