Purpose: To increase audience knowledge of a cultural or subcultural artifact, practice, tradition, or festival.
Delivery: Extemporaneous (1 note card only, 4x6 maximum size, one side only)
Length: 3-5 minutes (over/under time penalized at 1 point per 10 seconds)
Required Sources: 4
Total Possible: 40 points
Outline Format:
Introduction (3 points)
Preview (2 points)
Point #1 - Origin / Description (4 points)
Source (2 points)
Source (2 points)
Point #2 - Why it is important (4 points)
Source (2 point)
Source (2 point)
Review (2 point)
Conclusion (2 point)
Delivery (15 points)
The purpose of this speech is to increase audience knowledge of a cultural or subcultural artifact, practice, tradition, or festival. This is also your first major practiced speech. Your basic concerns should focus on managing your nervousness, disciplining your nonverbal behavior, and delivering your speech well. Try to make the audience interested in what you’re saying, and go for some gentle humor if you feel comfortable. Part of this class design is that I will complete each major assignment alongside you, so I will give a demonstration speech the day before your speech is due, and answer your remaining questions. I will also go over each outline with you, give you a few comments, and grade the outline on a ten point scale.
Delivery: Extemporaneous
(1 note card only, 4x6 maximum size, one side only)
On delivery day, we’ll discuss some reasons why extemporaneous delivery is good. One of them is that it’s the easiest to recover from an error. If you have a thin outline on your note card and you get lost, you can easily glance down and find the next thing you’re supposed to talk about. A full text outline is too much work, cuts your connection with the audience, and wrecks delivery. Take the time you would have spent writing the outline, and spend it practicing giving your speech from the note card.
Length: 3-5 minutes
(over/under time penalized at 1 point per 10 seconds)
Timing is important because when you deliver a speech or lesson, you have certain time limits that must be respected. Otherwise, you either run out of material early or run over time, which wins you no friends in the audience. For this speech, you need to practice making it to three minutes. The most common grade deduction for these speeches is for people who don’t make time. If you want to be really careful, practice stretching your material to five minutes, so you know how to make it longer if you have to. Also, remember that one of the most common reactions to nervousness is to talk faster. Practice keeping a slow pace as you talk.
Required Sources: 4
While this speech requires a little research, the point is not to spend hours carefully researching your topic. My advice is to go to the internet, do a google search on your topic, check out wikipedia, and see what else you can learn in 40 minutes. At that point, start assembling your sources to back up your main points, and start trying to work with your material out loud. For this speech, you are allowed (but certainly not required) to use 1 source from wikipedia, and 1 source from your experience or that of someone you know. I think that knowledge from experience is at least as credible as articles written by people you’ve never met. Sources should be cited in this form:
“According to my aunt, ….”
“The New York Times of September 12th, explains…”
“An article on the website gonomad.com claims…”
There is no need to say the full URL of your website name. Just the name of the site and maybe the article name will do just fine. Also, for research to count, I have to hear the name of the source out loud in the speech.
Total Possible: 40 points
Don’t worry about the grading too much. This is a beginning speech, and as long as you follow your outline, you should come through with at least a B-.
Outline Format:
Introduction (3 points)
This is the part of your speech should be carefully practiced and as smooth as possible. The introduction is your chance to make a first impression on the audience, and my first chance to see you perform. Follow the 4 part model I gave in class today (Hook, Transition to Thesis, Thesis, Preview), and try to grab people’s attention.
Preview (2 points)
The preview part of all your speeches will sound almost the same, because the two main points for these speeches are all the same. It will sound something like, “Now let’s take a look at the Origin and description of ________, and why it’s culturally important.”
Point #1 - Origin / Description (4 points)
The topic will dictate whether you focus on the origin, the description, or both. For some topics, like knives, it’s very difficult to say where the origin is, and for other topics, like Columbus Day, the origin will be more interesting than the description. Make sure you include two sources in this point.
Point #2 - Why it is important (4 points)
Make any argument you’d like about why your topic matters. Most topics will matter as a uniting symbol of a culture, an item that’s used every day, or an important part of cultural identity. And remember, every topic is important in some way. For example, Barbie Dolls may not seem as important as US Presidents, but the Dolls have shaped children’s understanding of gender roles for six decades. Make sure you include two sources in this point.
Review (2 points)
This part of the speech should be 1 sentence long, and the wording will mirror the preview. It should sound something like, “Now that we’ve taken a look at the Origin and description of ________, and why it’s culturally important, it’s important to remember…”
Conclusion (2 point)
Bring your speech to a graceful close. Refer back to whatever you used as an introduction. Make sure that you have a definite end, and that your speech doesn’t just trail off.
Delivery (15 points)
This section covers how you use your voice, and how you hold your body while you’re talking. You should keep in mind the lectures on nervousness and nonverbal communication, and review your notes if necessary. Remember that the most common bad nonverbal reaction is swaying, followed by contraposto, card origami, and twitchy hands. Make sure that you change up your tone and pace throughout the speech, and go for an attitude of relaxed confidence. The best way to work on delivery is to practice, so make sure that you run your speech at least 15 times in practice before the day of the speech. Good luck.