Unit 3: Preparation part 1

3. Narrowing Down the Topic

When you have identified the subject matter you wish to talk about, it is time to narrow down the topic. In your speech, you want to cover the main idea and include interesting details or examples as well. To do that properly, you need to know the time limit for your presentation. One simple way of narrowing down the topic is dividing your subject into parts and using only one part as the area to be covered in your speech. (DLI, 1995) Choose the part that you are familiar with, and that you and your audience will find interesting.

You may also want to decide if you are going to leave time at the end of your presentation for the audience to ask some questions. Remember that even if you only have 10 minutes for your presentation, you do not need to use all that time. It is always better to give a speech which is a bit too short than a bit too long.

Let us assume that your general topic will be connected with the public technical education system in Poland. You will need to gather much more information to talk to a group of foreign education officials for half an hour than if you were to do it for five minutes in front of some foreign students at a summer camp. In the latter example, consider narrowing the topic down to “My experiences at the technical university in Poznan.” (You will learn more about formulating the topic according to the purpose of your speech in Unit 4.)

Here are some examples of general topics narrowed down:

• History – History of Poland – History of Polish Local Government in the last 30 years.
• Education – Elementary Education – What I Remember of My First Day at School.
• Health – Hospitals – How to Train to Become a Nurse.