How to imporve your speeches

[California]

When you guys first started oo were you naturally good at it or did you have to work really hard? What did you do to bring yourself at the level you are now? How did you improve your writing skill?

I am a novice and I have no idea on how to write my speech. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[Aelfric5578]

The biggest aid in improving in oratory even more so than other categories I think is to observe a lot of rounds of competition. I've often heard that if you want to be a better writer, you should read more. Likewise, if you want to be a better speaker, you should listen more.

And before anyone says anything...I am not advocating stealing anything from your competitors. But as you watch more and more rounds, you become aware of the sort of things a judge expects (not that you should always give them what they expect) and the sort of things that make a good speech. Also, one thing I highly suggest (and this goes for all types of forensics) record yourself and watch / listen to your performance. Sometimes it's easier to critique yourself when you view yourself objectively.

[nirorivers6]

you can also find old oratory speeches online, generally national finalists, reading those can be helpful.

[jeawagne]

One sort-of caveat to recording yourself: wait until you have your speech down and fully memorized. Recording should be done more as a final tweak. If you are still lacking confidence watching yourself could be more harmful than helpful.

But recording more experienced speakers is a great way to show someone that they really do, in fact, grab the edge of their pants or push their hair out of their face -- something that is usually subconscious to most people.

[ncviking]

Cal, I would definitely say that although some people are naturally better speakers in general, really anyonje can be a great orator with hard work. It took me two years but last season I finally started breaking very far at national tournaments, and almost everything I learned I learned by observing OO finals wherever I went.

As for writing your speech, talk about something that matters to YOU, thats the best advise I can give as far as making it original and making it so that you don't get bored with it and cuase your presentation to suffer. Good Luck!

[Steve Perry]

Make sure that your speech is something you can have fun with. I can't tell you how glad I am that I wrote a speech about the importance of the right to smoke, as opposed to something dealing with the media, or being oneself.

Watch the best competitors in your area, and get a hold of the National Final Round tapes. I watched the final round from 2003 before my first tournament and ended up winning.