The Speech Topic - Fountainhead Press

61eventually unusable, research. Spend your time wisely andthink through exactly what you want to discuss before youbegin doing research. In fact, make notes to yourself bywriting down your research question, think through how youraudience will be affected, and where you might want to lookfor information.In order to demonstrate good will toward theaudience, part of the topic selection process is to determinewhat the audience needs to know. Audience analysis kicks infrom the very earliest stages of the selection process.• Is it likely that my audience members are going to beaware of my topic?• Will they care?• How are they going to be affected?Writing out the answers to these questions also helps focusthe research question and takes most of the work out ofsearching for background materials. Once the speaker has agood idea of how the audience should react to the topic andhow the topic can meet audience needs, it’s time to do thebackground research.Some specific guidelines to assist in selecting a goodtopic might include a topic that is:• Meaningful and important to your audience• Important and interesting to you personally• Tailored to your particular audience so that it isrelevant to their interests