When you're thinking of topics to write about, think about your triumphs and successes, but also give some thought to parts of your life that could use improvement.
As to methodological differences, Stöber et al.'s positive results with the Catastrophic Interview technique were based on within-subject comparisons showing that the (non-clinical) participants' thinking about topics that they worried about was less concrete than their thinking about non-worry topics.
For example, early reports suggested that students spend 10 40% of class time thinking about topics unrelated to the class (Schoen, 1970).
Results also showed a potential causal effect of naturalness and non-straight edges on thinking about topics related to "Spiritual & Life Journey", with perceived naturalness having a negative relationship and non-straight edges having a positive relationship.
"We were thinking about topics for this MLK Day, and in talking to people, it was education, education, education," he said.
We were thinking about topics that are interesting, that are shaping conversations around the dinner table — so this was on the list of topics that we've been chewing on.
This view held that students had stable ways of thinking about topics, because their knowledge was coherent or theory-like (Taber, 2008).
I don't think so and have laid out my thinking on this topic elsewhere.
And Mamet does seem to have taken up the mantle of becoming America's heavy-thinking, topic-addressing playwright these days.
What they learned by eliciting student thinking about the topic contributed to their PCK for teaching this new topic.
If you have trouble thinking of a topic for your speech, search the internet for topics - there are sites with lists of potential topics.
