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Speech #1 Prompt - Storytelling

SPEECH #1 – PROMPT

Effective Speaking (ENGL 201)

Sussex County Community College

Prof. Kevin Ellis

 

Each of the speeches you will be delivering this semester will be assessed on a slightly evolving set of criteria. For your first speech, your primary goals will be (1) clarity, (2) presence/development of Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, (3) audience engagement, (4) body language, (5) storytelling capability, and (6) presence/natural inclusion of visual component. 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT: Consider an important or otherwise interesting moment in your life. Think about how that moment influenced the way you think or the direction in which your life moved. Some meaningful events don’t necessarily change our lives, but mean something to us when we reflect back on certain people and moments from different stages in our development. Perhaps a single moment or experience was definitive for a certain era of your life, be it childhood, adolescence, or when you were entering full maturity.

 

In your first speech, tell the audience a story about a moment in your life that either changed you, influenced you, defined you, or captivated you. Tell us the story of this moment/event, and be sure to include the basic literary elements in your storytelling: setting, characters, narrative, etc. Be sure to include in your speech the greater relevance of your story; in other words, it isn’t enough to just tell us a story, you must flesh-out why this story is critical, or what greater relevance it has had on your life. Keep in mind, your story can be anything: a single moment, a week-long trip with a family member, a humorous spectacle, a gossip-worthy event that went down back in high school, etc. Also keep in mind that if you lie about your story, we would have no way of verifying it. This places the emphasis on your storytelling and public speaking abilities, which should continue to become refined. 

 

LENGTH REQUIREMENT: 4– 6 minutes. Speech-length will factor into your grade. Remember to practice the timing of your speech so that you don’t run overly short or long. 

 

DATE DUE: October 15th,  2020 via online submission. 

 

GRADING CRITERIA – SPEECH #1

 

Speeches that will be graded in the ‘A’ range will feature/include:

 

  •  A clear sense of topic. Seeing as though this is a short speech, your topic should likely be clear from the early stages of your presentation. 
  • A clear development of the basic speech outline: Introduction, Body, Conclusion. Storytelling involves introducing basic elements such as setting, people, and plotline as soon as they become necessary. Your speech must include an actual story with a beginning, middle, and end, as well as a greater purpose (i.e. why did you tell us this story? What does it mean?) 
  • A clear introduction that acknowledges the situation, introduces the speaker, and states the thesis (for this speech, your thesis will surely revolve around introducing the idea that this speech will be a story about an important moment in your life, and the greater relevance behind it).  
  • The presence of multiple discussion-points of support (probably at least 2-3) for why the topic that was selected was indeed selected. 
  • A conclusion that satisfyingly ties the speech to a close, as opposed to simply stopping.
  • A topic-choice that is NOT controversial, and suitable for a friendly classroom setting. 
  • A style of presentation which engages the audience – if you are simply reading notes, or moving through a checklist, your audience will not feel as if they are listening to a speech.
  • An employment of consistent eye-contact to the audience. Eye-contact should not be limited to just the professor, nor any particular student.
  • Clear diction, solid use of grammar, word choice, etc. 
  • The well-introduced inclusion of some kind of visual component that assists with the storytelling, greater relevance, etc. Visual components can include photographs, physical props, PowerPoint slides, etc. 

 

Here is a brief list of things that are NOT required for this assignment:

 

  • The turning-in of a written material. For this second speech, your physical paper will not be turned-in. This allows you to craft your notes in any fashion you desire, be it bullet-points or memorization. You may bring anything you’d like up to the podium, but remember – it will be obvious if you are reading. 
  • There is no need for you to dress like a 15th century Scottish immigrant, but you can if you want. It will not influence your grade. 

 

Feel free to ask me any questions along the way!





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