Help me with my speech?

Have a favorite band you think everyone should listen to? Believe in donating to disaster relief? Want parents to be more lenient about something? Think your friends should go to church? Want your community to install public toilets? Anything you’d like to see happen can be a subject for a persuasive speech.

IMO it’s a good idea to pick a subject that generates a lot of controversy, whether or not you have strong feelings about it yourself.
You could argue for or against things like electric cars, solar power, nuclear power, Free vs. proprietary software, whether Pokemon is better than Magic: the Gathering, or any of a large number of topics. Just make a list of things you know enough about to have an argument. Hint: you’ve probably had an argument about it already.

My cousin just wrote a paper on the causes and possible preventitive measures for childhood obesity. You would not believe the firestorm it caused on her Facebook, just by asking all of us about it.

Then there’s the topic of childhood innoculations. Another heated topic.

Or you could talk about the effects of abstinence only sex education classes.

Or you could talk about how advertising does or does not effect what Americans eat, and if there is a correlation between obesity and food advertising.

And if you really want to create controversy, you could discuss whether there is still racism rampant in American society.

Here is your speech title-“Atheism as the highest virtue”
I bet nobody has done that one.

Of course there is always the topic of school bullying.

And how to get the school systems to introduce a cost effective, healthy lunch program that kids will actually embrace.

And what are the effects of constant use of cell phones and texting and social networking sites, as opposed to talking directly with people, with regards to learning how to communicate effectively, learning effective social skills and learning how to spell correctly and how these skills, or lack thereof, will effect a person’s future employability.

And how the modern divorce rate, coupled with blended families, effects children and their future relationships with their mates and their own offspring. What are the positive and negative effects?

Hmm. your teacher sounds unfair. If you have an interest in her frowned upon topics she should still be professional enough to measure you on the quality of your speech and not on what she regards worthy topics.
Nevertheless, a quick way of getting an A from this amateur teacher would be to do a speech on a topic your teacher is interested in and agrees with.

@SeaTurtle Yes! The student becomes the master. Are you a teacher? How did you come up with this idea. This is a great manipulative technique. Wish I thought of it. : )

How would you find out what the teacher is interested without them knowing what you were up to?

This really is quite brilliant. It’s just like what the world of entertainment does. Give ‘em what they want! Lots of lurve to you for this GA.

Why not pick a topic ( if it fits the criteria ) that really interests you?

What are YOU passionate about, an area that would come easily for you to write and speak of?

It’s never ‘work’ when you’re really interested in something. ;-)

Why people should invest in sun glasses soon, Betelgeuse is about to go nova!!

or

“I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??”

Requiring restaurants to display calorie counts in their foods.

Homeschooling

Euthenasia

Violence in movies

Dress codes or uniforms in schools

Government giving money to religious organizations

Nuclear power

Immigration

A national language (If you are American)

Beauty contests for young children

The politics of politics, the art of saying one thing but meaning another! :-/

Simple answer. write a speech about something you are familiar with.

Example: do you collect music? What is your hobby? What are your dreams and what do you dream about? Do you have a great family? What are your goals in life?

And, the list goes on.

Persuasive doesn’t need to be super controversial. You could talk about benefits to recycling more, or becoming vegetarian. Using re-usable bags over plastic ones…... Owing a hybrid car over a standard type…....

You could talk about the evils of pirating software and music online… persuade people that it really is stealing.

Persuasive discussion doesn’t have to be one of the super big, unanswerables. You could even write something persuasive about eating your soft boiled egg from the big end as opposed to the small end… (this is a reference to Gulliver’s Travels.. if you haven’t read it yet.)

I agree with @cazzie. I’d recommend tackling a topic on which people might actually be open to persuasion rather than one where people’s minds are already made up and views are polarized. That way your arguments are less likely to be judged according to whether your listeners agree with you. Make a good case for something that doesn’t set off flame wars in the classroom.