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Speech 30: Public Speaking and Persuasion

MODULE 5: Foundations of Public Speaking (Choosing a Topic and Purpose)

INTRODUCTION
When we talk about public speaking, we often imagine a speaker on a stage speaking to a lot of
people using a microphone. While this may be the universal imagery for public speaking, this is
only but a small part of it. Public speaking can be understood as a process: starting with the
moments of preparation leading to a big moment of delivery. In fact, many would argue that
preparing a public speech is more important that the speaking moment itself.
This module is designed to help us explore and understand the first and most important step in
preparing for a public speaking situation: choosing a topic and purpose. By the end of this
module, we hope to develop your topic and select a purpose for your public speech requirement.
WORKSHOP STIMULUS
Watch this 8-minute TED Video by Chris Anderson, a TED curator, where he shares the greatest
secret to great public speaking — great ideas.

Foundations of Public Speaking (Choosing a Topic and Purpose)

There are different types of topics that you can talk about in your public speech. It can be
something local such as “the danger of red-tagging in the Philippines” or global such as “the
threat of the worsening global climate change.” You can also talk about something personal
(hoping that your audience can deeply relate) such as “My fear of failures” or something
impersonal (hoping to address an issue outside of yourself) such as “Life of a jeepney driver.”
Indeed, your speech topic can vary in scale, breadth, and depth. You can talk about a lot of
things, but you may also talk about only one thing. You may talk about facts and statistics, but
you may also talk about life and love. You may speak about something political or about your
favorite film and why we should watch it as well.
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I. 4 Types of Topics
There are four general types of topics for a public speech: (i) definitional, (ii) factual, (iii) policy,
and (iv) value. We should be able to differentiate among these but let us remember that they are
not mutually exclusive at all. Your speech can be about values and definitions at the same time.
1. Definitional. Your topic is definitional if you are trying to argue what something is
and/or what something is not. What is love? What qualifies as love? What doesn’t qualify
as love? What do we mean by Honor and Excellence? What does it mean to keep moving
forward? Your definitional topic addresses the nuances of meaning; telling people how
you understand something.
2. Factual. Your topic is factual if it verifies or falsifies an existing claim of truth. Is
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. the best president? Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was never a good
president. Is UP anti-poor? The inflation rate here in the Philippines is not that high.
Remember that a factual topic requires the use of evidences and other information to
either support or contradict a claim.
3. Policy. Your topic is about policy if it discusses the nature of a problem and proposes a
solution for it. Our farmers continue to starve, land reforms favoring them should be
implemented. Many Filipino students drop out of school each year due to the pandemic,
the government should prioritize health and economic recovery to address this. A policy
topic always consists of a discussion of the problem and the proposed solution.
4. Value. Your topic is about value if it argues for the significance or insignificance,
morality or immorality, beauty or ugliness of something. The beauty of the almost
(almost love, almost perfect, almost true). The morality of abortion and divorce. The
importance of living in the present. The dark side of Filipino family culture. A value
topic illustrates how and why something is good or bad.
II. 3 Types of Purpose
Informative. Public speeches that are informative focus on disseminating critical information,
guidance, policies, and updates to the public. Informative speeches may also focus on presenting
newest advances in the sciences, humanities, arts, and so forth. Speeches of a spokesperson from
the government’s health department, presentation of research in conferences, and talks about the
direction of Philippine politics count as informative speeches.
Entertaining. Public speeches that are entertaining focus on evoking emotions that are generally
considered positive among the audiences. Stand-up comedies, storytelling in front of many
people, and a touching speech for a friend’s wedding qualify as entertaining speeches.
Persuasive. Public speeches that are persuasive focus on making various types of impact among
the audiences. Presidential candidates delivering a hopeful speech for the voters. Activists using
megaphones to speak to the masses and lead mobilizations. Lawyers defending their clients in
the court. Advocates encouraging citizens to continue supporting their cause. A persuasive
speech seeks to convince, stimulate, or actuate. In this class, we focus on persuasive speeches.
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• Persuasive Speech to Convince. You are seeking to change or modify the attitudes or
beliefs of your audience. This includes convincing your audience that love is not always
patient and not always kind; or convincing your audience that college degrees are not
necessary to succeed in life.
• Persuasive Speech to Stimulate. You are seeking to strengthen the existing attitudes or
beliefs of your audience. This includes stimulating their compassion for the poor, their
belief in the importance of education, or their positive attitude towards better labor
conditions to further strengthen such beliefs.
• Persuasive Speech to Actuate. You are not only seeking to convince or stimulate, you
are also persuading your audience to act on their convictions. Once you have convinced
them that education should be accessible and inclusive, you now persuade them to act
and join efforts to call for free and equitable education.
III. Personal Workshop Notes
✓ Choose a topic that you actually believe in; one that you are willing to fight for (if anyone
fights with you about it). The audience can notice if you’re serious about what you are
advocating or not. Speaking about a topic that means a lot to you also helps in gaining
inspiration and motivation. Ask yourself, “Am I choosing this topic because speaking
about it gives me a sense of fulfillment, joy, or justice?” or “After the semester, is this the
topic that I want my classmates and teacher to associate me with?” If your answer to both
questions is Yes, go ahead!
✓ Consider if you are knowledgeable about your topic. You have to account for your ethos
(credibility) and logos (reason). It’s difficult to prepare and deliver a speech about a topic
you know very little about. Imagine a spoiled national president who knows nothing
about the plight of the basic masses talking about how he can eradicate poverty. It’s
funny and almost insulting. Let’s not be like him.
✓ This course is about public speaking which means that a group of other people will hear
you speak. Choose a topic that brings value not only to yourself but also to others (most
especially to others). We can talk about our own experiences and our own thoughts, but
we shouldn’t stop here. We need to let the audience know how these personal thoughts
and experiences are relevant to them. In short, let’s not write a personal diary.
✓ For additional guidance on choosing a topic and purpose, you may check these online
references from Virtual Speech and Lumen Learning. These references imply that we
should also consider the interests of the audience when choosing our topic. While this is
definitely true, this is not a rule. If you have something important to say or something that
you want other people to hear — the interests of your audience won’t matter. If your
topic is indeed important, they will and should listen to you no matter what.
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP GUIDE
What is one great idea that you have heard before? What makes it great?
APPLICATION. Think of two (2) general topics that you want to speak about in your public
speech requirement. You can choose one topic that is serious and another one that’s funny but
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meaningful. You may also choose a topic that is local and another one that’s global; one could be
personal but relatable and another one impersonal. It’s all up to you. There’s no need to refine
your topics as early as now since we’re going to work on it together (but if you have a very
specific topic in your head already, better!) Again, ask yourself “Am I choosing this topic
because speaking about it gives me a sense of fulfillment, joy, or justice?” or “After the semester,
is this the topic that I want my classmates and teacher to associate me with?” Lastly, select a
purpose for each of these two topics. With your topics, do you want to convince, stimulate, or
actuate your audience? Your topic and purpose will serve as your workshop output.
FEEDBACK. As part of the workshop, we’re going to call at least two (2) volunteers to share
their initial work with the class. I encourage you to volunteer as this workshop portion will help
you refine your work through peer-feedbacking. Kindly talk about the two topics that you came
up with and discuss why you chose them. Why do you think we need to hear about those? Why
are they important to you? In short, what makes them great? After answering these questions, the
class will give you feedback and help you choose one (1) topic between your two proposals.
COMMENT. After the allotted time runs out, I will synthesize the feedback from the class as
well as provide my own. You can also take this opportunity to ask me your questions.
ASSESSMENT
Module 5-8: Partner Feedback – 20% (each feedback is 5% for the four modules)
Using what you learned from the module and the workshop, as well as your own opinions,
provide high-quality feedback on your partner’s workshop output. Ensure that your feedback is
detailed, constructive, fair, and motivating. Remember that the value of your feedback on your
partner’s workshop output, not your own work, is the one being graded in these modules.
Personal Note: Your outputs will still improve as we go through the workshops. Instead of
grading them prematurely, we should focus on helping each other improve through feedbacking.
For a total of 20 points:

Criteria Outstanding Excellent Very Good Good

(10 pts) (9 pts) (8 pts) (7-6 pts)
Value: feedback is detailed and
specific, points out strengths and
areas for improvement
Tone: feedback is written in a fair,
kind, and motivating manner;
comment is straightforward and
honest but does not insult the peer
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REFERENCES

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs, Susan Schultz Huxman, and Thomas R. Burkholder. “The Rhetorical Act
Thinking, Speaking, and Writing Critically, 5 edition”. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2015
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Rood, Craig. “The gap between rhetorical education and civic discourse”. Review of Communication,
16:2-3, 2016, pp 135-150, DOI: 10.1080/15358593.2016.1187456

“Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking”. MN: University of Minnesota
Libraries Publishing. 2016
Zarefsky, David. “Public Speaking Strategies for Success, 8 edition”. NY: Pearson Education. Inc. 2017
th