Ask Other People . . . or Generative AI!

If you’re still at a loss for a topic or don’t know how to refine it, ask other people for advice. Start with friends and family. Because they spend considerable time with you, they probably have an intuitive sense of the subjects that you’re most interested in and informed about. At the very least, they can be a useful sounding board as you consider potential topics.

You may also turn to the internet, the largest repository of other people’s ideas that the world has ever assembled. By using the search phrase “speech topics,” you’ll find dozens of sites that list thousands of options—but these ideas may not align with your values as a speaker and the nature of your audience, occasion, and purpose.

And, of course, there is GENERATIVE AI (50–55), which draws directly from those online sources and—if permitted for use by your college, instructor, or workplace—can be a valuable resource, even more so than a general internet search.

To avoid generic outputs and produce more useful and interesting responses from generative AI, Ethan Mollick, an AI expert and professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, recommends prompts that establish a clear and specific AI persona.¹ Give it a try with the following prompt by replacing the words in brackets with details about your own presentation:

I need to select a topic for [an informative presentation] I’m delivering [in my college public speaking course]. Act as a tutor or coach and ask me questions about myself as a speaker, my audience, and my purpose to help me choose an interesting and relevant topic for my presentation.

By engaging with generative AI in this way, you can narrow your topic to be more specific for your speaking situation, and it can help to spark ideas or viewpoints you hadn’t already considered. From there, take some of the most compelling ideas as a starting place to do more RESEARCH (139–43).

In general, if you consult the internet or generative AI while you consider your topic:

• Be wary of choosing popular or “best” topics. Student speakers so often speak about euthanasia, abortion, and the death penalty that unless you take a unique or carefully adapted approach, most audiences will dread hearing more about these topics (and they may know more about them than you do).
• Adapt the topic for your rhetorical situation and pay special attention to the allotted time limit.
• Consider unique or surprising angles if you’re compelled to speak about common persuasive topics. For example, you could give a presentation that compares the use of the death penalty in different countries and its cultural implications, or you could talk about wrongful conviction cases and their impact on both prisoners and their families.

In short, don’t let AI or the internet have the final say about your topic. No matter how much information you provide about your presentation, generative AI cannot take all these elements into account—in fact, that’s a uniquely human capability!

While it’s perfectly acceptable to seek help when choosing your topic, do not buy or copy a speech written by someone else, whether a friend, a professional, a performer, an online source, or a generative AI. Beyond the ethical and legal problems associated with PLAGIARISM (49–50), a presentation written by someone else or by a machine will not sound like you, reflect your interests and values, or help you connect with a particular audience.