Speeches about health include a wide range of topics including healthy living, ethics and government-run health systems. Speeches about healthy living can include losing weight, picking a fitness trainer, eating healthy meals and taking vitamins. Speakers can inform or persuade people about bioethics, physician-assisted suicide or fertility drugs used to create multiple births. Persuasive speeches about the merits and downfalls of a government-run health care system can include discussions about who will pay for the program, how many people the government can cover without going bankrupt and what a change will do to existing care. Because of the controversial nature of many of these topics, speeches often cross into other areas such as politics and religion.
Speeches about social issues that address topics such as the war on drugs, poverty, and bullying can inform or persuade. When speaking about the war on drugs, topics can deal with how much the government spends to fight the problem, what treatment plans work best and how to stop illegal drugs from entering the country. Topics about poverty can address nonprofits offering help, government entitlement programs and unemployment issues. In talking about bullying, speakers can discuss what schools do to combat the problem, the number of under-reported bullying cases and stories about bullied children who commit suicide. Sometimes including a personal story about triumph or struggles makes a speech more engaging. Much like controversial topics about health, speakers might cross into the areas of politics and religion.
Speeches about education can address curriculum, funding and higher education. In speaking about curriculum, topics can include online classes, homeschooling, charter schools, the effectiveness of field trips, how to best use a guest speaker, advanced arts classes, college placement courses and vocational education and training. In speeches about funding, topics can include how much the government spends on education per child, how to finance teacher pension programs, how much it costs to build a new school and how to pay for voucher programs. When discussing higher education, topics can include the high cost of a college education, academic dishonesty and so-called "diploma mills." Many education topics reach across all educational levels from elementary to the college level.
Speeches about technology can touch on the consumer market, software market and even ethical issues. Speaking about the consumer market, topics can address the latest gadgets and how they make life easier, the evolution of personal listening devices and e-books and their effect on the traditional reading market. Speeches about software can show people the latest operating systems and programs to complete jobs such as filing taxes, writing papers and creating illustrations. Speeches can also include ethical issues such as using photo manipulation software to adjust magazine photographs and studio photos.