Ch 4: Speech Topic, Purpose & Thesis: Help & Review
About This Chapter
Who's it for?
Anyone who needs help understanding college public speaking material will benefit from taking this course. You will be able to grasp the subject matter faster, retain critical knowledge longer and earn better grades. You're in the right place if you:
- Have fallen behind in understanding the general reasons for speaking events or distinguishing between the general and specific purposes of speeches.
- Need an efficient way to learn about the topic, purpose and thesis of a speech.
- Learn best with engaging auditory and visual tools.
- Struggle with learning disabilities or learning differences, including autism and ADHD.
- Experience difficulty understanding your teachers.
- Missed class time and need to catch up.
- Can't access extra public speaking resources at school.
How it works:
- Start at the beginning, or identify the topics that you need help with.
- Watch and learn from fun videos, reviewing as needed.
- Refer to the video transcripts to reinforce your learning.
- Test your understanding of each lesson with short quizzes.
- Submit questions to one of our instructors for personalized support if you need extra help.
- Verify you're ready by completing the Topic, Purpose and Thesis of Your Speech chapter exam.
Why it works:
- Study Efficiently: Skip what you know, review what you don't.
- Retain What You Learn: Engaging animations and real-life examples make topics easy to grasp.
- Be Ready on Test Day: Use the Topic, Purpose and Thesis of Your Speech chapter exam to be prepared.
- Get Extra Support: Ask our subject-matter experts any relevant question. They're here to help!
- Study With Flexibility: Watch videos on any web-ready device.
Students will review:
In this chapter, you'll learn the answers to questions including:
- What steps should you follow when choosing an appropriate speech topic?
- How do you tailor a topic to fit within a given amount of time?
- What methods can help you develop the main points of your speech?
- How can you transform your speech topic into a thesis statement?
1. Understanding Reasons for a Public Speaking Event
Preparing for your public speaking event should include reflections on the reasons why you are doing it in the first place. Learn more on what speaking events are and the factors of importance that they hold.
2. General Purpose vs. Specific Purpose of a Speech
A speech is an oral presentation delivered to an audience. Learn about the general purpose vs. the specific purpose of a speech. Explore creating a specific purpose statement to guide a speech, and review the list of things to consider when preparing a speech.
3. Choosing an Appropriate Speech Topic: Steps & Characteristics
Putting together a good speech involves defining the subject area and selecting the topic. Explore the steps to formulating a topic, the characteristics of a good topic, and methods for how to choose a topic.
4. Public Speaking with Time Limits: How to Prepare
Preparing a public speech with time limits can be tricky. Learn some helpful tips and tricks for deciding on a topic, using limiters, and exploring different approaches to narrow and focus your topic.
5. Turning Your Topic into Main Points for Your Speech: Tips & Ideas
How does one come up with the main points for their speech? This lesson will explore how to brainstorm main ideas with other tips and ideas for turning a topic into main points in this lesson.
6. Developing a Thesis Statement from Your Speech Topic
The most crucial part of a speech is the thesis statement, the statement that summarizes the entire speech. Explore how to develop and create a thesis statement from a speech topic and the difference between an effective and ineffective thesis statement in this lesson.
Earning College Credit
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Other Chapters
Other chapters within the Public Speaking 101: Help and Review course
- Introduction to Public Speaking: Help and Review
- Analyzing Your Audience: Help and Review
- Listening and Feedback: Help and Review
- Researching the Speech: Help and Review
- Organizing The Speech: Help and Review
- Outlining The Speech: Help and Review
- Language and Style: Help and Review
- Speech Delivery: Help and Review
- Selecting and Incorporating Visual Supports: Help and Review
- Types of Speeches: Help and Review
- Reasoning and Rhetorical Proof: Help and Review
- Speech Evaluation: Help and Review
- Preparing For an Impromptu Speech: Help and Review