Developing and Refining

Speech Topics
Develop:
Brainstorming Questions
Audience.​ What will your audience find interesting?
Occasion.​ What fits the assignment?
Yourself.​ What interests you? What's something you know a lot about? What would you
like to learn more about?

Brainstorm 10-15 Topic Ideas Here:

Refine:
Narrowing a Topic
Choose one or two potential topics and begin creating specific categories and
subcategories for each. Try using a mind map or topic hierarchy to help develop these
categories.
Use this Topic Hierarchy to Narrow your Topic

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 Questioning a Topic

Name: Topic:
Which one?
Collect information to make an informed
choice.
Topic.​ 20th century presidents
​Example.​ Which 20th century president
did the most to promote civil rights, how do
you see his impact on society today?

How?
Understand problems and perspectives,
weigh options, and propose solutions.
​Topic.​ Pollution
Example.​ How should we solve the
problem of water pollution in our
neighborhood?

What if?
Use the knowledge you have or learn to
pose a hypothesis and consider options?
​Topic.​ Declaration of Independence
​Example.​ What if the Declaration of
Independence abolished slavery, and how
would it affect race relations today?

Should?
Make a moral or practical decision based
on evidence.
​Topic.​ Cloning
​Example.​ Should we clone humans?

Why?
Understand and explain relationships to get
to the essence of a complicated issue.
​Topic.​ Child abuse
​Example.​ Why do people abuse
children?

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studio.eku.edu ​|​ @NoelStudio ​|​ 859-622-7330
 Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is a way to organize and represent knowledge visually. It can

help you brainstorm ideas for our writing, summarize and organize what you
already know about a topic, and examine relationships between ideas. A concept
map allows you to understand complex information or ideas “at a glance,” and is
a useful tool to help you find an interesting topic for your paper. Concept maps
can help writers narrow their topic from something broad like “obesity” to a more
specific research question(s) such as “What are the societal influences that lead
to obesity in American children, and what steps should we take towards
prevention?”

Here’s an example of a concept map on the broad topic of “vegetarianism.”

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 How to Write a Paper in 10
Easy Steps
1. What is your thesis?
2. What are your supporting points?
A.
B.
C.
3. Write the first sentence of your paragraph for point A.
4. Write the last sentence of your paragraph for point A.
5. Write the first sentence of your paragraph for point B.
6. Write the last sentence of your paragraph for point B.
7. Write the first sentence of your paragraph for point C.
8. Write the last sentence of your paragraph for C.
9. Fill in the space between the first and last sentences of each paragraph with evidence,
such as quotes.
10. Write your introduction and conclusion paragraph.

SAMPLE
Thesis:
All EKU students should be required to take a sociology course during their undergraduate
years.
Supporting Points:
A. Sociology’s concepts educate students on how to relate from people of other backgrounds.
B. Students may take a sociology course and discover they want to change their major to
sociology.
C. Many careers prefer workers who have studied the humanities, such as sociology.
Paragraph for Point A:
Sociology educates students about diverse cultures and backgrounds, which is a necessity for
successful interpersonal relationships in a mixed culture such as America’s. However,
interpersonal relationships and an understanding of various cultures is not the only reason
sociology should be studied; students may discover they have a passion for this field of study.
Paragraph B:
Students may take a required sociology course and decide they are more interested in this area
of study more than their current major. A required sociology course’s influence on a student is
not limited to an undergraduate major, as most careers prefer job candidates with knowledge of
basic sociological concepts.
Paragraph C:
Because most careers involve people from diverse backgrounds, knowledge of sociology is
preferred, and even required, by some career fields.

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