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Choosing a Topic for a Talk, Article, or Post

Whether it’s giving a talk or writing something, its driving force is its topic.

The following may help you choose a topic that will work well for you.

Put yourself in the audience’s shoes. Now ask yourself, “What topic could you present on that is important to them and, importantly, in which the core ideas you’ll offer aren’t obvious or already widely known by your audience?” For example: 4 Things Everyone Should Know About Time Management That Most People Don’t Know.

Of course, not all titles need include “7 tips,” “5 ideas,” etc., although that cues the reader that it will contain a manageable number of practical takeaways. The N-tips approach also makes it easier for you to structure your talk or article.

A word about expertise. Of course, it helps if you’re an expert on the topic. But if you’re writing a short article or giving a brief talk, perhaps more important is that you’re confident that your points, whether derived internally or from research, meet those key criteria: important yet not obvious nor likely already known to your audience.

Of course, you’ll probably want to choose a topic you’d find interesting, whether to solidify your existing knowledge, add to it, or simply because you’d find writing about it pleasurable, even fun. But beware of choosing a topic that you find interesting but will be far less so to your audience.

Professors are particularly subject to this. Often, they’re passionate about their esoteric research area but most students, especially undergraduates, are less so, except that the esoterica will be on the test.

Particularly consider important topics that aren’t widely covered. If you cover well-trod territory, your words will be mere grains of sand on a beach. For example, I’m pro-choice but to write about that would be—to use a different metaphor—just one more voice in a massive choir. An example: Under considered Pluses of Capitalism, Minuses of Socialism.

Here’s another source of the under-considered: America likes the upbeat even though quietly, internally, many people are far from upbeat. So I sometimes write about the dark side. Here’s one I wrote: Have You Long Been Unwanted? An even darker such topic: Why America is Doomed.

The takeaway

It is a privilege to share ideas with others. That pretty much demands that we pull on ropes of restraint on any impulse to talk about what we care to talk about, the audience be damned. Or that we can be stream-of-consciousness even at the cost of losing the audience. Unless you’re James Joyce, focus on clarity and utility for your audience.

 

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