PROMPT - SPEECH #2

Effective Speaking (ENGL201)

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, and (3) audience engagement.

THE ASSIGNMENT: For this the purposes of this assignment, imagine that you are approached by the members of the United Nations in the middle of the night. They storm into your bedroom, blindfold you, and throw you in the back of one of their signature plain, white vans. You pass out from the stress, and when you awake you are in an empty room, sitting in a folding chair across from a large, burly man wearing a sash which reads: PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD. The man leans down close to your face and says, “Kiddo, I have a deal for you, and you best believe I’m being serious. Ima give you the opportunity to outlaw one thing – and one thing only – and it will become illegal in every country on the planet. But you have to give me a pretty goddarn persuasive speech about your selection or else – BOOM - the deal is off the table as soon as it was on it. Mhm.”

Consider what you might want to have outlawed in every country in the world. Keep in mind, you can select and argue for anything, be it as trivial as “it should be illegal to say to a cashier, ‘oh if it doesn’t scan, it must be free!’” or as critical as “as a means of saving the environment, it should be illegal to have more than one child.”

Remember, no matter what you select, your goal is to be persuasive, prompt, and effective in your delivery. No pressure, but the fate of the world is in your hands.

LENGTH REQUIREMENT: 5+ minutes

DATE DUE: November 10th

GRADING CRITERIA

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. Your argument should not only be stated, but your support/defense of your argument should build as your speech progresses.
A clear introduction that acknowledges the situation, introduces the speaker, and states the thesis.
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 (remember, you are pretending as if you are presenting to a group of strangers who have not met you before).
Clear diction, solid use of grammar, word choice, etc.

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

The use of visual materials, such as PowerPoint or props. If you would like to include something like this, you certainly may, but it will not aide your grade for this first speech.
The turning-in of a written material. For this first 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.
We do not necessarily have to agree with your selection at the end of the speech. You can be persuasive without necessarily persuading fully.
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!

Fun Fact: A popular method of drying-off after a shower is through the use of a towel.