The “first turn” in speech preparation is deciding on a good topic that fits both you and your audience.
Fortunately, there are some good ways to meet this challenge.
Your “second turn” will be to develop a clear sense of purpose for your speech.
Your “third turn” is to expand your knowledge so that you can make a responsible presentation. Negotiate these turns.
Selecting your topic, determining your purpose, and acquiring responsible knowledge form. “Major Steps in the Preparation of a Speech.”
But for now, back to that first turn. What is a good topic? It is one that involves you, that allows you to express something that is important to you, and/or that explores something that fascinates you. It should also enrich the lives of your listeners by providing them with useful information or advice. Finally, a good topic is one that you can speak about responsibly, given the lime allowed for your speech and the preparation time available.

Your specific purpose helps focus your topic. It spells out what you want your listeners to understand, believe, feel, or do. Having a specific purpose clearly in mind helps direct your research toward relevant information so that you don’t waste valuable time. You should be able to state your specific purpose clearly as a single idea. Let’s look at how a specific purpose statement gives focus to your speech:
General function: To persuade
Specific purpose:
To persuade my audience that global warming poses a serious threat to our environment
How can you tell if you have a good specific purpose? Your specific purpose should ensure that you provide listeners with new or useful informatioii or advice. When you tell listeners something they already know, you simply bore them and waste their time. Your specific purpose also should be manageable in the time allotted to you. In a five-minute speech you have only about seven hundred words to get your message across. If you can’t cover the material in the time allowed, then you must narrow your focus to something you can handle. Let’s look at some examples of poor specific purpose statements and see how they might be improved:
Topic: National parks
General function: To inform

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about hiking trails in Shenandoah National Park

Topic: Global warming

General function: To persuade
Specific purpose: To persuade my audience that global warming poses a serious threat to our environment

How can you tell if you have a good specific purpose? Your specific purpose should ensure that you provide listeners with new or useful information or advice. When you tell listeners something they already know, you simply bore them and waste their time. Your specific purpose also should be manageable in the time allotted to you. In a five-minute speech you have only about seven hundred words to get your message across. If you can’t cover the material in the time allowed, then you must narrow your focus to something you can handle.