Speech Topics

This semester I am taking a required course in public speaking. Honestly I wasn't expecting much out of this class originally as I have no problem speaking in public. Also, I've taken courses like this before and while they were fun I was mostly in them because I was one of two speech and debate captains. Needless to say I'm not overly concerned about passing this course. It has, however, turned out to be a surprisingly exceptional class.

First of all we've been in classes for going on three weeks now and have yet to be assigned any homework besides bonus assignments. My teacher has instead been asking a 'question of the day' which taking roll - and the ensuing discussions take up a majority of our class time. The questions have ranged from asking about our feelings on what the most important thing in a relationship is, to when the last time we yelled at someone was (and did we regret it), to asking if we would accept $300, 000 for the price of not being able to shower or bathe for 3 months. The whole point of this is to get the class to the point where they're comfortable talking with one another and it's been working beautifully.

Today we also began to discuss how to choose our speech topics. Our teacher feels that an important part of giving a good speech is recognizing how to gain your audience's interest. I'm still not quite sure what I'd like to do for my speech but I thought I'd share some of my ideas:

-Comic Books as literature: I discussed this topic briefly last Friday and it occurred to me that it may make and interesting persuasive speech.

-Organ donation laws (specifically in FL): apparently the organ donor laws have been changed in Florida. Now, instead of having to wait for brain death, a hospital only has to wait for heart death. This bothers me on several levels but mostly because I doubt that many people here are aware of it. As a side note, apparently even if the organ donor box is NOT checked your organs can be harvested if your next of kin gives the okay (unless you have a living will). To my next of kin: people can still live after the heart stops beating thanks to respirators. If my brain is still active after some accident don't give anyone permission to steal away my organs, thanks!

-Prosthetic limbs: Now days we're well on our way to making more functional prosthetic limbs... interestingly enough they even have limbs (which are still in testing stages) that respond directly to electrical impulses from the brain! In fact we have superheroes/villains in the making!

-Comics Books as modern mythology: This is a pet project of mine and I enjoy adding research time to this subject. I've written about this before.

I'd also like to do at least one of my speeches on Egyptology, possibly about the supposed discovery on the coffin of Queen Kiva, but I'm not sure how that will work out when it's less of an audience grabber (at least in my class' case).

I know this post is random but it is 5am here and I was up late doing homework.