Help me think of a speech topic

xcoax

xcoax

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Dear CAG:

I have to make an informative speech for my public speaking class. I wanted to do a tutorial on how to be a guitar hero because it could consist of nothing but bullshit.

Turns out this is supposed to be more like an oral research paper. I can't think of anything for a topic because its so stinking broad. Basically what I want to know is, what topic wouldn't bore you to tears if you had to listen to me talk about it for five minutes?
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']Why oppressing women is beneficial to society.[/QUOTE]

Haha, considering the class is like 70-30 in favor of girls... pass.

That, and I want to graduate one day.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']Why candidate X is the best candidate to be president.[/QUOTE]

Great idea, but thats more of a persuasive speech (which is next month haha).
Though, I suppose I could just mention the major points in a candidate's campaign...
 
[quote name='xcoax']Haha, considering the class is like 70-30 in favor of girls... pass.[/QUOTE]That's even better.
 
In Middle school i did a persuasive essay on "Why im better than you" I got a c+ on it because the teacher was a nazi.
 
[quote name='joe2187']In Middle school i did a persuasive essay on "Why im better than you" I got a c+ on it because the teacher was a nazi.[/quote]


or maybe you aren't better than anyone in the class
 
Do a tutorial on how to find cheap deals on videogames, or just electronics in general. I could point you to this site called Cheap Ass Gamers if you need to do some research on it.

Oh wait...
 
I think I've pretty much decided on doing it on the hardcore punk movement. If nothing else, it gives me a reason to watch American Hardcore again...

Thanks for the ideas though, some of them were good for a laugh.
 
Oh man, this is great, I loved my public speaking class in high school... how the fuck that was 10 years ago I'll never know. :cry:

Anyhow, I had so much fun with these open topic assignments. I believe the one you're doing right now I did on Sumo wrestling.

Somehow between friends in the class and the teacher, it got really hyped up before I ever even gave it. In fact, the teacher saw me in the hall days before and told me how much she was looking forward to my big Sumo wrestling speech, and I honestly hadn't even done any research yet, the pressure was on!

Basically I got all the info I needed from ESPN2. As luck would have it, they had a Sumo wrestling event on, I taped the show, watched it a second time and had all the terminology I needed, and my visual aids.

When the time for the speech came, I nailed it. I had the class eating out of the palm of my hand laughing hysterically, but staying in control. I showed a minute of the ESPN tape and just used crazy words I had heard while watching it and said they meant this or that. I was probably pretty close, but it didn't matter if I was accurate or not, as who was going to tell me otherwise?

The highlight of the speech saw me fill a garbage bag with air and stuff it into my shirt to demonstrate a few Sumo manuevers on a friend in the class. The bag popped, the laughs never ended and I got an A.

For my follow up speech I wanted to do one on cattle-ranching, but the teacher told me to do something more serious. So, I didn't tell anyone what I was doing and then gave a speech as to why the teacher should run for President. I was about the furthest thing from a "teacher's pet" so that speech caught everyone off guard and was again hilarious. The teacher ended up keeping it as an example for future classes. Believe it or not, I got extra credit on that speech.
 
I had to give an demonstrative speech in my speech class in Freshman year of Highschool. I did it on how to wax a snowboard. I brought in everything needed, had the entire class come up and feel the bottom of the board before the speech, then when it was done I had them come up and feel the bottom of the board again to see the difference, the teacher really ate that up b/c it was interactive.

I only did a small section of the board due to time contraints but it was an easy A.

An informative speech on PUNK!!!?? I LOVE IT!! Split it up into three sections for structure:

(1). Focus on the inception (The Clash, (London's calling) Sex Pistol's, the Ramones).

(2) Then focus on the golden age of punk (80's-90's), the proliferation of punk and it's melding w/ Alternative.

(3) Modern punk, focus on true punk (Bad Religion, Rancid, NoFX) as differentiated from MTV punk (NOT PUNK!!!!). Also give some information about the Vans Warped Tour since it is pretty much Punk Summer Camp!

You could even interview me as a primary source if you need it. Though some may be more punk than me, most aren't. You also have to watch the movie/punk documentary called "SLC Punk".

Hope this helps.
 
[quote name='darthbudge']Oh Man, I was late to the party. Oh Well, next time do "Why Nazi Germany was in the Right." That one is always classy.[/quote]

On second thought, it's best I leave this one alone, the boards are becomming a bit too sensitive these days.
 
[quote name='Zenithian Legend']On second thought, it's best I leave this one alone, the boards are becomming a bit too sensitive these days.[/quote]

By quoting and responding you didn't leave it alone did you? And with this post, I'm not leaving it alone am I?
 
[quote name='pittpizza']By quoting and responding you didn't leave it alone did you? And with this post, I'm not leaving it alone am I?[/quote]

No, we're really not, but my dad and I were talking in length about Hitler and World War II on Sunday, I have no idea why... and I was going to share some of our insight.

Here's a smiley microwaving itself to distract you from that thought:

microwave.gif
 
I've done several informative speeches in my life time. Some of my best are:
-Virtual Reality progress (this was back in 1999)
-Xbox (Back in 2002)
-How a video game controller works (mostly talked about the Dual Shock 2, back in 2005)
 
[quote name='pittpizza']I had to give an demonstrative speech in my speech class in Freshman year of Highschool. I did it on how to wax a snowboard. I brought in everything needed, had the entire class come up and feel the bottom of the board before the speech, then when it was done I had them come up and feel the bottom of the board again to see the difference, the teacher really ate that up b/c it was interactive.

I only did a small section of the board due to time contraints but it was an easy A.

An informative speech on PUNK!!!?? I LOVE IT!! Split it up into three sections for structure:

(1). Focus on the inception (The Clash, (London's calling) Sex Pistol's, the Ramones).

(2) Then focus on the golden age of punk (80's-90's), the proliferation of punk and it's melding w/ Alternative.

(3) Modern punk, focus on true punk (Bad Religion, Rancid, NoFX) as differentiated from MTV punk (NOT PUNK!!!!). Also give some information about the Vans Warped Tour since it is pretty much Punk Summer Camp!

You could even interview me as a primary source if you need it. Though some may be more punk than me, most aren't. You also have to watch the movie/punk documentary called "SLC Punk".

Hope this helps.[/QUOTE]

Haha, yeah. Basically I'm going to do a five minute summary of stuff from American Hardcore because a) that's the easy way out, and b) odds are no one has ever heard of any of the older bands, so it really is informative.

That and I found an awesome book on the straightedge subculture that actually seems like something I would read even if it wasn't an assignment, so I'll probably throw in some Minor Threat and Youth of Today and all that fun stuff.

I really wish we could have done a demonstrative speech, because I was so ready to show people how to photoshop their drunk faces away from their facebook pages.

Weird that most of your suggestions are from high school. I never had a speech class in high school. This is for college. It's supposed to be geared towards freshman, so it doesn't really help that I put it off for four years and I'm now used to super specific assignments. They tell me "do an informative speech." and I'm absolutely dumbfounded by how broad that is.
 
[quote name='pittpizza']focus on true punk (Bad Religion, Rancid, NoFX)[/QUOTE]

I hate to pull a SneakyPenguin here, but NoFX? C'mon, hombre.

And SLC Punk sucked my ass.

[quote name='CrimGhost']History of Jazz Fusion or Why Henry Kissinger is the Antichrist...tough choice huh?[/QUOTE]

Two points:
1) If you do a speech on Jazz, you can incorporate the word "scat" as much as you want into the speech, and not get in trouble
2) I doubt anyone in your class knows anything about Kissinger, so you can make shit up about him ("In 1982, Henry Kissinger spoke to the UN General Assembly in New York, and made it to Rio de Janiero that night to successfully defend his WWF Intercontinental Championship against the dangerous Idi Amin").

[quote name='xcoax']That and I found an awesome book on the straightedge subculture that actually seems like something I would read even if it wasn't an assignment, so I'll probably throw in some Minor Threat and Youth of Today and all that fun stuff.[/QUOTE]

You're not talking about Ross Haenfler's book, are you? That was a damned solid ethnography and Ross is a very good dude.

Here's a topic suggestion: Why Slapshot is the best sXe band fuckin' ever. Or Crucial Youth.
 
I actually had a paper in school that I had to write on favorite sport. I choose Video Gaming. Because I am in a mail correspodence HS, I didn't see the grader personally but I am almost postitive that they hated giving me a good grade for it.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']
You're not talking about Ross Haenfler's book, are you? That was a damned solid ethnography and Ross is a very good dude.

Here's a topic suggestion: Why Slapshot is the best sXe band fuckin' ever. Or Crucial Youth.[/QUOTE]

That's actually the exact one. I fully intend to read it all when I actually have free time, as I'm edge myself.

It's sad that the first thing I thought of when you said Slapshot was Knucklepuck, the Mighty Ducks themed hardcore band. haha
 
[quote name='xcoax']Dear CAG:

I have to make an informative speech for my public speaking class. I wanted to do a tutorial on how to be a guitar hero because it could consist of nothing but bullshit.

Turns out this is supposed to be more like an oral research paper. I can't think of anything for a topic because its so stinking broad. Basically what I want to know is, what topic wouldn't bore you to tears if you had to listen to me talk about it for five minutes?[/quote]

Protip: Don't start your speech with "Dear X".
 
i remember my informative speech, it was "The Fantastic Voyage between Funk and Hip Hop." I'm not recommending this as a speech topic, but it's kinda kickass to use Lakeside quotes, as well as ending your speech with Atomic Dog.
Wow, that makes me sound incredibly old, (this was 2004 in case anyone is wondering).
 
How marijuana is one of the most non lethal illegal drugs out there, and is safer than Alcohol and Tobacco. You might sound like a druggie afterwords, but hey, fight the power!
 
[quote name='xcoax']That's actually the exact one. I fully intend to read it all when I actually have free time, as I'm edge myself.

It's sad that the first thing I thought of when you said Slapshot was Knucklepuck, the Mighty Ducks themed hardcore band. haha[/QUOTE]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the book, as I've handed it to several friends to read, and they all thought it was well done (none of them, including myself, being sXe). I spoke to Ross about the omission of race from the book, and he pointed out that there really wasn't a whole lot of nonwhite representation in the Denver scene (which is true of most punk-based subcultures no matter where you are).

I'm not familiar with Knucklepuck. I think the most recent sXe band I listen to is Earth Crisis (and wholly support your liking of Youth of Today, as the Revelation Records acts are almost all top-notch - every person should own a copy of Gorilla Biscuit's "Start Today"). I'm not an old man yet, but my time in any 'scene' is long past, if the Tiger Army show I went to this weekend was any indication.

I also recommend Steven Blush's American Hardcore book, on which the movie was based. Also, if you can find it, add a copy of "Afro-Punk" to your DVD collection, as its fascinating. Martin from Los Crudos/Limpwrist also made a short doc on Latinos in Punk, which was okay.

[quote name='Autumn Star']How marijuana is one of the most non lethal illegal drugs out there, and is safer than Alcohol and Tobacco. You might sound like a druggie afterwords, but hey, fight the power![/QUOTE]

I don't suspect he'll be doing that topic. :lol:
 
Video games are always the subject of my free topics. Or food..

But every HS and college free topic, VG always comes through.

You can do obesity and video games.
Video games helping the mind of kids
Violence and video games
Jack Thompson and how stupid he is
Physics of video games
History of Nintendo
Innovative games

Okay so they sound a bit lame, but you can go from there. I've used all those topics for various subjects and it works.
 
[quote name='xcoax']Dear CAG:

I have to make an informative speech for my public speaking class. I wanted to do a tutorial on how to be a guitar hero because it could consist of nothing but bullshit.

Turns out this is supposed to be more like an oral research paper. I can't think of anything for a topic because its so stinking broad. Basically what I want to know is, what topic wouldn't bore you to tears if you had to listen to me talk about it for five minutes?[/quote]

Last year I tried to convince my class to sell their overpriced ipods and buy other mp3 players. Setting sail for da fail.

I would be interested in the exact inner working of a car. Not that I don't already get the general idea but if you included a diagram that would be hella sweet.

But to be honest, its public speaking class. If your not presenting odds are your nodding off while someone else has their chance to drone.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the book, as I've handed it to several friends to read, and they all thought it was well done (none of them, including myself, being sXe). I spoke to Ross about the omission of race from the book, and he pointed out that there really wasn't a whole lot of nonwhite representation in the Denver scene (which is true of most punk-based subcultures no matter where you are).

I'm not familiar with Knucklepuck. I think the most recent sXe band I listen to is Earth Crisis (and wholly support your liking of Youth of Today, as the Revelation Records acts are almost all top-notch - every person should own a copy of Gorilla Biscuit's "Start Today"). I'm not an old man yet, but my time in any 'scene' is long past, if the Tiger Army show I went to this weekend was any indication.

I also recommend Steven Blush's American Hardcore book, on which the movie was based. Also, if you can find it, add a copy of "Afro-Punk" to your DVD collection, as its fascinating. Martin from Los Crudos/Limpwrist also made a short doc on Latinos in Punk, which was okay.
[/QUOTE]

After skipping around for a bit I'd have to agree that it is well done. Just skipping around and reading random paragraphs I can see a ton of things that I instantly relate to and recognize as going on here at shows. The chapter on girls in the scene looks like it'll be an interesting read, as I was actually laughing at how true some of those things are. I just ordered a copy for myself from amazon so I can read it when I have free time this summer or something. As it is I'm reading a novel a week for other classes.

Yeah, race really isn't that relevant in our area as I can probably name all the non-white people in the local hardcore scene on one hand. I can relate to not relating to the scene today though. I was playing shows no more than two years ago, and I can't even relate to the kids at shows today.

Knucklepuck isn't a straightedge band as far as I know... They're more of a joke band based on the mighty ducks movies. Catchy melodic Comeback Kid kind of stuff. http://www.myspace.com/knucklepuckva

Some post Earth Crisis stuff I enjoy is Casey Jones, Champion, Have Heart, Remebering Never, and xBishopx if you want to check any of that out.
 
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