Students are required to take public speaking in most undergraduate college curriculums, and one type of speech they usually have to deliver is the analytical speech. Many students, however, experience difficulty when it comes to deciding upon the perfect topic, or else they come up with topics that are more suitable for a persuasive speech than an analytical speech.
According to Stephen E. Lucas, author of The Art of Public Speaking (McGraw-Hill, 1998), what students need to remember, though, is that while they may address many of the same subjects, analytical speeches, unlike persuasive speeches, are not intended to convince an audience that a certain viewpoint is correct or incorrect, to get an audience to accept some action or behavior as being morally or legally right or wrong, or to motivate an audience to take action, politically or otherwise.
Definition of an Analytical Speech
Analytical speeches “analyze” (explore in depth) events, people, beliefs, ideologies, etc, and the speakers share their evidence and their substantiated conclusions with the audience in the role of teachers, not moralists, motivators, or instigators. Moreover, unlike with persuasive speeches, where there are three categories of speeches (questions of fact, questions of value, and questions of policy), analytical speeches simply present facts but do not attempt to change the audiences’ viewpoint of those facts.
Examples of Facts
Facts are supposed truths about events, people, objects, and ideas; however, there are actually two types facts:
- Those that can be supported through research, for example: A high-protein diet is unsafe because of the increased risked of high cholesterol and hypertension.
- Those that cannot be supported through research yet which some people accept as truths: As depicted in the Book of Genesis, it once rained for 40 days and 40 night and a great flood once inundated the world.
Speech Topics for Analysis
Although there are countless excellent analytical speech topics, some suggestions include the following:
- Why euthanasia is a viable option.
- Why acupuncture is preferable to more traditional medical procedures.
- What humankind can do to save Earth’s environment.
- The Big Bang Theory and how it contradicts the Book of Genesis.
- Public school teachers devote too much time to preparing students for proficiency tests and not enough time to providing them with an education.
- Single-parent families are just as capable of nurturing a child as two-parent households.
- Science fiction movies are futuristic westerns.
- The relationship between violence in the media and violence in society.
- Why so many lives were lost aboard the “unsinkable” Titanic.
- Why the educational philosophy of Japan is superior to that of the United States.
- The immersion method for teaching a foreign language is ineffective with older learners.
- The popularity of reality shows and what it says about American society.
- The antiwar movement prolonged the war in Vietnam.
- What can be done about homelessness in America?
- The white man’s concept of “Manifest Destiny” and how it affected the lives of Native Americans
These, of course, are but a few of many possible topics; and, in reality, when it comes to selecting the perfect topic for an analytical speech, students are limited only by their imaginations. In fact, if students will but allow their imaginations to soar free, they can probably come up with far better topics than these.
Reference:
Lucas, Stephen The Art of Public Speaking: Sixth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill. 1998.
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