An original persuasive speech on a universal social problem. The student’s intent is to arouse concern and to persuade the reader that there is a significant social ill that must be addressed immediately. The call to action comes from personal, community, national, and world levels. Some examples of topics are: “Paradoxically Perfect,” “Quiet Revolution,” “A Brighter Future (Whitening Creams),” “Disposable Society.”
Rules:
The competitor presents a memorized oration composed by him/herself and not used during a previous Regional Qualifying or State Tournament. A student may not use the same speech or topic in Informative Speaking and Original Oratory.
An oratory is an original speech designed to persuade. The general purpose of the speech is to persuade/convince the audience. Any other purpose such as to inform or to entertain shall be secondary.
An orator holding a manuscript or notes will be ranked last.
The orator must be truthful. Any non-factual reference, especially a personal one, must be so identified.
There is no minimum time but the speaker may not exceed 10minutes. After a 30-second grace period
The oratory may not contain more than 150 words of quoted material. Extensive paraphrasing from other sources is prohibited.
If an orator submits an oratory with more than 150 quoted words, the meet director will give the orator a chance to correct the error. Those who fail to do so by the deadline given by the tournament director will not be allowed to compete.
No props or visual aids may be used in Original Oratory.
Orators caught plagiarizing or extensively paraphrasing will be disqualified.
Event checklist:
Pencil and notebook to do reflections
Try to know who you are competing against in your round
Figure out what room you will be performing in
Some Tips From People Who Have Excelled in this Event:
1. There is always something to learn. Please never stop learning and growing.
2. Personally for me, I went to every single tournament to always improve myself. And if I didn’t make it to an out-round, I still spectated, even if it meant going back to the school grounds the next day. You can never stop improving in Original Oratory.
3. Read books!!!!! Look at quotes!!!! Find those generic topics and find that unique twist to them.. those are what make an interesting topic & what make you stand out.
4. Be kind and humble to your competitors around you. You are not better than them. And they are not better than you. It’s important to remember this because we can get caught up in competition and sometimes make it toxic. Use that competitiveness as your motivation instead.
5. And please take this from a 2020 senior whose year got cut short... treat every single tournament/round like it’s your last.
— Brianna Do
Stop focusing on finding the most obscure topic. If your speech is well written, performed, and provides all the right sources... it won't matter how popular your topic is. I've seen the most generic topics make it to final round and win. It's not all about being the most original, it's about content.
— Astrid Mann
1. If your speech doesn't bore you even after 10 times of reciting it, then you know you have a good speech.
2. Deliver your speech like you're teaching an audience of 7-year olds. Kids have a very small attention span so after every long boring piece of information and background details, make sure to catch their attention back with something interesting or your commentary.
3. You should present your speech as if there's something so interesting that the audience is dying to know: like a magic show. Only the magician knows what's going to happen next and the audience is just in awe waiting to see what happens next. The reason I focus so much on presentation is because a good presenter can make or break a speech no matter how good the actual content is. In conclusion, present your speech like a magic show to a bunch of 7 year olds.
4. I also recommend for everyone in OO to do impromptu because that'll help you think on your feet and make you much less scared of messing up...Once you get your fear of embarrassing yourself on stage out of the way, you'll be more confident in yourself and your speech, and trust me- confidence shows.
— Manreet Sohi
Find something you're passionate about.
— Chinmayi Mutyala
For some additional resources, click here.
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