I've never had trouble choosing an informative speech topic- I started speaking after I was already learning alternative health, and there's plenty that people don't know about that.

What makes a good or bad informative speech topic?

I was already part of way there- my speech topic was interesting. So when you choose your informative speech topic, don't pick something your audience is going to groan about as soon as they hear it! Gun control has been done. Drunk driving is old. Abortion is too polarized. Legalizing marijuana... all of these are a death sentence, and so is capital punishment. You can't talk about them without bias, and even if you could your audience won't put aside theirs. Save them for a challenging persuasive speech topic.

What kind of informative speech does your audience want to hear?

Choose an informative speech topic either your audience knows nothing about, or that hasn't given much thought to - for second one, I mean things that are commonplace, but when you think about it, you realize you don't know how it works or what it is - e.g., what is escrow? Why does inflation happen? What happens to your trash after garbage truck takes it? Who determines TV and radio ratings? And so on. Look around your life and see if something like this sticks out.

I'll tell you how to write a speech way I do it, and I'll tell you how to make it great. Plus I'll give you some tips on what to put in, and what to leave out. I love this topic. How Good Do You Want Your Speech to Be?

From outset, you should know that how to write a speech depends on how good you want it to be, and how much time you want to put into it. I'll put most important things first so that you can just go as far as you want, and stop when you run out of time. Remember to leave time to practice speech three or four times. If you can record second or third and listen to it, so much better.

How to Write a Speech People Will Remember

In old days, and I mean back in time of Greeks, much more emphasis was put on writing of speech, content. Now people tend to emphasize presentation, style, vocal qualities, and technology. But writing a good speech is irreplaceable - I'm going to tell you how to get put content in, make it clear, and make an impact on your audience...how to write a speech people will remember.

Here's process:

(Why 13 steps? It just turned out that way. But if you think public speaking is scary, it fits, doesn't it?)

1. Know your audience: if you forget this, everything falls apart. You can't tell dirty jokes to a Christian women's group. You've seen commercial where best man gives wedding toast and goes on and on about how much of a player groom was? Remember who's there and what they want to hear. What do they like and dislike? What kind of humor do they like? If they're a mixed audience, you have to be more mainstream in your language and manner. This is most important part of how to write a speech.

2. Know your purpose: only time you're allowed to break rule #1 is if your purpose is to shock or to inform people about something uncomfortable. In latter case, you'd need to make up for shock value by acknowledging it, comforting them, etc. Besides all that, your purpose determines everything else. Visualize a straight line from you through your audience to purpose. If you want to persuade them, you have to take them from where they are to place of persuasion. If you want to inform, you have to take their brains from where they are, to where they'll know your information. Knowing them, and taking them there is what it's all about.