Possible Persuasive Speech Topic Ideas
These are just possible ideas for topics. You are not required to use any of these topics (they are
just to get you thinking) and are encouraged to come up with your own topic to fit your interests.
Consider the issues you are interested, the things that make you mad or upset, what would you
like to see changed.
A note about topics: The topic should reflect critical thinking and scholarship. Think current
events. This doesn't mean you need to do something about politics, but something that would
appear as an article in the Los Angeles Times news sections, or in a news magazine.
Consequently, some good places to look for topic ideas if you need one would be newspapers
(LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Des Moines Register, NY Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch) or
magazines (Newsweek, Time, Discover, Scientific American, Nature, Natural Science).
Please keep in mind that the goal is to persuade your audience on a subject. If your audience
already holds a certain point of view, there is no room for persuasion. For example, “To persuade
my audience that education is beneficial” would not work as a topic because your audience
already all believe in the claim. “To persuade my audience about the problem of teen age
pregnancy” wouldn’t work as a topic, again, because your audience already believes it is a
problem. As a way to test if you have a good topic, think of the opposite side of the
topic...would anyone believe that way? For example, the opposite side of “To persuade my
audience that drinking and driving is bad” would be “To persuade my audience that drinking and
driving is good” since no one would logically endorse drinking and driving, it doesn’t work as a
persuasive topic. You can also choose a topic that is new and your audience isn't aware of to
have an opinion on yet. The goal is to persuade us on your topic, not reinforce what we already
believe.
You can do a topic that is a Question of Fact (trying to change our opinion/view of a topic)
You can do a topic that is a Question of Value (trying to change our morals/ethical beliefs)
You can do a topic that is a Question of Policy (trying to change our behavior)
The topics below are not automatically approved because how you phrase the specific purpose
statement will make all the difference in how the topic is treated.
Possible Topic Ideas:
School breakfast programs
Regulating on-line pharmacies
Regulating on-line gambling
Insurance coverage for alternative medicine
Banning toy commercials during cartoon or children’s programming on television
Placing federal regulations on Presidential pardons
Stopping Ritalin abuse among children
Did Noah’s Ark really exist?
Banning cell phone use in public buildings
Require a 30-day waiting period on marriage licenses in all 50 states
Practical work internship programs for high school students
Requiring consent from the biological fathers for adoption
Allowing terminal patients to use drugs that are still in the testing phase
Automatic jail time for parents who act out violently at little league games
American companies setting up business addressing in foreign countries
Allowing people to sell their organs
Federal/State court judges by appointment/election
Programs that pay welfare recipients to undergo sterilization
Not allowing children to drink soda/soft drinks
Require parents to pay schools if their child misses school
Banning people from building houses where there is a possibility of mud slides
DNA testing for all prisoners on death row
Ending standardize testing in schools
Using portfolio projects instead of standardize testing for college entrance requirements
Regulating diversification in employee stock portfolios
American companies business practices in third-world countries
Increasing penalties for "white-collar" crimes
Smallpox vacancies
Black boxes for teenage drivers or for professional drivers
Palliative care departments for hospitals
Please avoid the following topics (unless you have a unique way to approach the topic) because they are
either difficult to change anyone's mind concerning the topic or are very one-sided topics (we pretty much
all agree one way or another).
Drunk Driving
Cigarette Smoking
Drug Abuse
Healthy Eating/Exercise
Abortion
Death Penalty
Gun Control
Euthanasia