20 INFORMATIVE TOPIC WRITING

Time to think about what topic you would enjoy teaching the class about for your informative speech.  Now that you have read and discussed the four types of informative speeches, you are ready to move from brainstorming to narrowing your list of possibilities by completing an Informative Topic Planning Form.  This form enables you to anticipate the key elements of success for this speech and will let you know early on before you invest too much energy and effort into a topic only to find in a week or so that there is not enough information available or it is a great topic but you have the wrong target audience.  I recommend that you copy and paste the template on a fresh document page and save.  Then you can try out a few topics and submit for evaluation only the one you wish evaluated for points.  It is important to explore topics early.. while you can change your mind next week as we move on to writing drafts on the topic you submitted for planning, it puts you at a disadvantage for time and reduces the opportunity to receive feedback on your topic planning before additional points come into play for the draft.  If you are struggling for topic ideas, use “Talk with the Professor” in Module 2.