Authors of basic public-speaking course textbooks frequently encourage students to select speech topics in which they have vested interest, care deeply about, and hold strong opinions and beliefs. This study explores students' level of ego-involvement with informative and persuasive speech topics, examines possible ego-involvement predictors of students' speech grades, and investigates the influence of preparation time and process activities on public-speaking grades. Results reveal that students' ego-involvement is positively related to their speech success; however, the explanation is more complex than those offered by basic public-speaking course textbooks. Pedagogical implications and areas for future research are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 2 notes.) [A list of references and suggested readings is included.]