In the previous lesson, you identified the steps in the speech writing process. You learned that speech writing follows a flow just like the other writing tasks. At this point, you are going to understand the principles behind the process starting with choosing a topic.
As a speaker, you are given a great opportunity to shape the minds of your audience. You have the power to influence them and change their lives. In this world full of noise, a powerful speech can catch the attention of everyone and listen intently. Imagine if all of us can deliver messages around the world. It could be one of the best days of our lives.
In order for us not to waste the opportunity, we need to plan. We need to analyze ourselves. We need to know information that can help us to attain our purpose.
In science, there are laws and theories accompanying explanations on phenomena. In speech writing, there are principles being followed in order to come up with a superb work. The first principle we are going to tackle is choosing a topic.
The topic is the matter you want to bring up to your audience. It is what you want to focus and convey. In this case, you know where to start at and you can determine your purpose.
As you hold your pen and stare on the paper, you are asking yourself, "How can I choose a topic?"
There are various ways you can pick a topic. The easiest way is to write about what piques your interest. Are you good in cooking Filipino dishes? What your audience want to know about it? If you want to persuade your audience to cook Filipino food, write about it. Are you good in singing? Then, make it a topic. By choosing the topic close to your heart can make the task easy.
Aside from your interest, you can dabble in personal experiences. You can share your happy times or unfortunate events. If you have an important lesson you learned from what you have been through, it will be fine to relay it. Life stories are always worth sharing. These can pierce hearts and move audiences.
If you are hesitant to express happenings in your personal life, look around you and definitely you can find a topic. Watch television and videos from Internet. Scan your social media. There are many things to talk about. It could be as simple as heroism of a dog, growing of plants, and segregation of waste to as complex as government policies, corruption, human rights, economy, and existence of the universe.
To help you in the process of selection of topic, you can do the following: listing, semantic mapping, and reflecting.
If you have a broad topic, you need to narrow down. If you are going to write about big concepts such as online threat, you will spend more time on it. You need to break it down. What specific online threat you want to concentrate? Is it cyberbullying? Phishing? Malware? Having a broad topic can make your audience feel bored as you deliver it with a long time. Be specific. Doing it can help you to become an effective speaker.
For an instance, you choose cyberbullying. It is still broad. There are many types of it. You need to narrow it down. Delve on it. What type you want to focus on? Are you going to tackle on fake profiles/ trolls? Do you want to scribble your thoughts about video shaming? At this point, you have now to be specific.
There are times that the occasion determines the topic you are tasked to speak about. If you are invited to talk to gift-giving activity for the senior citizens, you will be limited to talk about the essence of gift- giving. Thus, it is important that you know what event you are going to attend as a speaker.
Now that you have an idea about the first principle of speech writing, it is now your turn. Using your speech writing tool, write three topics you want to talk about. You may also share it in the comment section of this post.
Sources:
Agon, A. (2020). Oral communication in context quarter 2- module 10: principles of speech writing. Department of Education- National Capital Region: Quezon City
Sipacio, P. J. & Balgos, A. R. (2016). Oral communication in context for senior high school. C & E Publishing, Inc.: Quezon City
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