How to Come Up With Good Persuasive Speech Topics in the First Place
Coming up with a solid persuasive speech topic isn’t always easy. Perhaps the stress has been building up for days. You’ve been trying to come up with a topic, but you keep coming up short. You’ve been racking your brain for something, anything interesting to persuade a willing (or unwilling) audience.
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If coming up with an argument for a persuasive speech topic is stressing you out, don’t worry. You are in good hands: Empowerly is here to help.
The Ultimate Struggle
Coming up with a solid persuasive speech topic or even a passable persuasive college admissions essay topic can be a struggle. This can be true even for straight-A students who may or may not have a penchant for argument. Coming up with a topic is a whole different ball game than arguing a fact that comes up in daily conversation. Don’t fret – we have you covered in terms of good persuasive speech topics, where to find them, and where to even begin a successful argument.
Wondering Where You Should Begin? Read On.
Persuasive speech topics range from the minute to the monumental. There are several different routes you can take when deciding on a persuasive speech topic. Above all else, consider your audience and the message you are trying to convey. We will discuss this more later on in this article. For now, brainstorm a few ideas that you’d be willing to convince a room of stubborn people you’re right about.
Keep Your Personality in Mind as You Craft Your Argument
When choosing persuasive speech topics, you should also consider your own personality and beliefs. Think about what drives you, what grinds your gears, or what really gets under your skin. If your argument doesn’t feel like “you” then you won’t be able to convince anyone that you actually believe what you are saying.
This Should Be Something You Feel Strongly About
Remember that your persuasive speech is about a topic on which you are trying to convince your audience to change their mind. This shouldn’t be something you feel lukewarm about, and it certainly shouldn’t be something you are not willing to research. Research is arguably the most important part of this process, and it isn’t something you should take lightly. Later, we’ll talk more about the research aspect of creating a good persuasive speech topic.
It’s Simple – Be Passionate
It is undoubtedly more difficult to come up with a solid persuasive argument if you aren’t passionate about something, and it can be nearly impossible to do so if you don’t believe in the cause at all. On the other hand, if you are passionate about something, it is likely that convincing someone you are right about it will come naturally.
Where to Look for Persuasive Speech Topics
Good topics for persuasive speech events are abundant, you simply have to know where to start looking. If you can’t find anything that really catches your eye, don’t worry. We’ll give you a few ideas below. You can also look in today’s news headlines, in your history book, or for an opinion piece that you disagree with. Just remember that no matter where you find your persuasive speech topic, you have to be prepared or nobody will take you seriously. Get out there and start looking (after you finish reading all of our exceptional hints, tips, and tricks relating to good persuasive speech topics, of course).
Keep in Mind that You Will Have to Provide Evidence
It should be noted that good persuasive speech topics should typically be well-researched and documented. Find evidence linked to them that you can use to craft a strong, solid argument. Hopefully, there are a few key points that you can focus on in your argument. Knowing what those key points are will help you know where to start your research. If one point comes up sparse in the search engine, move on to the next. Eventually, you will find a key point or two that you can latch onto and use to craft a very compelling argument.
Consider Your Audience
As we mentioned before, when coming up with a good persuasive speech topic, you must consider your audience. Take into account your audience’s beliefs, demographics, and level of education. These factors all play a role in the way in which you craft your incredibly effective persuasive speech.
Facing a Heated Audience
If you know before walking into this that your audience feels heated and passionate about the topic, be prepared to face some degree of backlash. If this is the case, you will need to lean heavily on logic and reasoning in an attempt to dampen the emotions of your audience. With the right facts presented in a firm but friendly manner, you’ll be surprised at how effective your argument becomes.
Matching the Level of Education of Your Audience
It goes without saying that you may have a different level of education than those in your audience. This is unavoidable, but it does not mean that your message will be ignored. If your audience is more educated than you, learn the terminology, history, and semantics of your topic like the back of your hand. You need to be able to defend your argument and make sure that it sticks.
Simplify
On the other hand, if your audience has a lower level of education than you, simplify your argument a reasonable amount. At the same time, do not dumb it down. Simply explain it as though you were teaching your topic to a peer (because you are). Remember that if you cannot explain something in simple terms, the odds are that you do not understand it well enough to be making an argument about it in the first place.
Good Topics For Persuasive Speech Are Often Controversial
Something else that should be noted about good persuasive speech topics is that they are often more emotional. This is perfectly fine as long as you believe what you are arguing. The exception to this rule is if you are working on an assignment where your teacher or professor wants you to argue the side of the opposition. If that is the case, gather as much data as possible and center your argument on logos (logic) since the pathos (passion, empathy) won’t be there.
Below, we will list a few good persuasive speech topics, but first, let’s talk about how to go about finding or coming up with a good topic on your own in the first place.
A Place to Begin
Listed below are a few good topics for persuasive speech engagements. By no means is this collection of persuasive speech topics exhausting, but it may give you a place to start or an idea from which you can base your own persuasive speech.
Here Are Some Good Topics For Persuasive Speech Engagements:
- Should undergraduate degrees be free?
- Should there be a flat income tax rate?
- Should hunting be illegal?
- Should there be a minimum age to become president?
- Should public schools be required to provide laptops or tablets for students?
- Should social media be censored?
- Should books be banned from public libraries?
- Should books be banned from school libraries?
- Should schools have dress codes?
- Should everyone be required to drive electric cars?
- Should contraception be free?
- Should there be universal healthcare?
- Should marijuana be legalized?
- Should parents or teachers teach students about sex?
- Should students be required to say the Pledge of Allegiance?
- Should corporal punishment be allowed in schools?
- Should high schools have open campus policies in terms of students being able to go off-campus for lunch?
- Should colleges follow affirmative action quotas?
- Should we have high-speed rail systems?
- Should the government be able to seize land by reason of eminent domain?
- Should people be required to use reef-friendly sunscreen?
- Should parents be required to vaccinate their kids for them to attend public schools?
- Should pet owners be required to spay or neuter their pets?
- Should parents allow their children to have social media accounts?
- Should parents post their children on social media?
- Should the United States be a direct democracy?
- Should everyone be vegan?
- Should you have to have a valid form of identification to vote in the US elections?
- Should the use of illicit drugs be decriminalized?
Check Us Out
Remember, the list above is not exhaustive. It’s just a place to begin. Find something that you feel passionate about and make sure that your speech is something you feel excited about researching. Then, research it to the moon and back, crafting an argument with facts and logic that can persuade even the most emotional audience, and give a persuasive speech that would change the mind of the most fierce opposition.
Check out Empowerly’s blog for more tips and tricks on applying to college and growing your abilities as a student. Whether you are working on your college applications or just want to impress the college admissions team, Empowerly has your back.
