Written By Katherine Xue

Potomac Debate Academy teaches speech and debate for a reason, and today, we’re putting the spotlight on the speech side of things. Below, you’ll find topics from easiest to hardest designed to meet you wherever you are, whether you’re a novice or varsity speaker. Let’s go!

Easy: Prompted Topics

These are your average, run-of-the-mill speech topics. However, don’t let “easy” fool you. Although guided topics make it easier to craft a speech, they can still be incredibly nuanced and detailed!

1. Describe a person in your life who has had the biggest impact on you.
2. What does it mean to be a global citizen?
3. Talk about one of your hidden passions — one that most people don’t know about.
4. What does home mean to you?
5. To what extent does emotional intelligence matter?
6. An honest review of being a teenager (or adult!).
7. Why do people secretly love the underdog?
8. What’s one of your happiest memories?
9. When was the last time you experienced the stages of learning something new (and embarrassed yourself along the way)?
10. Talk about how you discovered your favorite music artist. 
11. What’s something you believed for a long time that turned out to be wrong?
12. How do you fake it ‘til you make it?
13. What’s a crucial life skill nobody actually teaches you?
14. Describe the best piece of advice you’ve ever received.
15. What do you have to do to reach the dream version of yourself?
16. What does it mean to be truly wealthy? 

Medium: Reflective Topics

These topics offer a bit more breathing room. From quotes to open-ended prompts, these speeches ask for a bit more reflection and personal experience, so there’s no “right” answer or specific direction.

1. Life can never be straightforward so expect the unexpected.
2. Everyone who has accomplished something big in their lives is still human.
3. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence.
4. You get more with sugar than salt.
5. With great power comes great responsibility.
6. Try not to abuse your power.
7. Never say you can do something tomorrow when it can be done today.
8. Love can defeat hate, but hate cannot defeat love.
9. You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and looking at the water. 
10. If not me, who? If not now, when?
11. You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
12. Even the smallest rock can move a boulder if it tries hard enough.
13. Do or do not, there is no try.
14. I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
15. If we pollute the earth today, air pollution will pollute your lungs tomorrow.
16. Growing up online is harder than adults realise.
17. Dear younger me: here’s a lesson for you.

Hard: Abstract Topics

The most difficult part about these topics are the endless directions in which you can take them. There’s no obvious roadmap here, and all you have is your own imagination…but that’s more than enough! 

1. Be humble.
2. Train hard, fight easy.
3. You won’t break my soul.
4. A story I never planned to share.
5. That was bad advice.
6. Not yet.
7. Who cares?
8. It’s a unique type of freedom.
9. Before I knew better. 
10. It looked different from the outside.
11. Unfinished.
12. The beginning of the end.
13. The in-between.
14. The thing is…
15. Dead ends and detours.
16. I call it progress.
17. To be satisfied is to be…

No matter where you’re starting, these topics are a great place to dive in. Even if you’re a little nervous to deliver a speech with these topics, that’s where you grow the most. That’s what we tell our team at Potomac Debate Academy, and with the help of our coaches and community, we’re endlessly proud of the transformations our students have undergone. Finally: if the debate side of things is calling your name too, check out our other blog post — 50 Mock Debate Topics for Beginners — to find some banger topics to argue over.