Expos

[twistedhate17]

So I had no idea where to place this so I'm placing it here.

Does anyone do Expos? I think it would be kinda cool to do an Expos but I don't know what to do it on. Any help?

[miniglinda]

OH MY GOD I LOVE EXPOSITORY SPEAKING.

haha.

my favorite way of choosing an expos is going to wikipedia and pressing the "random article" button.

i kept pressing it for 10 minutes once and got some great ideas!

usually my criteria for a good expos are:
- people have heard of it, but don't know a lot about it
- try to stay away from gender polarized topics (like things only guys care about, or vice versa)
- it shouldn't be JUST a history lesson: i once saw one on computer games that just went through the history of games up to Nintendo 64, then stopped. wouldn't recommend that...

and since you probably have not seen many exposes, here are some topics you should stay away from because they are overdone:

-hair, light, sleep, time/clocks, money, tea, ears, teeth, hands, apples, bananas, chocolate, crayons, smiles

some memorable exposes in the past have been: fat, childhood drawings, funerals, gender, SPAM, tall, love, smiles (though overdone, it was still well executed), potatoes, nothing, take out, and peanuts.

the exposes i did my freshman and sophomore years were: spoons and bells
this year i'm doing tap dance!

in the rules, for california, you can use visual aids, audio aids, and can dance and sing in the speech - though those things are SECONDARY to the speech itself.

10 minute speech maximum, and if you have any questions, post them here!

w00t w00t!
i <3 expos soooo much!

hahaaa

[m9211]

what is the general format of an expos speech?

[miniglinda]

well, there isn't a SET format,
and I've never used one...

but basically it's like writing a 5 paragraph essay (but with a few more paragraphs)

you have an intro- that builds up your topic
then you end the intro with a guideline for where your speech will go (i don't usually do this, because it sounds too rehearsed, but judges like this)

then you start talking about your topic:
usually you want to start with either an explanation of what your topic is, or if that's COMPLETELY unnecessary (i.e. if you start saying "tap dancing is when a person strikes the floor while... yeah), then i like to start with the HISTORY.

usually i try to put some of the more boring information at the beginning, which is usually the history.

then flow into the more interesting aspects.
maybe how pop culture has changed your topic, or fads associated with the topic, or famous uses/events linked to your topic.


then you'll end your speech with a conclusion that pounds in the judge's brain how amazing your speech was



here's an example of how my speech was formatted last year:

TAP DANCING:
1. Intro (told judges how much i love tap dance and why i was going to torment them for the next 10 minutes about it)
2. HISTORY:
- African roots (tribal dancing)
- Irish/British roots (jigging/clogging)
- Spanish roots (flamenco)
- How all these combined (in manhattan in the 1800s)
- famous old tappers/legends
- Vaudeville & women tappers
3. TIMELINE (1910-1935)
- first tap school
- first instruction of tap
- shirley temple & bojangles (integrated tapping)
- the decline of tap
- the rise of tap (again)
4. TAP TODAY
- national tap dance day
- world's fastest tapper
- drummer that tap dances (tilly and the wall)
- STOMP / Tap Dogs
- Happy Feet
- Tap step perfectionist, Savion Glover
5. HOW STEPS ARE CREATED/NAMED
- (demonstration)
6. CONCLUSION

and that was pretty much my speech.
you really just have to make the flow of your speech make sense.
you don't want to put history at the end, because that would be weird...
and you don't want to talk about two similar things separately when they should be said together.

so really there is no SET format.
and i actually like it when people throw in little surprises.

judges get bored if your speech sounds EXACTLY like someone else's.

[m9211]

That sounds like it must of been a fun topic to present . How many visuals did you use and are there certain restricting on visuals like no printed pictures from the internet?

[tgjdlc]

You can use as many visual aides as you want... and anything is showable as long as it's not dangerous to carry around or not supposed to be on school grounds.

[miniglinda]

yeah, i usually have between 12 and 20 boards.

14 is usually a good number.

you can use images from ANYWHERE.

gettyimages is REALLY nice for high-quality pictures.
get a free account and you get them w/o the watermark.

yeah.

ahaha.
University Arts sells sturdy & thin boards...
i don't recommend foam boards... bulky & ugly.
or the floppy ones at Longs Drug Store....

if you have more questions, just post

[Forensicator]

when i did expository, my freshman year i did the rules of horror movies and the monsters themselves (it really sucked, but whatever), but the next year when i did it, i came up with this brilliant idea for Expos: The Musical! and it went all through the history of musical theater, then at the end of the expos i gave them actual examples of the most horrible musicals ever created... and in the very beginning and very end i sang and danced like i was on broadway... it was the most amazing thing ever... it beat out some of the best people from James Logan... it was sweet...