>> Okay, folks, we're going to talk about selecting a topic and purpose today.
Now, this is a really important part of your speech, because like I said before,
if you do a bad job selecting a topic and purpose,
it's going to make everything in your speech that much harder.
So, you want to do a good job with this.
Okay. So, where do you go when you want to select your topic and purpose?
A lot of people say, "Well, I'll go to the internet or go to the library."
But before you do that, you need to go to your own head.
So, first thing you need to do is figure out what you know and what you don't know,
or what you care about and what you don't care about.
And then bring those ideas out.
And how do you bring those ideas out?
Well, you brainstorm.
So, what is brainstorming?
Well, brainstorming is generating ideas by the free association of words.
Now, there's a right way to brainstorm and a wrong way to brainstorm.
So, let's look at a couple of different ways.
So, the first way you probably learned is something kind of like the clusters here,
where you put a word out there, you put "pet" in the middle and you start naming some things.
So, pet makes you think of cats and dogs and fish and snakes and hamsters and rocks.
Because I'm old, and in the '70s there was such a thing called a pet rock.
Yeah, it was a real thing, Google it.
It's -- yeah.
So, whenever I think of pet rocks, I always think of really well-marketed products,
because a rock was literally -- a pet rock was literally a rock that people sold.
So, look at best marketed products, what does it make us think of?
For me, it makes me think of Apple computers because they've always been very well-marketed.
But also bottled water, because bottled water is, probably, dollar for dollar,
the most profitable thing that's marketed.
I'm sure there are other things people can argue about, but the typical bottle of water,
the cost for the product is in the pennies, but you pay dollars for it.
So, all of those things are things that could be a speech topic.
So, you could talk about bottled water, Apple computers, marketing itself, pet rocks,
other strange things, cats, dogs, fish.
All of those things can be topics, but you need to narrow them sufficiently.
So, another way to brainstorm might be just making lists of things.
So, I could go with people, places and things.
So, I might say George Clooney, Oprah, the president, and how do we get the president?
Well, we have an electoral college.
How does that work?
So that could be a speech topic.
Or places.
We might think of Italy and food.
And when I think of Italy, I think of food.
And when I think of Italian food, even though it was not necessarily
from Italy, I think of pizza.
And there's a big thing about no pineapple on pizza now.
So, food trends might be a speech topic to do.
Or I could think about things.
If I think of George Clooney in Italy, and we could think of mansions
and islands and water and water sports.
And that can be a speech topic.
So, sometimes where you start, say George Clooney, and where you end, water sports,
I don't know what George Clooney has to do with water sports.
But that's kind of how I got there.
And you would come to a different place.
So, different ways to brainstorm.
So, when you're brainstorming, either one of those is right.
And if you're doing it, you're doing it right.
The wrong way to do brainstorming is to just not do it,
to just leave the paper blank and not say anything.
Or, if you're doing it in a group, not writing down what other people are saying.
So, when you're brainstorming, really the key is to get everything out on paper.
Because what you write on paper will lead you in different directions.
If you don't ever write anything down, it's never going to lead you anywhere else.
Okay. So, let's take a look at a short clip here and see if you can figure out where she came
up with the topic that she's using.
>> What do Google, Disney and Frito Lay have in common?
They're all using the cutting edge techniques of neuromarketing to help sell their products.
Neuromarketing is a new field of market research.
An article in the New York Times explains that it uses technique from neuroscience
to analyze people's responses to products and promotions.
By hooking you up to brainwave sensors, eye tracking devices, and other high tech equipment,
neuromarketers hope to measure your subconscious interest in various products.
They then use that information to create more persuasive advertising campaigns:
what one neuromarketer calls, the whispers of the brain.
>> Okay. So, Disney, Frito Lay and Google -- what do those things have in common?
Probably not a lot, other than neuromarketing.
So, where did she come up with this?
Well, she could have just been sitting around eating Fritos and Googling Disney.
I doubt, kind of doubt that, though.
It could be that she saw an article in a newspaper; she mentions it in her speech.
It could be that she has a marketing class, and they were talking about it.
Or she could have a psychology class and they were talking about it.
Or she saw a headline, or, or, or.
It could have come from a lot of different places.
So, the topics for your speech don't necessarily have to be, you know,
your typical, you know, speech topics.
They could be really pretty much anything.
Okay. So, once you've selected the topic --
that's kind of the thing you want to do your speech about --
now you need to start narrowing it down.
And if you don't narrow it down, it's going to be really tough.
So, let's say we chose a topic of pizza.
I like pizza.
So, if pizza is our topic, what could we say about pizza?
Well, we could say a nearly infinite number of things about pizza.
But we can't do that; we don't have time for that.
So, we need to cut it down.
So, we go to a general purpose.
And the general purpose is the broad goal of the speech.
And it could be to introduce, or commemorate, or demonstrate, or inform, or persuade,
or any of the different types of speeches that you could do.
So, we narrow that down.
So, if our topic was pizza, and we wanted to sufficiently narrow that general purpose,
we could knock it down to, something like, to inform about pizzas.
So, that means that all the stuff -- all the speeches about pizza that I could do
to introduce it, or commemorate it, or demonstrate
or persuade, I wouldn't be doing those.
I'm just going to do the informative speech on it.
Okay. So general purpose.
I've cut it down, but I haven't cut it down nearly enough.
Okay. Now I get to the specific purpose, and the specific purpose is a single infinitive phrase,
and it states what the speaker hopes to accomplish.
Now, you'll never say this to your audience, you won't say these words to your audience,
but this is kind of what kind of guides you in the process
of creating your speech or crafting your speech.
Okay. So, guidelines for specific purpose.
It needs to be a full infinitive phrase.
It needs to be a statement, not a question.
You want to avoid figurative language and limit it to one distinct idea.
And then don't be vague with it.
So, let's take a look at what all this means.
So full infinitive phrase.
Calendars is not a full infinitive phrase.
Calendars is your topic.
We've already narrowed it down from there.
What are we going to say about that topic?
So, a more effective way to do this would be to say, "To inform my audience
about the four major kinds of calendars used in the world today."
So, whatever those four types of calendars,
or kinds of calendars, that's what your speech is on.
It's specifically not on calendars that are not used in the world today.
So, in your speech, you're not going to talk about the Mayan calendar,
because it's not used, and it ran out and all of that.
So, to inform my audience about the four major kinds of calendars used in the world today,
that means that when I'm going do my research, it's very limited,
it's very specific, so I can find out about it.
It's got to be a statement, not a question.
If I just said, "What is Dia de los Muertos?
Oh, it's Mexican Halloween.
Okay. Thanks for listening to my speech."
That was easy.
Well, no. That's not what your speech is about.
Your speech is a little bit more defined.
So, "To inform my audience about the history of Mexico's Dia de los Muertos celebration."
That means that my speech is going to be about informing the audience about the history
of Mexico's Dia de los Muertos celebration.
So, it's not going to be about what's currently being done,
because I'm talking about the history.
It's not going to be about what's happening in the United States, or Panama, or anywhere else.
It's about what's happening in Mexico.
And it's just talking about the celebration.
It's not talking about the preparation outside of the celebration.
So, it's very specific, it's very narrow.
Okay. Don't be figurative.
So, "To persuade my audience the campus policy on student parking really stinks."
Now, I know we've all tried to park in the beginning of the semester,
and sometimes we can complain that it really stinks But,
what are we really talking about with that?
Really stinks.
How do you prove that?
It's really tough.
So, we don't want to use that figurative language.
We want to be very specific and use language that we can support.
So, "To persuade my audience that the campus policy on student parking should be revised
to provide more spaces for students before 5 p.m."
Now it's very specific.
Now I can go out and get supporting information.
I can find out how many cars are on campus, how many spots are on campus.
I can find out things like how many students are on campus at a given time.
What's the ratio of students to cars?
How many parking permits are sold?
And find out if we actually need it or not.
If I just try to prove it really stinks, then it's really hard to do.
Okay. Limit it to one idea: "To persuade my audience to become literacy tutors
and to donate time to Special Olympics."
Well, I could tell it's more than one idea because it has an "and" in it.
More effective: "To persuade my audience to become literacy tutors,"
or "To persuade my audience to donate time to the Special Olympics."
Now, if I wanted to talk about being a literacy tutor and working
for the Special Olympics, I can do that.
I can make those my main points and talk about persuading my audience
to get involved with philanthropy.
And what ways can they do that?
Well, they can become a literacy tutor, or they can donate time to the Special Olympics.
So, just one idea.
Okay. And then, don't be vague: "To persuade my audience
that something should be done about medical care."
Yeah. Everyone thinks something should be done.
Doctors think that patients should just do what they're told.
And nurses think doctors shouldn't be jerks.
And patients think it should cost less.
And insurance companies think doctors shouldn't require so many expensive tests.
Everyone thinks something should be done.
But we want to be more specific: "To persuade my audience
that the federal government should adopt a system of national health insurance
for all people in the United States."
Okay. Now, it's very specific.
And by the way, this is on the list of topics not to do in my class,
because the information that's out there is too political and it's too difficult
to find actual supporting information that's not political.
And I really don't like correcting people after their speech.
So, don't do the healthcare thing, and be sure to check topics not to do
in class in the folder on campus.
Okay. So, don't be vague, be specific.
Okay. Questions to ask yourself about your specific purpose:
does the purpose meet the assignment?
I know it seems like a silly question, but make sure that if you're doing an informative speech
that you're informing and not persuading.
If you're doing a demonstration speech,
that you're actually demonstrating something and not just informing.
So, does it meet the assignment?
Can I accomplish the purpose in the allotted time?
They are great speeches out there and great topics out there
that can't be done in five to seven minutes.
They take a lot longer.
Is it relevant to my audience?
You guys could do a speech on best retirement places, but most of you are too young
to even be thinking about retirement, and whatever place you wanted to talk
about now probably isn't going to be a good retirement place
by the time you get ready to retire.
So, might not be relevant.
Is it too trivial?
You could talk about, you know, what's the best dog to keep in your purse?
Who cares?
Three people in the class might have mild interest in that; most people won't.
So, is it too trivial for your audience?
And is it too technical?
You know what, we could talk about string theory, but you're not going to be able
to do that, first of all, in the time allotted, and you're going to lose a lot
of the audience because it's too technical.
You really just can't do it without using a lot of technical terms.
Not in the time that we have.
So, is it too technical for the audience?
Okay. And that takes us to our central idea.
And the central idea is a one-sentence statement that you will say to your audience
that encapsulates the major ideas of the speech.
You could think about it as the thesis statement or the proposition.
So, a thesis statement in a paper, or proposition in an argument --
they all serve the same type of purpose.
It's what you're trying to do as a result of your speech.
So, we'll call it the central idea here.
But if you think of them in the other terms, you're going to be mostly right in that.
There are some slight differences, but for the most part,
you're going to be on the right track.
Okay. So, for the central idea.
We'll take a listen here to a couple of different ways that it's being phrased.
So, listen for that central idea and then what directly follows that.
>> Imagine an eight-year-old boy who never speaks or smiles, or a cognitively disabled man
who has few friends but no one to talk to, or an elderly woman in poor health
who does nothing but complain about her ailments.
These are just a few people that I've seen helped by music therapy.
All of them were able to come out of themselves, forget their problems and interact
with other people, if only for a few minutes, because of music.
For the past four years, I've been part of a jazz ensemble that performs in mental hospitals,
nursing homes, and residences for disabled adults.
Although I'm not a mental health professional, my volunteer work has shown me
that music therapy does improve patients' lives.
I'd like to share some of my experiences with you today
and describe some common methods used for music therapy.
Finally, I'll briefly explain some theories about why music therapy is so effective.
>> Okay. So, music therapy changes peoples' lives.
He's going to share some ideas, some examples, and the, yeah.
So, phrasing the central idea -- a lot of times when you're doing your central idea,
it's going to be that thesis part of it, and then you're going
to also talk about the main points in there.
Okay. So, guidelines for the central idea.
Express it as a full sentence.
Now, this is something you will say to your audience.
They will get this.
So express it as a full sentence.
Don't express it as a question.
Again, avoid the figurative language and don't be vague.
So, full sentence.
Problems of fad diets.
That's a magazine headline or a newspaper headline, or click-bait.
That's not necessarily a central idea.
Better way to do it: "Fad diets can lead to serious health problems by creating deficiencies
in vitamins and minerals and by breaking down muscle tissue as well as fat."
So, what makes this a central idea is everything
in your speech is going to relate to this statement.
So, the thesis part of it is "Fad diets can lead to serious health problems."
That's the thesis.
And how do they do that?
Well, they create deficiencies, and they break things down.
Those are your two main points.
So, what are the sub-points?
Well, for creating deficiencies,
the two sub-points are vitamins, and the second is minerals.
And the two sub-points for breaking things down is,
it breaks down muscle and it breaks down fat.
So, when you start to go research, if you just typed in "fad diets" and did a search
for that, you're all over the place.
You can't find anything.
But if you typed in "vitamin deficiencies caused by fad diets" you're going
to get some very specific results back.
And "mineral results caused by fad diets," you're going to get very specific -- right?
Or "muscle tissue breaking down caused by" --
when you're doing that, you're using very specific search terms,
so you're going to get very specific results.
That's why you need to narrow this down as much as you do.
Okay. So, a statement, not a question.
What are nanorobots?
Oh, they're itty-bitty R2D2s.
No. That's not what nanorobots are.
So, a better way to do it: "Microscopic in size, nanorobots are being developed for use
in medicine, weaponry, and daily life."
So, when you're doing your speech with this, when you're doing the research,
you're searching for nanorobots in medicine, nanorobots in weaponry,
nanorobots in daily life, and you can come up with very specific examples.
So, when you do you're speech, the structure of your speech,
this is going to be your central idea.
You're going to say, "Microscopic in size, nanorobots are being developed for use
in medicine, weaponry, and daily life.
So, let's take a look at how they're used in medicine."
And then you'll give your examples.
"So, now that we've seen how they're used in medicine,
let's see how they're used in weaponry."
Give your examples.
"And now that we've seen how they're used in medicine and weaponry,
let's see how they're used in daily life."
Give your examples.
"So, you can see, even though they're microscopic in size,
nanorobots are being developed for use in medicine, weaponry and daily life."
So, your speech is pretty basic, it's pretty simple if you get this part of it right.
It's really easy to research and really easy to structure.
If you just had, what are nanorobots?
Again, you're all over the place.
Okay. Don't use figurative language.
"Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is an awesome place for a vacation."
What is it that you're trying to prove?
Awesome. Okay.
Awesome. If you can prove awesome, you really need to go into marketing,
because if you can prove awesome to people, you can make a lot of money doing that.
It's really difficult to do, though.
Because how do you prove awesome?
Well, make it easy on yourself.
Mexico's Yucatan peninsula has many attractions including warm climate,
excellent food, and extensive Mayan ruins.
Guess what your main points are?
Yeah. Attractions.
So, Mexico's Yucatan peninsula has many attractions.
What are they?
Warm climate's your first main point.
Excellent food is your second main point.
Extensive Mayan ruins is your third main point.
Can you support those?
Sure. You could get weather data.
You could get food critics.
You could get maps with pinpoints that show all the ruins.
You can support that.
That first one, "Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is an awesome place
for a vacation," it's too broad.
It's really difficult to try to narrow that down in that context.
Okay. Don't be vague.
"Paying college athletes a salary is a good idea."
Well, if you're a college athlete out there, you probably do think it's a good idea.
But we need to define some things, because we probably don't want to take, and I'm not being,
I'm not disrespecting any college athletes out there, but we probably don't want
to take the college badminton player and pay them $100,000 a year
to play for Mount San Jacinto College.
First of all I don't know if we have a badminton team or not -- I doubt it.
But that seems like an awful lot of money.
So, we need to define some things.
So, the NCAA should allow athletes in revenue-producing sports
to receive a $250 monthly salary as part of their scholarship.
Ah-ha! Now, I can start support things.
Who should do this?
The NCAA should allow it.
In revenue-producing sports.
So, not all sports, so just the sports that generate a revenue.
And how much should they get?
Two hundred and fifty dollars a month.
As part of their scholarships is how they should get it.
So, now it's something that I can support, or find information to support.
Okay. So, let's take a look at a couple of examples here.
So, if we had a general purpose to inform, and a specific purpose to inform my audience
of the three major types, three major races in alpine skiing, the central idea might be
"The three major races in alpine skiing are the downhill, slalom and giant slalom."
So, what you'll see when we get to the introduction is you'll have some things
that you'll say before that to get attention, and build your credibility and relate
to the audience and all that stuff.
And then you end your introduction with the central idea, with this.
And then you go into the body.
And the body of your speech is going to be "The first major race
in alpine skiing is the downhill, the second major race in alpine skiing is the slalom,
and the third major race in alpine skiing is the giant slalom."
And all you need to do is fill in the supporting information for each one of those.
So, let me give you another example.
I've talked about pizza a couple of times in the course of this video.
So, let me throw another example up here for you.
If I wanted to talk about different types of pizza --
there are three types of pizza available in the Inland Empire.
New York style, Chicago style, and California style.
So, my thesis part: "There are three types of pizza available in the Inland Empire."
My main points: New York style, Chicago style, California style.
So, New York style pizza -- what do I want to say about that?
Well, New York style pizza has a crust that is large and thin.
It has sauce that's smooth and savory.
And it has toppings that go cheese, meat and veggies.
So, it's a standard pizza.
It's what we're fairly accustomed to.
Chicago style.
Now, you'll notice that when I do the sub-points here,
they're in the same order: crust, sauce, toppings.
And that allows the audience to kind of follow along.
But when I talk about Chicago style, even though the main points are there,
and the sub-points are in the same order, the supporting information is different.
The crust of the Chicago style pizza is a deep dish.
The sauce is chunky and sweeter.
The toppings go meat, veggies and then cheese.
So the cheese is on the top.
And if I talk about California style: it's a non-traditional crust --
could be corn meal or pita, or whatever.
The sauce is maybe a barbecue, or a pesto or an Alfredo.
Or it could be a marinara.
Could be sauce from either one of the other two.
And then the toppings could be anything.
Could be grilled chicken, it could be bacon -- whatever you want.
Matter of fact, if you're ever wanting pizza and you don't want to order it, get a pita,
put some barbecue sauce on it, put some cheddar cheese on it, if you've got some leftover, like,
grilled chicken, maybe some red onions,
if you've got some bacon laying around, throw that on there.
Put it in the oven, 350, 10 minutes.
Yeah. You're welcome.
It's delicious.
But the whole point of this is, everything is very organized, it's very orderly.
It's very easy for the audience to follow along.
And it's easy for you to research and put it all together.
Okay. So, next time we're going to look at analyzing the audience,
because the audience is a big part of your speech.
Okay. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you next time.