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Communication

The Assignment

For an "informative" speech, choose a topic with which you are familiar such as personal experience, an event in history, or a current event. Or choose a topic that you would like to know more about.

An argumentative speech is the strongest variation of persuasive speech. The aim is to influence other people's opinions radically. The persuasive speech sets its goal to make the people consider other points of view. The argumentative speech aims to change the existing opinions.

An "persuasive" speech is a topic that has some controversy. Gather information about both sides of the issue and then decide which side you will take. Sample topics that that have strong points of view are:

Abortion

Gun Control

Capital Punishment

Opposing Viewpoints, an online resource (see Scholarly Articles section of this guide) can be a resource for finding great ideas for topics.

Narrowing the Topic

Once you have selected your topic, you may need to break it into smaller pieces an focus on one of those parts. Make sure that your topic will accommodate the amount time that has been allotted.