Persuasive Speech Topics To Engage Your Audience

Persuasive speech topics that are compelling to the audience are thought-provoking and espouse a clear opinion. Speakers must be knowledgeable and passionate about all sides of their topic to present it with both objectivity and conviction. 

When you have an informed opinion on a topic that you want to share with your audiences, a persuasive speech is the way to go, You take the facts and present them to your listeners with an appealing blend of passion and logic.

What Is Persuasive Speech About?

While informative and persuasive speech topics may be the same, each speech’s objectives differ. When you write or deliver a persuasive speech, your end goal is to compel your audience to support and adopt your point of view about a certain subject matter. 

Persuasive speech and essay topics can also vary widely. Even just one topic can have multiple layers and approaches depending on who you’re talking to and in what kind of environment (e.g., academic, business). However, it all boils down to getting your listeners to agree and ultimately take action themselves.

What Defines A Good Persuasive Speech Topic?

There’s a long list of persuasive speech topics out there. But a good persuasive speech topic will resonate and be relevant to your specific audience. After all, they are the ones who you’re trying to move with your words.

When choosing a topic you want to discuss and a thesis statement you want to discuss, you must ensure it’s timely, significant, and meaningful to who you’re talking to. You must be foremostly knowledgeable about it because you’ll need expertise — as well as research or proof you can confidently present before your audience. 

Selecting a topic you’re passionate about will make it easier for you to establish credibility — and connection. Even if you are a high school debater or a Toastmaster, where you are assigned a topic, you present your position authoritatively.

When crafting your speech about your chosen topic, be sure to incorporate the key pillars of a persuasive speech:

• Logos (appeal to logic and reasoning)
• Ethos (appeal to ethical principles and beliefs)
• Pathos (appeal to emotions)

What Is An Example Easy Topic Of Persuasive Speech?

Whether you’re invited on a public speaking stint or assembling a ‌persuasive essay, there are various easy topics you can consider. These include:

1. Basic healthcare should be free for all.
2. Work environments should have child-minding centers.
3. The government should ban social media for children below 18 years old.
4. Teachers must teach financial literacy to high school students.
5. The use of disposable diapers and similar products should be limited because they harm the environment.
6. Telling a lie isn’t always wrong.
7. Female creatives deserve recognition as their male counterparts.
8. Why seniors must be given employment opportunities.
9. Immigrants must learn the language of the country where they’re migrating.
10. Why we all need a best friend.

Many of these topics interest those in different age groups, but the depth of the presentations may vary.

What Are Some Timeless Persuasive Speech Topics?

Many wide-ranging evergreen topics are good choices for your next persuasive speech. This kind of topic is a popular choice since people from all walks of life are already familiar with them. Additionally, choosing this route allows you to introduce unconventional viewpoints or challenge the norm.

1. The death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime.
2. Knowing a foreign language can make you more appealing to a recruitment manager.
3. Sex education and the use of birth control are part of a parent’s responsibility.
4. There should be a higher age requirement for getting a driver’s license.
5. Raising the minimum wage can hurt the economy.
6. Graduates of public schools are better than private school graduates.
7. Too few incentives encourage ordinary people to help curb global warming levels.
8. Why there should be increased funding for mental health services
9. Parents are responsible for their children’s behaviors.
10. National museums should be free to citizens and tourists.

What Are Trending Topics For Persuasive Speeches?

If you want to make a great persuasive speech, you might consider tackling a trending topic. It’s a good platform for you to voice your thoughts and sentiments on a hotly discussed issue — and convince others to adopt the same. Below are some ideas for trending persuasive speech topics:

1. There should be heavier punishment for cyberbullying.
2. Can technological advancements be used in genetically designing babies?
3. Tourism authorities must ban taking selfies at popular and crowded tourist spots at a certain time window.
4. Fast food prices are actually overpriced.
5. Governments around the world must legally recognize marriages involving LGBTQ+ members.
6. No, exotic animals are not pets.
7. Why religious organizations should be taxed.
8. Businesses must invest more in AI tools.
9. Professional athletes are better brand endorsers than TV celebrities.
10. What is the proper age to discuss career prospects.

What Are Some Good Persuasive Speech Topics?

Some persuasive speech ideas and topics are simply more engaging and enticing than others. Check out some topics you can use to craft a compelling, persuasive speech.

1. Children today are less sociable because of too much screen time on cell phones.
2. The food industry is at fault for the rising global obesity statistics.
3. Teenagers must be more involved in community service.
4. Introverts are better leaders.
5. Tipping in restaurants should be mandatory.
6. Should guns be illegal in the United States?
7. Dieting isn’t an effective way to lose weight.
8. A person must mandatorily vote once they reach the legal age.
9. What should be the limit of the freedom of the press?
10. Love is a more powerful emotion than hatred.

What Are Some Good Topics For Students?

Delivering a speech before students? We’ve rounded up ‌interesting persuasive speech topics you can talk about below:

1. High school and tertiary education institutions must strengthen their mental health support services and resources.
2. Doing community service is as valuable extracurricular service as joining competitive sports.
3. Minors who play violent video games are more violent in real life.
4. Good grades are not an indicator of a successful career.
5. College athletes must be financially compensated.
6. Children must wear a school uniform.
7. School and university canteens must cut down on serving junk food.
8. Co-ed schools offer a better learning environment than single-sex ones.
9. Parents should patronize homeschooling more.
10. There’s more to life than attaining formal education.

What Persuasive Topics Might Appeal To Senior Listeners? Animal Lovers? Conservationists?

If you’re talking to a niche audience like seniors, animal lovers, and conservationists, you can count on this list to give you an idea of what to discuss:

1. Seniors are capable of doing service-oriented jobs.
2. Senior citizens should travel more often.
3. The elderly should learn to pick up new hobbies.
4. It’s inhumane to keep animals at zoos.
5. People who do animal testing and cloning must be heavily punished.
6. People shouldn’t give pets as birthday presents.
7. A dog is indeed man’s best friend.
8. Green energy is indeed the future. But how can we entice more people to invest in renewable energy?
9. Single-use bags have a less damaging environmental impact than plastic bags.
10. Owners of electric cars should enjoy more incentives.

What Are The Examples Of Persuasive Speech?

As you can see in the various lists of diverse speech topics presented above, a persuasive speech be just about anything. Here are some examples of persuasive speeches and essays you can take inspiration from.

• “This is Water,” David Foster Wallac2
  
  • Context: Renowned American novelist delivered this commencement speech in 2005 at Kenyon College, a liberal arts college in Ohio.
    
  • Snippet: “The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: “This is water.” “This is water.” It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. This means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really is the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now. I wish you way more than luck.”
    
• “The Power of Introverts,” Susan Cain
  
  • Context: In 2012, American writer Susan Cain delivered a viral TED Talk about the potential that introverted people hold.
    
  • Snippet: “Now, in fact, some of our transformative leaders in history have been introverts. I’ll give you some examples. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi — all these people described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. And they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to. And this turns out to have a special power all its own because people could feel that these leaders were at the helm not because they enjoyed directing others and not out of the pleasure of being looked at; they were there because they had no choice because they were driven to do what they thought was right.”