Table Topics is the impromptu speaking section of a Toastmasters club meeting. It is where members without roles in running the meeting participate by providing one-to-two-minute answers to questions. Table Topics is discussed in an article by Greg Lewis on pages 26 and 27 of the January 2022 Toastmaster Magazine titled The two sides of Table Topics.
Where can you find good ideas for questions to ask? On October 24, 2022 I blogged about Less than obvious sources of Table Topics questions for Toastmasters club meetings. And on December 15, 2020 I had blogged about how to Use writing prompts to get unstuck. A prompt provides a starting point for a writer who is stuck. There is an article at the University of North Georgia university press on June 21, 2021 titled How to overcome writer’s block: 10 helpful tips. A newsletter from Sandy Springs Toastmasters (north of Atlanta, Georgia) on November 14, 2019 mentioned that:
“Bud [Otto} also served as Table Topics Master and selected questions from a book of 400 writing prompts to form questions.”
So, where can you find good collections of writing prompts? Here are two possibilities.
Writing prompts from the Learning Network at the New York Times
An article on September 8, 2022 titled 445 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing has a long list with 37 categories and an average of twelve per category (also downloadable as a ten- page pdf file):
Overcoming Adversity
Your Personality
Hobbies & Interests
Daily Life
Home & Community
Family
Parents & Parenting
Role Models
Childhood Memories
Growing Up
Morality & Ethics
Race, Ethnicity, Gender & Sexuality
Money & Social Class
Religion, Spirituality & Beliefs
Technology & the Internet
Social Media
Music & Podcasts
Movies, TV & Video Games
Books & Reading
Writing
The Arts
School
College
Work & Careers
Friendship
Dating, Love & Relationships
Health
Sports & Games
Travel
Shopping, Looks & Fashion
Meals & Food
Holidays & Seasons
Animals & Nature
Environment
Politics
The Pandemic
If Only …
An earlier version is in another article on September 4, 2019 titled 550 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing, and it also is available as a downloadable ten-page pdf file.
A third article by Michael Gonchar on March 1, 2017 is titled 401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing, and they can be downloaded as a four-page pdf file.
Twelve months of writing prompts from Lakeshore Learning
Another convenient source for prompts is via monthly lists for 2022, each one downloadable as a single-page pdf file:
Today’s prompt is:
“You find a magic potion that will let you live 100 years without growing older. Do you drink the potion? Why or why not?”
The source is a Lakeshore web page for monthly calendars
The basket image came from Openclipart.
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