Week 9 Homework Due October 27

Due Oct 27: Draft of Expository Speech

     For the next couple of weeks you'll be writing and preparing to present EXPOSITORY speeches. An expository speech is meant to inform, explain, detail, instruct, or clarify. 
     You will choose a topic, brainstorm, research, and organize content, to write a draft to bring to class. Choose a topic that interests you. The following web page will provide some potential topics.(You'll need to cut and paste)
http://www.myspeechclass.com/informativetopics2.html


The beginnings of a great speech...
1. Write a sentence (thesis statement) that summarizes your speech's general idea. This should be the focus when you build the content of you speech. Be clear, to the point and establish your main idea.
2. Brainstorm by making a list or web including everything you know about your topic. Narrow down to 3 main points. 
3. Sort your similar ideas together and select only the most essential topics. Summarize each with a title.
4. Organize information into an introduction, 3 content sections, and a conclusion.


You will need to do some research to find supporting material. It is important to have proper supporting material to enhance your audience's understanding of your topic. Some forms of support include:

• Examples It’s difficult to listen to someone speaking about an abstract idea with which you are not familiar. As a listener you may not fully get what the speaker is trying to say. Using an example that illustrates the abstract idea will clarify.     For example, a speaker might be talking about poor economic conditions in a certain area of the country. Rather than just leaving the concept of a “poor economy” as an idea, they should speak about the specific struggles of real live people with names and anecdotes.
  
• Statistics– People tend to avoid statistics in a speech because they are afraid that people will find them boring. However, statistics can be interesting and informative. The key is to pick statistics that are particularly startling or shocking. You can’t build an entire speech around statistics, of course. However, as long as the statistics add to the quality of the speech, and they don’t misrepresent the situation, they are very useful.
  
• Facts– A good informative speech is filled with facts. A “fact” is any bit of information that be verified as being “true”. Whenever you present facts in a speech, you should cite the source of those facts so that the audience believes them (and you) to be credible.
  
• Expert Opinion– An informative speech is not the time for your personal opinion, that time will come on the persuasive speech. Expert opinion, however, can and should be used in an informative speech. Expert opinion involves using excerpts and quotations from people who are highly respected in the field about which you are speaking. It is important to state the credentials of the person whom you are quoting, if the audience is not familiar with this person. Otherwise, your quote will not have much impact.
  

Whatever forms of support you may be using in your informative speech, it is important to select those sources carefully. Make sure that you are using up-to-date information. Make sure you are using unbiased sources (these can be especially hard to find on the Internet). And finally, make sure that you are working from a broad base of information. Do not base your entire speech on information found in a single source.
If you have any questions or need some help getting started, call or text me...757-277-8872. Remember, this is a draft. I don't expect you to come to class with a refined speech.

Topics for Persuasive Speeches
1.    The importance of higher education
2.    Do you believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to apply for a driver’s license?
3.    Should Spanish classes be mandatory for students?
4.    Should all citizens of the USA complete one year of community service?
5.    Should all citizens of the USA be required to learn English?
6.    Do you believe it would be more suitable to raise the driving age to twenty-one?
7.    Should teenagers be allowed to purchase aggressive video games?
8.    Should notebook computers replace the traditional textbooks for students?
9.    Would it be better to introduce a set of skills tests for students, before they graduate high school?
10. Do you believe that not wearing a seat-belt should be illegal?
11. What if there were separate classrooms for boys and girls? Would that be more suitable?
12. Birth control is a sensitive topic: should female students be allowed to get birth control without asking for their parents’ permission?
13. Should female students be allowed to play on male students’ sports team?
14. Do you think immigration laws need to be revised?
15. Do you believe federal governments should recognize civil unions?
16. Do you believe that cities should provide free wireless Internet?
17. Should downloading music and movies be illegal, and those who do so should be punished?
18. Should citizens be allowed to have assault weaponry, based on the 2nd amendment?
19. Would it be better if schools started later in the morning?
20. Should people who fail to recycle be obliged to pay a fine?
21. Do you think schools should teach sexual education?
22. Should property owners be obliged to clean the snow from sidewalks on their property?
23. Should abortions be illegal?
24. Do you believe that students who are responsible for cyber-bulling should be expelled from schools?
25. Would it be alright for stem cell researchers to use cells from aborted babies in order to cure diseases?
26. Do you believe Puerto Rico should become a state?
27. Do you think it is time for the United Stated to suspend overseas military operations?
28. Do you think abortions should be legal, in case of incest or rape?
29. Should public schools teach world religions?
30. Do you believe people should need a license in order to become parents?
31. Should assisted suicide be legal for people who suffer from terminal illnesses?
32. Do you believe there should be stricter federal restrictions regarding content on Internet?
33. Do you think that death penalty is the best punishment for dangerous criminals?
34. Should it be legal for politicians to accept campaign contributions that come from various corporate lobbyists?
35. Do you believe it is time for America to convert to the metric system?
36. Would it be better if high school students completed community service hours in order to graduate?
37. Should it be illegal to drive while talking to the cell phone without a handsfree device?
38. Do you believe ESL students should receive state tests in other languages?
39. Should products manufactured outside the US come with an additional tax?
40. Do you think female construction workers should have the same salary as male construction workers?
41. Do you believe large corporations should hire a number of minorities that are proportionate to the population?
42. Do you think 14-years old teenagers should be allowed to hold jobs?
43. Do you believe students who fail their classes should repeat the grade?
44. Would it be better if schools with low scored on standardized tests were closed?
45. Should minors who commit serious crimes be charged as adults?
46. Do you think it would be fair for the government to detain suspected terrorists without proper trial?
47. Do you believe Internet censorship is inappropriate?
48. Why you should become an organ donor
49. Why you should donate blood
50. Stem-cell research: pros and cons
51. Educational costs
52. Lowering the drinking age
53. Oil drilling in Alaska
54. Alternative fuels
55. Sports teams named after ethnic groups
56. Paying college athletes: should they be paid for playing?
57. Importance of volunteering
58. Term limits
59. Academic fraud / dishonesty
60. Organic farming
61. Should ‘factory farming’ be banned?
62. Over-population
63. Prison over-population
64. Education in prisons
65. Video games and children
66. Revisionist history
67. The SAT’s
68. Women’s rights
69. Adoption
70. Minimum wage
71. Socialized medicine
72. Community College vs. Four Year College
73. Military spending
74. Cloning
75. Food additives
76. Homosexuals in the military
77. Gay Marriage
78. The “insanity defense”
79. Wearing bike helmets
80. Influences of rock music on children
81. Child abuse
82. Abuse of the elderly
83. Women Abuse
84. Police corruption
85. Donating money to charity
86. Is NASCAR a sport?
87. Deadbeat dads
88. Stay at home moms
89. Breast feeding
90. Eminent domain
91. Chewing tobacco
92. Drug abuse
93. Medicine Abuse
94. Censorship on the radio
95. Cryogenics
96. Is Astrology real?
97. Buying products that are made in the USA
98. Cable TV monopolies
99. Political correctness
100.        Watch the news / Don’t watch the news
101.        Illegal aliens
102.        Global warming
103.        Home schooling
104.        Prison alternatives
105.        Child labor
106.        Take a year off from school
107.        Life is better now than it was 50 years ago
108.        How bullying can lead to suicide
109.        Electronics are making kids lazy
110.        Why it’s wrong for commercial and mass media to promote a specific beauty standard like one body shape, long hair, thin, tall, etc
111.        Prisoners should not allowed to vote
112.        People are morally obligated to help the poor
113.        Aging Population
114.        Ethnic Violence
115.        Government Fraud and Waste
116.        Racial Profiling
117.        Vaccinations
118.        Homeland Security
119.        Inner City Poverty
120.        Impact of Internet on Society
121.        Islamic Fundamentalism
122.        Basic Survival Skills
123.        Beauty
124.        E-books vs. traditional books
125.        Human Rights
126.        Paperless society
127.        Positive thinking
128.        Procrastination / Productivity
129.        War can solve world hunger
130.        MP3 music should be free