Persuasive Speech Topics : Top Persuasive Funny Speech Topic Samples
Persuasive speaking seeks to influence the beliefs, attitudes, values, or behaviors of audience members. In order to persuade, a speaker has to construct arguments that appeal to audience members. Arguments form around three components: claim, evidence, and warrant. The claim is the statement that will be supported by evidence. Your thesis statement is the overarching claim for your speech, but you will make other claims within the speech to support the larger thesis.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how claims, evidence, and warrants function to create an argument.
- Identify strategies for choosing a persuasive speech topic.
- Identify strategies for adapting a persuasive speech based on an audience’s orientation to the proposition.
- Distinguish among propositions of fact, value, and policy.
- Choose an organizational pattern that is fitting for a persuasive speech topic.
Top Persuasive Speech Topics :
1) Should there be a censor board for the internet?
2) Should there be a ban on using animals for testing chemicals and drugs?
3) Should there be a ban on beauty contests?
4) Should capital punishment be abolished?
5) Should gay marriages be legalized?
6) Is there an alternative for prison?
7) Should working women be given special privileges?
8) Is dieting harmful?
9) Should the gun laws be severed?
10) Should mothers stay at home?
11) Is juvenile sentence right or wrong?
12) Should gambling be regulated?
13) Is the current tax system unfair?
14) Should wearing helmets be made compulsory?
15) Should all citizens be covered by health insurance?
16) Should hunting be made illegal?
17) Should sportsmen be allowed to use steroids?
18) Should wearing fur banned?
19) Should students have to wear school uniform?
20) Should student’s lockers be checked?
21) Does television have a positive influence on students?
22) Should sex education be given in school?
23) Should exams be replaced by other forms of testing performance?
24) Is internet dating harmful?
25) Should cell phones be allowed in school?
26) Should the minimum wage be changed for adolescents or teenagers?
27) Should teachers be paid on the basis of performance?
28) Should prostitution be made legal?
29) Should euthanasia be legalized?
30) Should college students go for mandatory drug-tests?
31) Should body piercing be banned?
32) Should smoking in public be banned?
33) Should there be a facility for bilingual education?
34) Should curfews be imposed on college students?
35) Should finance education be made mandatory?
36) Should porn be banned?
Choosing a Persuasive Speech Topic
As with any speech, topic selection is important and is influenced by many factors. Good persuasive speech topics are current, controversial, and have important implications for society. If your topic is currently being discussed on television, in newspapers, in the lounges in your dorm, or around your family’s dinner table, then it’s a current topic. A persuasive speech aimed at getting audience members to wear seat belts in cars wouldn’t have much current relevance, given that statistics consistently show that most people wear seat belts. Giving the same speech would have been much more timely in the 1970s when there was a huge movement to increase seat-belt use.
Many topics that are current are also controversial, which is what gets them attention by the media and citizens. Current and controversial topics will be more engaging for your audience. A persuasive speech to encourage audience members to donate blood or recycle wouldn’t be very controversial, since the benefits of both practices are widely agreed on. However, arguing that the restrictions on blood donation by men who have had sexual relations with men be lifted would be controversial. I must caution here that controversial is not the same as inflammatory. An inflammatory topic is one that evokes strong reactions from an audience for the sake of provoking a reaction. Being provocative for no good reason or choosing a topic that is extremist will damage your credibility and prevent you from achieving your speech goals.
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