Speech Assignments

You must turn in an outline for every speech. It will be graded and handed back a week later.

The penalty for going outside the time limit is one grade level (e.g. fromB+ to B) for every 30 second block of time. So, if you give an A speech, but it is 6:49; it becomes a B+.

Speech One: My Best Moment.

The first purpose of the "My Best Moment" speech is to demonstrate your comprehension of the basic tools of the public address--General and specific purposes, central ideas and claims. To that end, you will give an address that will focus on your favorite subject--YOU! You will then support your claim however you want to for 2-3 minutes.
Decide on the moment in your life which best exemplifies who you are or wish to be, then use the "moment" as evidence to support that claim.
Don't just tell a story. Make a claim, then use the story to support it (see sample outline).
The second purpose is to give you an evaluation dry run. The assignment will not count against your final average, but I will give you a grade and critique your speech. Your grade will be based on:

• how clear the parts of your argument are.
• how well they fit together.
• whether you support your claims with evidence (although not the quality of that evidence).
• time.

For more information on how to develop positions, visit the "I Think" Tutorial
 
 

Speech Two: The Digest.

The purpose of this speech is to reduce a cumbersome amount of information to a useable body of data, then organize that data into a presentation that is meaningful to an audience. You should pick a controversial issue (that is, one on which more than one reasonable person can disagree) and present the views of five experts on the subject. The views can be organized using a wide variety of means, but they should not merely be organized one expert at a time.

• your organization,
• your clarity of presentation,
• the completeness of the criteria according to which you narrow and organize,
• the specificity of the evidence you provide to support your claims.
• Time.

Visual aids are allowed but not assigned.
The time limit is 5 minutes.

Speech Three: The Demonstration Speech.

In the demonstration speech, you will pick a subject area unfamiliar to you. You will then research it, gain a general understanding of it, and pass that understanding on to us.

• The requirements of the speech are:
• It will last between 4-6 minutes.
• It will employ all of the necessary visual aids and props.
• It will feature at least one analogy.
• It will employ a clear organizational pattern.

You will be graded on:

• the clarity of your instruction.
• the appropriateness of your topic (see below).
• the quality of your visual aids.
• how well you employ those visual aids.
• the quality of your analogy.
• the use of pattern.
• time.

Speech Four: The Speech to Convince.

Speech Four is essentially Speech One again--except that you are being held to a higher standard, must be a little more subtle about your presentation, and will be graded on the quality of your strategy and support.
You will take and defend a position on a controversial issue. You will employ at least one piece of testimony, one example and one statistic. They must all be as recent as this calendar or academic year (whichever is longer), and you must be able to produce the source if I ask.
The speech should last between 4-6 minutes.

• You will be graded on:
• all of the criteria employed thus far.
• the quality of your evidence.
• the minimum requirements for that evidence (as stated above).
• how artfully you employ that evidence.
• how well you fit the topic to this audience.
• time.

Speech Five: The Speech to Overcome Resistance.

You should take a position to which most of your audience would be apathetic. The speech should last between 4-6 minutes.

• The speech will be graded on:
• all of the criteria for speech four.
• how well you analyze your audience with regard to topic choice.
• how well you employ the specific strategies for overcoming resistance, that you will learn in class.
• time.

Return to Syllabus.