Company Introduction

　　麦格劳-希尔教育出版公司(McGraw-Hill Education)成立于1888年，总部设在美国纽约，业务遍及全球30多个国家和地区。麦格劳-希尔教育出版公司是美国最有影响的教育图书出版公司之一，其麾下的McGraw-Hill Contemporary ELT, School Division, SRA, Glencoe出版社是全美最著名的教材出版与服务机构，每年出版逾700种新版各科类教材，更有近千种常备教材长盛不衰。McGraw-Hill ELT(English Language Teaching)教材是在为满足美国本土英语为非母语的学生英语学习需要的基础上发展起来的，利用大量的主学科教材资料融入英语教学，贴近生活语境，注重行为教学，优势突出。

　　麦格劳-希尔教育出版公司在特别注重出版物的权威性、时代性的同时，尤其注重对教师的教学服务，遍布全球的营销服务与出版机构积极服务于当地教育事业的发展，共享全人类共同的知识财富。

　　从今年第六期开始，《英语学习》与麦格劳-希尔教育出版公司合作推出书摘栏目，旨在向国内读者介绍优秀的外版图书。

　　The Art of Public Speaking——Choosing a Topic

　　Public speaking is a nightmare? Through this serial of extract from McGraw-Hill's best seller in public speech The Art of Public Speaking, we will show you the way to become an articulator.

　　The first step in speechmaking is choosing a topic. For speeches outside the classroom this is seldom a problem. Usually the speech topic is determined by the occasion, the audience, and the speaker's qualifications. In a public speaking class the situation is different. Most of your speech assignments will not come with a designated topic. Students generally have great leeway in selecting subjects for their speeches. This would appear to be an advantage, since it allows you to talk about matters of personal interest. Yet there may be no facet<注1> of speech preparation that causes more gnashing<注2> of teeth than selecting a topic.

　　It is a constant source of amazement to teachers that students who regularly chat with their friends about almost any subject under the sun become mentally paralyzed when faced with the task of deciding what to talk about in their speech class. Fortunately, once you get over this initial paralysis, you should have little trouble choosing a good topic.

　　There are two broad categories of potential topics for your classroom speeches :

　　(1) subjects you know a lot about and

　　(2) subjects you want to know more about. Let's start with the first.

　　Topics you know a lot about

　　Most people speak best about subjects with which they are most familiar. Everyone knows things or has done things that can be used in a speech. Think for a moment about unusual experiences you may have had. Think also about special knowledge or expertise you may have acquired. You are bound to come up with something. One student, who grew up in Pakistan, presented a fascinating speech about daily life in that country. Another used her knowledge as jewelry store salesperson to prepare a speech on how to judge the value of cut diamonds. A third student, who had lived through a tornado, gave a gripping speech about that terrifying experience. Too dramatic? Nothing in your life is as interesting?

　　Here are a few more examples of speech topics based largely on the students' personal knowledge and experience:

　　Hong Kong: City of Paradox

　　Iguanas<注3>: The Ideal Pets

　　Scuba Diving<注4>: A New World Under Water...

　　Topics you want to know more about

　　On the other hand, you may decide to make your speech a learning experience for yourself as well as for your audience. You may choose a subject about which you already have some knowledge or expertise but not enough to prepare a speech without doing additional research. You may even select a topic that hasn't touched you at all before but that you want to explore. Or suppose you run across a subject in one of your other classes that catches your fancy. Why not investigate it further for your speech class?

　　Still another possibility - especially for persuasive speeches—is to think of subjects about which you hold strong opinions and beliefs. Imagine you are at dinner with a friend and find yourself arguing that television broadcasters should not report the projected results of presidential elections until polls have closed throughout the country. Why not give a speech in class on the same topic? Or suppose you believe your school should set up a program to help reduce burglaries on campus.

　　Like everyone else, you surely have issues about which you care deeply. They may include national or international concerns such as gun control, protection of the environment, or the threat of cyberterrorism. Or perhaps you are a mayor for a proposal to increase tuition. Not all such topics must be "political." They can deal with anything from graduation requirements to helping people with physical disabilities, from vegetarianism to preserving a nature sanctuary, from dormitory regulations to building a church recreation center.

　　After all this, you may still be thinking, "I've never been to Pakistan. I'm not active in politics. WHAT am I going to talk about?" if you areshavingstrouble selecting a topic, there are a number of brainstorming procedures you can follow to get started.

　　Personal inventory

　　First make a quick inventory of your experiences, interests, hobbies, skills, beliefs, and so forth. Jot down anything that comes to mind, no matter how silly or irrelevant it may seem. From this list may come a general subject area out of which you can fashion a specific topic. This method has worked for many students.

　　Clustering

　　If the first method doesn't work, try the second. It's a technique called clustering. Take a sheet of paper and divide it into nine columns as follows: People, Place, Things, Events, Processes, Concepts, natural Phenomena, Problems, and Plans and Policies. Then list in each column the first five or six items that come to mind.

　　Reference search

　　By clustering, most people are able to come up with a topic rather quickly. But if you are still stymied5, don't despair. There is a third technique you can use. Go to the reference room of the library and browse through an encyclopedia, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, the New York Times Index, or some other reference work until you stumble across what might be a good speech topic.

　　Internet Search

　　Yet another possibility, if you have access to the World Wide Web via the Internet, is to connect to a subject-based search engine such as Yahoo or the Librarians' Index to the Internet. If you select one categories—say, Health—the next screen will show all subcategories indexed under that heading. One of the advantages of using Yahoo as a brainstorming aid is that you can continue to make your search more and more specific until you find just the right topic. Suppose, for example, that as you look at the subheadings for health, your attention is grabbed by the item—Alternative Medicine. If you click on this item, you will get another screen with a detailed list of subheadings for Alternative Medicine. Working from that list, you can link up to other sites that will help you narrow and focus your topic even further. This process is much faster than leafing through reference works in the library, and it can be a great spur to thinking creatively about a topic.

　　Whatever the means you use for selecting a topic, Start Early. The major reason students have difficulty choosing speech topics is that, like most people, they tend to procrastinate—to put off starting projects for as long as possible. Since choosing a topic is your first step in the process of speech preparation, it is only natural to postpone facing up to it. But if you postpone it for too long, you may dig yourself into a hole from which you cannot escape.

　　Start thinking about your topic as soon as each assignment is announced. Pay attention to interesting subjects in class and conversation, on the radio and television, in newspapers and magazines. Jot down in your notebook ideas for topics as they occur to you.shavingsan inventory of possible topics to choose from is much better thanshavingsto rack your brain for one at the last minute. If you get an early start on choosing a topic, you will have plenty of time to pick just the right one and prepare a first-rate speech.