2. Explore Your Topic and Issues - Speech - Argument/Persuasive Speech - SCC Research Guides at Spartanburg Community College

2. Explore Your Topic

Browse these databases to learn general information about a variety of controversial issues and current debates. You want to make sure that the topic you pick has multiple perspectives, so that it will be more interesting for you to persuade your audience with your presentation. Check out a few topics that interest you and explore the information about them as you decide on a topic for further research.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
Viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.
Issues & Controversies
Features pro and con articles on more than 800 thought provoking topics in business, politics, government, education and popular culture. Updated weekly with links to a 12-year back file. Proxy Bypass
Points of View
Contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including more than 1,300 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.Provided through EBSCO. Proxy Bypass

Analyze Your Topic

Who

Think about who might be involved and care about this topic. This could be specific people, but it could also be groups of people - consider different groups based on age, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status (wealth), who may be affected (good or bad) by your topic.

What

Consider what factors are involved in your topic. Read some background information or a summary to learn more about your topic, and then make a list of relevant factors.

The background reading can also provide you with keywords, specialized vocabulary, and definitions, which will be useful for future searches.

When

What time period is involved? Is this a current or historical issue? Be sure you know what dates and times are involved in your topic because that will affect how you present them. Your topic may have specific dates associated with it or it may be more general.

Where

Sometimes places or geography are important to your topic. Are you considering issues in the United States or another country? The situation can be quite different in some countries than it is here. If this is an issue happening in another country, why is it important to debate here?

Why

This is a really important one. Why do people care about this topic? Why is it important or controversial? What's at stake? or Why did it happen / is it happening?