I need help! For my Car Related Speech!!!

[peaceloveREX]

Heyyyyy all,
okay so here is the deal,
I am planning on making a speech for my public speaking class on different types of cars and their pros/cons. I want to keep it pretty general, since my class is not full of car enthusiasts, but I do need like 8-10 minutes of bull**** for these people. I'm no pro on any one type of car, but I know that lots of you are!

If you all wouldn't mind helping me out:
Pros/Cons of types of cars

So, for example:
what goes wrong a lot with them
common problems,
what lasts long and strong,
how many miles is the norm before they have issues... etc.

I may go Import vs. American with this, if not I will keep it to Makes (Fords, Subbies, Hondas, DSM etc.)


This is a serious assignment, and I am depending on you, so lets try to keep this fairly serious.
Thankssss! :mrgreen:
I'm excited about this!

[TalonTsi97]

When i had 2 different public speaking classes i was all about doing the speeches on cars figuring it be fun, easy, and whatnot. Every time i started to do one it started becoming more work then it was worth and i picked different topics and ended up getting A's anyway. The only one i stuck with was an instructional speech on how to wash a car because it was basic to the point. When you start trying to explain things 99% of people in class have no idea about, using big words, & jargon it turns out to be a horrible speech. i was lucky enough to realize this quick enough that i was able to have time to switch topics and come up with something else.
If it's really a serious assignment, and your asking for help already I'd honestly reevaluate the situation and make sure its 100% what you want to do.
Good Luck!

[bmatyeah]

what kind of speech is it? informational? persuasive?

just do speeches on simple stuff like what oil does and why people should change their oil. such an easy speech..

[Ridachu]

plz addz vortec solenoidz

[Foolinaround]

you didnt ask me at all last night? way to go.

[jpalamar]

This speach will fail. You can compare apples to ornages. Change your topic.

[peaceloveREX]

it is an informative speech... i would like to stick to this topic, since it has been approved already. I was just trying to get some ideas from you all to get the ball rolling a little. I have to find information for my speech, it can't be something that I know all about already.
I do like the oil idea bmatyeah but I don't think i'll be able to get a lengthy enough speech out of that....

[Bender]

Just a tip from someone that has done a few of these in the past - it can be much easier to pick something you only know a little about rather than something you know lots about.

It is important to not skip the basics with this stuff as saying stuff that the typical person won't understand is an easy way to lose them.

[mckpat03]

I'd probably find another topic. Doing something that specific won't go well with classmates. It won't be like talking to people on the forums. They aren't going to care about cars. They just drive to get from A-B

[itsSTock69]

I took a similar approach when I had my public speaking course a couple years ago. I figured since I already know about cars it would be easy, and at the end of the day, it was. I used to hate public speaking and get nervous, so I found that using a topic I was already familiar with allowed me to be more comfortable in front of everybody.

The hardest part for me was deciding on a topic and what points to focus on. As has been said, if you go too specific you run the risk of your class having no idea what you are talking about. If it's too general you won't have time to cover enough information to make sense.

For my informative I decided to speak about technology manufacturers were using to increase fuel economy in new models, such as hybrids and variable displacement engines. The good thing about a topic like this is that almost everybody has some sort of interaction with a car, and so far, to drive a car you need to gas it up. Therefore you have something that people can relate to. Also, you can go somewhat in depth about these things while still wording it so that people will be able to understand you. That way you are guaranteed to have meet your time requirements unless you start talking way too fast.

[Renegade_]

A speech I would find much more interesting would be analysis of car culture. Talk about trends, progressions, niches, and the local area - having a speech graded that the grader can relate to and you can anchor them to is pretty effective.

[Bender]

A speech I would find much more interesting would be analysis of car culture. Talk about trends, progressions, niches, and the local area - having a speech graded that the grader can relate to and you can anchor them to is pretty effective.

this sounds like a great idea.

[Renegade_]

Trends in car production - European, Japanese, and U.S. and the typical cars they produce, cars that came out in other countries that never made it here, reasons.
Green movement in cars - smaller engines, WRC changes could reflect this movement in the industry, more efficient, moved away from big block V8s over time, diesel is coming back, etc... Tie in economics.
Niches - Kinds of cars and the cultures they spawn (drift, rally, autox, drag, etc), Talk about how the east coast is a haven for drivers that want to learn, lots of tracks.

There. There's half of the speech. I want my money.

[russiankid]

This speach will fail. You can compare apples to ornages. Change your topic.

Actually, it won't fail. Public speaking class is focused on teaching students how to properly organize their speech, and most importantly how to properly present it to the audience. You could have the most boring topic ever, but if you know your audience and how to use that your advantage, the speech will be A+.


Back on topic. I think your topic is kind of vague. I would compare domestic to imports, state pro's and con's of it. Make sure you back up the information with research because what we say is not a credible source. However, I do not know how lenient your teacher is on sources because for public speaking, a credible source is A. speakers knowledge of topic, B. Well informed others, and C. written material i.e. what you researched. Also, as far as how long cars last, that is kind of a hard question to answer. A lot of it depends on how the car is taken care of and how it is driven. You could, however, state the mileage range and add that this depends on several factors such as maintenance, etc.