Random Speech Topics for Class, Clubs and Practice

One press gives one speech topic and a first line to open with.

Give an instrument one honest month.Open with: Nobody sounds good in week one, and that is the point.

Next step Want two sides? Draw a debate topic Draw a quote to close on

How it works

Need random speech topics for class or a club? Press for one topic and a first line to open with. The list covers five kinds of speech or presentation: impromptu, informative, persuasive, demonstration and special occasion.

Read the full guide

Pick a kind of speech

After your first press, the menu under the button narrows the draw to one kind. Impromptu topics need no research. Informative topics explain how something works. Persuasive topics ask the audience to do one thing. Demonstrations are how-to talks with something in your hands. Special occasion topics are toasts, introductions, thanks and farewells.

Practice against the clock

Say the opening line aloud, then start the two-minute timer under the topic and keep talking until it ends. Press again for a new topic.

Tips

For impromptu practice, draw the topic only once the speaker is standing.

Questions and answers

What are good random presentation topics?

Choose Informative or Demonstration in the menu. You get topics such as "How a canal lock lifts a boat." or "How to fold a T-shirt in three moves.", which suit slides or a prop. Each comes with a first line.

What is an impromptu speech?

A short message given without advance preparation. It is one of four ways to deliver a speech; the others are extemporaneous, manuscript and memorized. Choose Impromptu, read the opening line and keep going.

How do I start a speech?

Say the opening line under the topic, then tell the audience what you will cover. The lines are written to be spoken as they are, or changed to fit your own voice.

Are these speech topics suitable for school?

They were written for classrooms and clubs: no party politics, no arguments about religion, no health advice and no topic about a classmate. A teacher can draw one for each student.

All 250 speech topics

Impromptu 70

Advertise the novel you plan to write someday. Open with: The first page is blank, and it only gets better.
Announce the winner of a staring contest between two statues. Open with: After three hundred years, we have a result.
Argue that a library is just a quiet playground. Open with: One has slides and one has shelves, and both have rules.
Argue that socks are the most underrated clothing. Open with: Nobody thanks a sock until one goes missing.
Argue that the best superpower is finding lost things. Open with: Flying is fine until you cannot find your keys.
Call a snail race as the commentator. Open with: They are off, and nothing appears to be happening.
Close a show that has run in this room for a hundred years. Open with: Tonight the curtain falls on the longest run in history.
Convince the class that the stairs have a favorite step. Open with: Count them tomorrow and tell me the seventh does not feel different.
Convince us that Monday deserves a second chance. Open with: Monday has had bad press for long enough.
Convince us to spend a vacation on your street. Open with: Forget the beach; we have a very good mailbox.
Defend the last row of the school bus as the best seat. Open with: Every great journey is best watched from the back.
Describe a chair to someone who has never sat down. Open with: Picture a table that wants to hold you.
Describe a sandwich so well that we can taste it. Open with: Start with two slices that have somewhere to be.
Describe a snow day to someone from a place with no snow. Open with: First, the whole world goes quiet.
Describe a thunderstorm as if it were an orchestra. Open with: The drums come in early and nobody stops them.
Describe breakfast using only the noises it makes. Open with: Click, hum, pop, and then the scrape of a knife.
Describe the color blue to someone who cannot see it. Open with: Blue is how a cool glass of water would sound.
Describe the longest minute you can imagine. Open with: It starts when the microwave says one minute left.
Describe the world from ankle height. Open with: Down here, shoes are the weather.
Describe your favorite smell without naming it. Open with: You will know it the second it reaches the hallway.
Describe your town the way a bird would. Open with: From up here, it is mostly roofs and one very good puddle.
Design a new coin and tell us what is on each side. Open with: Heads, you will not believe; tails, even less.
Explain a joke without telling it. Open with: There is a chicken, there is a road, and there is a question.
Explain a rainbow to someone who has only heard of one. Open with: Imagine the sky decided to underline itself.
Explain how you can tell a place is friendly. Open with: Look at the door before you look at the people.
Explain the difference between a puddle and a pond, your way. Open with: A puddle is a pond that has not decided to stay.
Explain what clouds are for, without any science. Open with: Somebody had to carry the rain, and clouds volunteered.
Explain what the wind is in such a hurry to do. Open with: It has somewhere to be, and it will not say where.
Explain why a spoon beats a fork. Open with: A fork has never once held soup.
Give a pep talk to an umbrella on a windy day. Open with: You were built for this, even if it does not feel that way.
Give a tour of your backpack as if it were a museum. Open with: Welcome, and please do not touch the exhibits.
Give the acceptance speech of a dog who won best trick. Open with: I would like to thank the hand that holds the treats.
Guide a lost astronaut from this classroom to the Moon. Open with: Go out the door, turn left, and keep going up.
Invent a new school subject and say why we need it. Open with: Class, please open your books to a page that does not exist yet.
Invent a sport on the spot and teach its three rules. Open with: The game begins when someone drops the sponge.
Make the case for a class pet rock. Open with: It will never run away, and it will never be late.
Persuade a cat to come down from a bookshelf. Open with: I respect your position, but hear me out.
Pick any number and make it sound important. Open with: You have walked past this number your whole life.
Pitch a new holiday for the middle of the school year. Open with: There is a hole in the calendar, and I have measured it.
Plan a parade for something very small. Open with: Clear the sidewalk; the ants have earned this.
Praise the humble paper clip. Open with: It holds things together and asks for nothing.
Present an award to the most patient thing in this room. Open with: It has waited all year without a single complaint.
Present the news from your kitchen this morning. Open with: Our top story: the toaster has done it again.
Rank the hiding spots in this room from worst to best. Open with: The best spot is the one people have already checked.
Read out tomorrow's forecast for the land under your bed. Open with: We begin with heavy dust, clearing by Saturday.
Rename the days of the week and defend your names. Open with: Tuesday was never a good name, and we all knew it.
Report live from the lunch line. Open with: I am standing where the trays begin, and tension is high.
Review the playground like a restaurant critic. Open with: The slide arrived warm, which I did not order.
Say what you would paint on the classroom ceiling. Open with: Everyone looks up sooner or later, so give them something.
Sell the class a pencil with no eraser. Open with: This pencil has never once admitted a mistake.
Sell us a ticket to watch grass grow. Open with: Seats are limited, and the show never stops.
Speak as a brand-new shoe on its first day of school. Open with: The laces were tight, and so were my nerves.
Speak as the last cookie on the plate. Open with: I have seen my friends go, one by one.
Speak for a doorbell after a very long day. Open with: All day I wait, and then everybody presses me at once.
Speak for one minute as a tree outside the school. Open with: I have watched this playground longer than any of you.
Speak for the pencil sharpener about its working day. Open with: They bring me their dull problems and leave sharp.
Talk a snowman into looking forward to spring. Open with: I will be honest with you about April.
Teach a beginner the fine art of being bored. Open with: Boredom is a skill, and most people rush it.
Teach the class a rule you just invented for tag. Open with: Everything you know about tag changes in the next minute.
Teach us three words in a language you just made up. Open with: Repeat after me, and do not worry about the spelling.
Tell a story that starts with a missing mitten. Open with: There were two when we left the house.
Tell us about a door you have always wanted to open. Open with: It is an ordinary door, which is what makes it suspicious.
Tell us what a map of this school leaves out. Open with: No map shows where the good echo is.
Tell us what the Moon thinks of streetlights. Open with: I was doing this job long before any of you were switched on.
Tell us what the school mascot does on weekends. Open with: The costume comes off, but the spirit does not.
Thank an everyday object that never gets thanked. Open with: To the doorstop: you have held more than doors.
Walk us through the perfect treehouse, room by room. Open with: Mind the rope ladder; the tour starts at the top.
Welcome a new student who happens to be a robot. Open with: Class, this is our new friend, and yes, that noise is normal.
Welcome visitors from another planet to our classroom. Open with: Greetings, and yes, the pencils are supposed to do that.
Write the job description for a best friend, out loud. Open with: Wanted: one person, no experience needed, snacks a plus.

Informative 50

How a camera catches light to make a photo. Open with: Every photo is light that was caught.
How a canal lock lifts a boat. Open with: The boat does not climb; the water does.
How a dictionary decides to add a word. Open with: Every word in the dictionary was once new.
How a flat map shows a round planet. Open with: Try to flatten an orange peel and you will see the problem.
How a garden spider spins its wheel-shaped web. Open with: Every thread of it comes out of the spider itself.
How a glass prism spreads light into colors. Open with: White light is hiding something.
How a hot-air balloon goes up and comes down. Open with: The pilot can steer up and down, and not much else.
How a letter gets from a mailbox to a door far away. Open with: Drop it in the slot and the relay begins.
How a library decides where each book lives. Open with: The numbers on the spine are an address.
How a liquid thermometer measures temperature. Open with: The liquid in the tube has only one trick.
How a newspaper gets made in one day. Open with: Every morning starts with an empty front page.
How a piano turns a key press into a note. Open with: Press a key and a small hammer goes to work.
How a pulley lets you lift by pulling down. Open with: A flagpole has a secret at the top.
How a referee's hand signals explain a call. Open with: Before anyone hears the call, they see it.
How a seed bank keeps plants for the future. Open with: Somewhere cold, there is a library with no books.
How a submarine sinks and rises on purpose. Open with: To go down, it lets the sea in.
How a traffic signal decides who waits. Open with: Red, amber, green: three colors run every crossing in town.
How a weather forecast is put together. Open with: Tomorrow's weather starts as today's measurements.
How a young root senses gravity and grows down. Open with: Plant it upside down and it still gets it right.
How a zipper keeps its teeth together. Open with: You used one this morning and never looked at it.
How an aluminum can is recycled into another can. Open with: The can in the bin is not at the end of anything.
How an arch bridge holds its own weight. Open with: Stand on an arch and your weight heads sideways.
How ants tell each other where the food is. Open with: One ant finds a crumb, and soon there is a line.
How bees turn nectar into honey. Open with: One jar is the work of a great many trips.
How braille lets fingers read. Open with: Six dots are enough for a whole alphabet.
How chocolate gets from a bean to a bar. Open with: It starts as a seed on a tree.
How drawings are made to look like they move. Open with: Flip the corner of a notebook and you have it.
How migrating birds find their way. Open with: No signs, no screens, and they still arrive.
How sand is melted into window glass. Open with: You are looking through a beach.
How sound travels along a string telephone. Open with: Two cups and a string are enough to prove it.
How the brakes on a bicycle stop the wheel. Open with: Squeeze a lever at your hand and something at the wheel has to grab.
How wood pulp becomes a sheet of paper. Open with: This page used to be a tree.
The trip a river takes from its source to the sea. Open with: It starts as a trickle you could step over.
The water cycle, told as one raindrop's trip. Open with: Meet a raindrop that has done this before.
What a constellation is, and what it is not. Open with: A constellation is a picture people agreed to see.
What a fossil is and how one forms. Open with: A fossil is usually only part of the story: a bone, a shell, a print.
What a lighthouse does for a ship. Open with: Before screens, there was one light and one message.
What a time zone is and why we have them. Open with: When it is lunch here, somebody else is asleep.
What an echo is. Open with: Shout at a cliff and it answers late.
What causes the tides. Open with: The sea is being pulled by something you can see at night.
What goes on inside a wind-up clock. Open with: Inside the tick is a wheel being let go, one tooth at a time.
What happens inside a volcano before it erupts. Open with: The mountain is the lid, not the pot.
What pulls a compass needle toward the north. Open with: The needle is not pointing at anything you can see.
Where a pencil comes from. Open with: Inside the wood is a mix of graphite and clay.
Where the round scars on the Moon came from. Open with: The Moon keeps a record of everything that ever hit it.
Why autumn trees trade green for yellow and orange. Open with: Every tree on my street got the same message last week.
Why bees favor a six-walled room. Open with: Look closely at a honeycomb and count the walls.
Why bread dough swells while it rests. Open with: The dough is alive, in a small way.
Why February sometimes gets a twenty-ninth day. Open with: The year is a little longer than the calendar admits.
Why the rumble comes seconds after the flash. Open with: You see it first, and then you wait.

Persuasive 50

Adopt one corner of the schoolyard and keep it clean. Open with: One wrapper is nothing, and that is exactly why you can do it.
Ask an older relative for one story this week. Open with: The best stories in your family are not written down anywhere.
Ask others what they think, and wait for the answer. Open with: The quietest person at your table has an opinion.
Back up your schoolwork before you need to. Open with: Every lost essay was saved in exactly one place.
Begin a small collection of something that costs nothing. Open with: Stamps, leaves, bottle caps: it only has to matter to you.
Bring one written question to every lesson. Open with: Someone else in the room is hoping you will ask.
Bring your own cup instead of taking a new one. Open with: Count the cups in the trash after one school event.
Carry a book wherever you go. Open with: Every line you stand in is a chapter you could have read.
Check the library shelf before the store shelf. Open with: There is a building in town where everything is already yours.
Cheer for the other team's good plays. Open with: A great catch is a great catch in any jersey.
Complete the project on your desk before opening another. Open with: Count your half-finished projects, then pick one.
Find out how your town got its name. Open with: You have written it on a hundred forms without asking what it means.
Give an instrument one honest month. Open with: Nobody sounds good in week one, and that is the point.
Give one hour a month to something that is not for you. Open with: An hour is small to you and large to someone else.
Give up your seat to someone who needs it more. Open with: It costs you a few minutes of standing.
Join one club you know nothing about. Open with: The best room in this school is one you have not walked into.
Keep a notebook of things that made you laugh. Open with: You have already forgotten the funniest thing from last week.
Keep a sketchbook even if you think you cannot draw. Open with: Bad drawings are how good ones begin.
Lay out tomorrow's things tonight. Open with: Your morning self is not good at finding shoes.
Learn one coin trick and keep its secret. Open with: Watch closely, because I will not be doing this twice.
Learn one new classmate's name each week. Open with: There are people in this grade whose names you have never said.
Learn the names of five trees near your home. Open with: You walk past them every day and could not introduce one.
Learn the names of the adults who run your school. Open with: Who unlocked this building this morning?
Learn to cook one full meal this year. Open with: Someday you will be hungry and in charge.
Learn to count to twenty in a second language. Open with: Numbers are the first thing you will need anywhere.
Learn to read a paper map. Open with: Batteries run out; paper does not.
Learn to sign hello and thank you. Open with: Two signs are enough to start a conversation.
Leave every room a little tidier than you found it. Open with: It takes ten seconds and nobody will know it was you.
Look up one unfamiliar word every day. Open with: You skipped a word today because you did not know it.
Mail a handwritten thank-you once a month. Open with: Somebody did something for you this week and has no idea you noticed.
Memorize one poem and keep it for life. Open with: A poem you know by heart goes wherever you go.
Memorize the full lyrics of a favorite song. Open with: You have been mumbling the second verse for years.
Plant something and keep it alive until summer. Open with: A seed is the cheapest long-term project there is.
Practice your handwriting until a stranger can read it. Open with: If only you can read it, it is a secret code, not a note.
Put your phone in a drawer while you study. Open with: Try it once and time yourself.
Read the booklet that came in the box before you build. Open with: The answer to your question was on the first page.
Record the title of each book you complete. Open with: A year from now you will not remember half of what you read.
Send a postcard the next time you travel. Open with: A message on paper gets kept; a message on a screen scrolls away.
Start your homework with the hardest part. Open with: The worst ten minutes are the ones you keep putting off.
Study the rulebook of a game you have never tried. Open with: Every game is boring until you know what a foul is.
Take a reusable bag when you shop. Open with: Count the bags under your kitchen sink tonight.
Teach a younger child a game you used to play. Open with: A game only survives if somebody passes it on.
Tell people the kind thing you were only thinking. Open with: You thought something kind today and kept it to yourself.
Thank a teacher before the year ends. Open with: Teachers hear what went wrong much more often than what went right.
Thank people for the exact thing they did. Open with: Thanks is polite; thanks for staying late to help me is remembered.
Try a repair before you reach for the trash can. Open with: The broken thing in your closet is one small repair from useful.
Try out for the school play, on stage or behind it. Open with: A play needs forty people and only ten of them act.
Visit the museum you keep walking past. Open with: Tourists cross the country for what is ten minutes from your door.
Watch the sun come up once before winter ends. Open with: It happens every day and most of us have seen about three.
Write a letter to an author whose book you finished. Open with: Writers hear from critics all the time and from readers almost never.

Demonstration 50

How to bounce-pass a basketball to a moving teammate. Open with: Aim for the floor two thirds of the way there.
How to build a bird feeder from a cardboard tube. Open with: The birds do not care that it used to hold paper towels.
How to build a sandwich that does not fall apart. Open with: Wet things go in the middle, between dry things.
How to clap a rhythm and teach it to a room. Open with: Listen once, then give it back to me.
How to clean a pair of muddy sneakers. Open with: Let the mud dry first; that is the whole trick.
How to compose a picture before you tap the shutter. Open with: Before you press the button, take one step to the side.
How to crack an egg with one clean tap. Open with: Use the counter, not the edge of the bowl.
How to cut a row of paper dolls holding hands. Open with: Fold it like a fan and cut only once.
How to deliver a punchline with a pause. Open with: The pause is the hardest part.
How to do a card trick that works every time. Open with: Pick a card, any card, and do not show me.
How to double-knot a sneaker lace that will not slip. Open with: Most of us were taught a knot that comes loose by lunch.
How to draw a circle with a pencil and a piece of string. Open with: You do not need a steady hand; you need a loop.
How to draw a face with the eyes in the right place. Open with: The eyes go in the middle of the head, and almost nobody believes it.
How to find the balance point of a yardstick. Open with: Slide both hands inward and watch where they meet.
How to find your bus on a printed schedule. Open with: Find your stop on the left and your time on the right.
How to fold a dart-style paper plane. Open with: I have one sheet of paper and a point to prove.
How to fold a paper cootie catcher. Open with: Eight folds, eight fortunes, one square of paper.
How to fold a sheet of paper into even thirds. Open with: Do not measure; let the paper tell you.
How to fold a square of paper into a gift box. Open with: Two squares of paper, no glue, and a lid that fits.
How to fold a T-shirt in three moves. Open with: Pinch here, pinch there, and lift.
How to give a firm, friendly handshake. Open with: Two seconds, eye contact, and let go.
How to knot a tie for a school uniform. Open with: The wide end does all the traveling.
How to label an envelope for the mail carrier. Open with: Three lines in the middle and one corner for the stamp.
How to lay out plates, forks and glasses for a formal meal. Open with: The fork goes on the left, and there is a reason.
How to letter a poster that reads from the back row. Open with: If you can read it from across the room, so can they.
How to make a corner bookmark from an envelope. Open with: One snip with scissors and you never lose your page again.
How to make a pinwheel that spins in a breeze. Open with: Four cuts, one pin, and the wind does the rest.
How to make a telephone from two cups and a string. Open with: Keep the string tight or you will hear nothing at all.
How to make flash cards that help you remember. Open with: One fact per card, question on the front.
How to mark strikes and spares on a bowling sheet. Open with: A strike is worth more than ten, and here is why.
How to measure a room using only your feet. Open with: Heel to toe, and count out loud.
How to move a houseplant into a bigger pot. Open with: The roots will tell you when it is time.
How to pack a lunch that survives a backpack. Open with: Heavy things at the bottom, and never the banana.
How to peel an orange in one long strip. Open with: Start at the top and do not rush the first turn.
How to pick up a grape with chopsticks. Open with: The bottom stick never moves.
How to plant a seed in a paper cup. Open with: Soil, a seed and a finger are all the tools you need.
How to roll a sleeping bag so it fits its sack. Open with: Kneel on it as you go and squeeze out the air.
How to roll shirts so a travel bag closes. Open with: Fold and you fit five shirts; roll and you fit eight.
How to sharpen a colored pencil without breaking the tip. Open with: Turn the pencil, not the sharpener.
How to shuffle a deck of cards without dropping it. Open with: Start with half the deck in each hand and a little courage.
How to sketch the way from your door to the school gate. Open with: Start with the two places you know best and join them.
How to snap your fingers with a crisp click. Open with: The sound comes from where the finger lands.
How to snip a snowflake with six arms from folded paper. Open with: The trick is in the folding, long before the scissors.
How to stand playing cards into a three-level tower. Open with: Breathe out before you set down each card.
How to thread a needle on the first try. Open with: Bring the needle to the thread, not the thread to the needle.
How to throw a flying disc flat and level. Open with: It is all in the wrist, and I can prove it.
How to turn a sheet of newsprint into a pointed cap. Open with: One sheet of newspaper and you are dressed for a parade.
How to weave three pieces of yarn into a cord. Open with: Left over middle, right over middle, and repeat.
How to wrap a present with three pieces of tape. Open with: The secret is in the measuring, not the taping.
How to wrap a schoolbook in a grocery sack. Open with: One grocery bag, no tape, and the book lasts the year.

Special occasion 30

Accept a trophy you did not expect to win. Open with: I did not write a speech, which tells you how sure I was.
Accept first prize at a science fair. Open with: This began with a question I could not stop asking.
Accept the award for kindest classmate. Open with: I am not sure kindness should come with a prize, but thank you.
Accept the award for most improved player. Open with: A year ago I could not have carried this trophy, let alone won it.
Congratulate the winner when you finished second. Open with: I wanted this badly, and it went to the right person.
Dedicate a new bench in the school garden. Open with: Long after we leave, somebody will sit here and rest.
Give a farewell speech to your old school. Open with: I know which stair creaks and which fountain is coldest.
Give the year's last speech as class representative. Open with: We came in as strangers in August.
Greet the incoming class on opening morning. Open with: A year ago I was sitting exactly where you are.
Introduce a firefighter who is visiting your class. Open with: Our guest runs toward what the rest of us run from.
Introduce an author speaking at a school assembly. Open with: You have met our speaker already, on page one.
Introduce the next act at a school concert. Open with: You are going to want to remember where you were tonight.
Mark the first anniversary of a club you started. Open with: A year ago this club was three people and a borrowed room.
Open the school talent show as its host. Open with: Tonight, people you sit next to in math will surprise you.
Present a certificate to the school crossing guard. Open with: Rain or shine, one person has stopped traffic for us.
Present the coach with a gift from the team. Open with: Coach, for once you are the one who has to stand still and listen.
Present your closest friend to an audience that has never met them. Open with: In two minutes you will wish you had met them sooner.
Raise a glass of juice to a friend turning a year older. Open with: I have known the guest of honor since we were this tall.
Say farewell to a teacher who is retiring. Open with: Thirty years of students are standing behind me right now.
Say goodbye to a classmate who is moving away. Open with: Your desk will be here on Monday, and you will not.
Speak at the ribbon-cutting for a town library. Open with: Today this town gets ten thousand new doors.
Speak at your older sibling's graduation party. Open with: I have shared a bathroom with the graduate, so I know things.
Thank the cafeteria staff at the end of the year. Open with: They have fed every one of us about a hundred and eighty times.
Thank the volunteers after a school fair. Open with: The fair you enjoyed today was built by people you did not see.
Thank your host family at the end of an exchange visit. Open with: I arrived with one suitcase and I leave with a second family.
Toast the cook at a family holiday dinner. Open with: Before anyone lifts a fork, look at this table.
Toast your grandparents on their anniversary. Open with: Everyone in this room is here because of two people.
Toast your team at the end of the season. Open with: The scoreboard does not know what we did this year.
Welcome a new pet to the family, formally. Open with: We are gathered in this kitchen to greet our newest member.
Welcome families to a class play. Open with: What you are about to see took six weeks and one glue gun.

How this list was compiled

All 250 speech topics and their opening lines were written for this page on 2026-09-30; none is copied from a textbook, a club's topic list or another list. The five kinds are Impromptu (70), Informative (50), Persuasive (50), Demonstration (50) and Special occasion (30). What the kinds mean was checked on 2026-09-30 in the open textbook Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking, version 1.0. The University of Minnesota Libraries edition has been withdrawn (its contents page now says the book holds no public content), so it was read in the Saylor Foundation copy at https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/ : the general purposes of speaking are to inform, to persuade and to entertain (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s09-01-general-purposes-of-speaking.html ); impromptu speaking is the presentation of a short message without advance preparation and is one of four methods of delivery, with extemporaneous, manuscript and memorized (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s17-01-four-methods-of-delivery.html ); informative speeches may be about objects, people, events, concepts or processes (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s19-02-types-of-informative-speeches.html ); and special occasion speaking includes introductions, presentations, acceptances, dedications, toasts and farewells (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s21-02-special-occasion-speeches.html ). The book files a how-to talk under speeches about processes; Demonstration is our own name for a how-to talk with something to show. Our Persuasive topics each ask the audience to do one thing; they are not two-sided motions, which are on our debate page. Roasts and eulogies, which the book also lists, are left out. Nothing from the book is reproduced beyond those terms, and this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by its authors, the Saylor Foundation or the University of Minnesota. Each topic was read against the house rules of our question lists: a student can start on it with what they know; it takes no party's side, argues no point of religion and gives no health advice; it is never about a classmate; and it names no brand, show, game or living person. The opening lines are ways to begin, not findings, so check any fact before you build a talk on it. Where an Informative opening line states a fact, it was checked on 2026-09-30 against the opening section of the matching Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_leaf_color, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofing_(baking_technique), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_classification, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersive_prism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitropism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapement, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_bridge, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_migration, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballast_tank, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_pheromone, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-in-glass_thermometer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(water_navigation), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-can_telephone, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_bank, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_forecasting, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_balloon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulley, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_crater, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder . Compared by script the same day with every other list on this site and with our sister site's question decks: about 110 topics that matched or came close to a line elsewhere were replaced or reworded, so that no topic appears on two lists. Read again in full on 2026-09-30, after the comparison: 14 lines were reworded, 12 of them opening lines brought into step with the sources above. Licence: own work