Download Topics for Persuasive Speeches

Topics for Persuasive Speeches
SPORTS

Athletes should (or should not) be allowed to use
steroids.

American professional athletes are (or are not)
overpaid.

College athletes should (or should not) be
required to meet the academic requirements of
their school.

Electroshock treatment is (or is not) a humane
form of therapy?

Drug addicts should (or should not) be put in
hospitals for medical treatment instead of in
prisons for punishment.
U.S. POLITICS

The President should (or should not) be limited to
a single six-year term?

The Olympic Games should (or should not) be held
every two years?

The minimum wage should (or should not) be
waived for adolescent and young adult workers.

Boxing should (or should not) be outlawed.

American workers should (or should not) be
guaranteed a three-day weekend by law?

State and local governments should (or should
not) operate lotteries and gambling casinos.

The Social Security system should (or should not)
be voluntary for employees?
EDUCATION

IQ tests are (or are not) valid measures of human
intelligence.

Everyone should (or should not) be required to
pass a competency exam before being allowed to
graduate from high school.
TAXES

Sex education should (or should not) be required
course in all schools as early as sixth grade.
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Every student should (or should not) be required
to learn a foreign language?
Despite their legal tax deductions and loopholes,
all millionaires should (or should not) be required
to pay federal income tax.

Busing should (or should not) be used to achieve
racial integration of public schools.
The present-day tax system is (or is not) unfair
to middle-class and lower-income Americans.

Group prayers should (or should not) be
permitted in public schools.
Churches should (or should not) be required to
pay taxes.
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
HEALTH

Regardless of income, all Americans should (or
should not) be guaranteed basic medical care
under a national health insurance program.

The U.S. should (or should not) cut off all foreign
aid to dictatorships.

The U.S. should (or should not) remain in the
United Nations.
The U.S. should (or should not) send aid to Haiti
or other world disaster areas.

Heroin should (or should not) be legal as a pain
reliever for terminally ill patients.
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Counseling can (or cannot) help a troubled
marriage.
U.S. OR STATE LAW

Acupuncture is (or is not) a valid medical
technique.

Heredity is (or is not) a more powerful influence
on personality development than environment.

Chronic mental patients should (or should not) be
housed in “halfway houses: or residences in the
community, rather than in remote mental
hospitals.

The death penalty for murders should (or should
not) be imposed on juveniles.

Drug dealers convicted of distributing large
quantities of drugs should (or should not) receive
the death penalty.

Immigration into the U.S. should (or should not)
be restricted.
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Topics for Persuasive Speeches
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In times of military conscription in the U.S.,
women should (or should not) be drafted along
with men.
Women should (or should not) serve in combat
areas.

The U.S military should (or should not) be used to
curb drug smuggling into the U.S.

Psychologists and psychiatrists should (or should
not) testify in court on behalf of the not-guiltyby-reason-of-insanity plea.
PUBLIC SAFETY

Every automobile driver should (or should not) be
required to take a new driver’s test every three
years.

Divorce should (or should not) be easy to obtain.

In divorce settlements, fathers and mothers
should (or should not) be granted joint, equaltime custody of the children.

Trial marriages should (or should not) be
encouraged.

Businesses should (or should not) be permitted to
make unsolicited telephone calls to citizens.

We should (or should not) censor scenes of sex
and violence from family-hour television.

Beauty pageants do (or do not) debase women.
NATURE, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

ESP is (or is not) a demonstrable scientific fact.

Helmets should (or should not) be required of all
motorcycle riders.

Scientific experimentation on animals should (or
should not) be outlawed.

Police should (or should not) be allowed to set up
roadblocks to isolate and arrest impaired drivers.

Catch-and-release fishing restrictions should (or
should not) be lifted.

Assault weapons should (or should not) be
outlawed?

Logging should (or should not) be banned in
Montana.

All owners of firearms should (or should not) be
required to register their weapons with the
police?

Deer, bears, wildcats or other large wildlife
should (or should not) be banned from urban
areas.

A two-week waiting period should (or should not)
be required for anyone attempting to purchase a
firearm.

Hybrid cars should (or should not) be made
mandatory.

Alternative fuels should (or should not) be made
mandatory.

The use of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers
has (or does not have) a negative impact on the
environment.
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Billboards should (or should not) be outlawed on
interstate highways.
Billings should (or should not) have more rotaries.
LIFESTYLES

Solar energy is (or is not) a viable alternate fuel
source?

Buying your own home is (or is not) preferable to
renting?

Smoking should (or should not) be banned in
public areas such as restaurants and airport
terminals.
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