8.2 The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis
Lana Iapicco and Marie Torres
8.2 The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis
Before you can start building the body of your speech or presentation, you need to complete some key preparation steps. These include choosing a topic, deciding on your general purpose, writing a specific purpose statement, and developing a central idea (or thesis).
Taking the time to do this early work helps you create a strong foundation for your speech. You’re making important decisions about what you will talk about and why it matters. These choices shape every part of your speech, from the points you include to how you organize and deliver them. Because of this, it’s important to think carefully and critically during this stage so your speech is clear, focused, and effective from the start.
Understanding the General Purpose
Before you begin working on a speech, it’s important to understand its general purpose. The general purpose explains what you want to achieve with your speech and helps guide your choice of topic. In most cases, your instructor will assign the general purpose, and it will fall into one of three categories: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain.
A general purpose to means you are teaching your audience about a topic. Your goal is to help them better understand something by sharing facts, explaining ideas, or introducing new information. In an informative speech, you focus on being clear and accurate—you do not share personal opinions or tell the audience what to do.
A general purpose to means you are taking a position on a topic and encouraging your audience to agree with you. In these speeches, you share your viewpoint, support it with evidence, and often ask your audience to take action or change their thinking.
A general purpose to is typically used for special occasions, such as celebrations or ceremonies. The goal is to engage the audience, create a positive experience, and connect them to the moment or event.
As you can see, these purposes are very different. An informative speech focuses only on sharing knowledge, while a persuasive speech includes your opinions and a call to action. Because the general purpose shapes everything about your speech, it’s important to clearly understand it before you choose your topic.
Selecting a Topic
Speakers often focus on one or more related topics—broad ideas, issues, or concerns that matter to a specific audience. One of the easiest ways to come up with a topic is to pay attention to what’s happening around you—at your school, in your community, or in the world. If you’re interested in using public speaking to inform others or create change, there are plenty of meaningful topics to explore.
A great way to start is by asking yourself a few simple questions:
- What important events are happening locally, nationally, or globally?
- What do I care about most?
- Is there a person, group, or cause I want to support?
- What makes me feel strongly (excited, frustrated, passionate)?
- What beliefs or ideas do I want to share?
- What information would be helpful for my audience to know?
These questions can help you generate ideas and narrow your focus to topics that matter to you. The best speech topics are often connected to your own experiences, interests, and knowledge. When you choose something you care about, the process of writing and delivering your speech becomes more engaging and meaningful.
It’s also important to choose a topic where you have some level of . This means you have a genuine connection to or understanding of your topic. For example, it may be difficult to convincingly ask your audience to support a cause if you have no personal connection to it.
If you’re still having trouble coming up with ideas, try . Think about your daily routines, hobbies, or skills. You might talk about a workout routine, explain a favorite game, demonstrate a skill, or discuss a topic you’re passionate about. Almost anything you find interesting can become a strong speech topic if you shape it for your audience.
Speaking of the audience, you should always keep them in mind when choosing your topic. Even if you love a subject, it may not work if your audience can’t relate to it or won’t benefit from it. Ask yourself:
- Will my audience learn something new or useful?
- Is this topic manageable within the time limit?
- Is it too broad or too detailed?
The goal is to choose a topic that:
- You enjoy and understand
- You can speak about with credibility
- Your audience can learn from or connect with
Finally, remember that many topics start out too broad. For example, “dog breeds” is a huge subject that could lead to many different speeches. To make your topic more effective, you’ll need to narrow it by thinking about your audience, the time you have, and what you want your audience to gain. This step helps you turn a general idea into a focused, clear, and meaningful speech topic.
Formulating the Purpose Statements
The general purpose is a broad goal of the speech: To Inform, To Persuade, or To Entertain.
By honing in on a very specific topic, you begin the work of formulating your purpose statement. In short, a clearly states what it is you would like to achieve.
Purpose statements are an important tool for guiding your speech as you prepare it. When you’re deciding which main points, facts, or examples to include, ask yourself: Does this connect to my topic, and does it help me achieve my goal? If it doesn’t, it probably shouldn’t be included.
Your purpose statement acts like a filter, helping you stay focused and organized. It ensures that everything in your speech works together to support what you want your audience to learn, feel, or do by the end of your presentation.
The general purpose statement of a speech may be to inform, to persuade, to celebrate, or to entertain. Thus, it is common to frame a around one of these goals. According to O’Hair, Stewart, and Rubenstein, a specific purpose statement “expresses both the topic and the general speech purpose in action form and in terms of the specific objectives you hope to achieve” (2004).
A specific purpose statement is a single, clear sentence that explains what your audience will gain from your speech or what should happen by the end. It combines your general purpose with your topic and helps you focus on what you can realistically accomplish in a short amount of time.
In other words, the specific purpose takes your broad goal and turns it into a clear, focused objective.
For example, if your general purpose is to inform and your topic is dog breeds, your specific purpose might be:
- To inform the audience about how corgis became popular household pets.
If your general purpose is to persuade, your specific purpose might be:
- To persuade the audience that dog breeds labeled “dangerous” should not be banned from cities.
The general purpose describes the overall goal of the speech, while the specific purpose clearly states exactly what you want your speech to accomplish.
A strong specific purpose is audience-centered and measurable. This means you should be able to tell whether your audience learned something new or changed their thinking. For example, you might ask at the beginning of your speech how many people know about corgis, and then ask again at the end—you should see more hands raised.
Think of the specific purpose as the “so what?” of your speech. It helps you take a broad topic and narrow it into a clear, meaningful goal that focuses on what your audience will gain in a short amount of time.
Writing the Thesis Statement
Just like a written paper includes a thesis at the beginning, a speech should also introduce its thesis (or central idea) within the first few sentences. The thesis clearly tells your audience what your speech is about and what they can expect to learn.
A thesis statement usually sums up the main idea of the speech in one sentence. It should be written as a clear, complete statement (not a question), and it is often followed by a that briefly outlines the main points you will cover.
For example, if you are a Harry Potter fan, your thesis statement might sound like this:
- J.K. Rowling is a well-known author of the Harry Potter series who experienced a rise to fame similar to a Cinderella story.
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Speech Communication was created by Lana Iapicco and Marie Torres. Independently created original and AI-assisted content developed specifically for this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
This educational material includes content generated or revised with the assistance of large language models. Lana Iapicco and Marie Torres reviewed, edited, and take responsibility for the final published content.
CC Licensed Content, Previously Shared
The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis
“8.2 The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis” by Douglas Marshall, James Yeargain, June Pulliam, Sara Kim, and Victoria VanNest, published in It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network, was adapted for this section.
The source material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The material was revised, reorganized, condensed, and supplemented with original and AI-assisted content for this edition.
Adapted portions derived from this source, including revisions to those portions, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Independently created portions developed specifically for Speech Communication are licensed under the book’s Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Other Content Included
A Speaker’s Guidebook
O’Hair, D., Stewart, R., & Rubenstein, H. (2004). A speaker’s guidebook: Text and reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
This source is cited for the explanation that a specific purpose statement expresses both the topic and the general purpose of a speech in action-oriented terms and identifies the objective the speaker hopes to accomplish.
The publication remains subject to the rights and terms of its authors and publisher and is not included under the Creative Commons licenses applied to Speech Communication.
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Books, fictional works, authors, examples, trademarks, and other third-party materials referenced in this section remain the property of their respective authors, publishers, organizations, and rights holders. References to J. K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series are included only as instructional examples.
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The broad goal of teaching an audience about a topic by presenting accurate facts, explaining ideas, or introducing information without giving personal opinions or urging action.
to convince, motivate, or otherwise persuade others to change their beliefs, take an action, or reconsider a decision
The broad goal of engaging an audience, creating an enjoyable experience, and connecting listeners to a special occasion, celebration, or ceremony.
the perception the audience holds of you regarding your competence and character
A creative process for generating as many ideas as possible about a topic before evaluating, organizing, or narrowing them.
clearly states what it is you would like to achieve
“expresses both the topic and the general speech purpose in action form and in terms of the specific objectives you hope to achieve” (O'Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2004)
the part of the speech that literally tells the audience exactly what main points you will cover
