Challenging The Judge On Table Topics

A table topic is only two minutes, not the five to seven minutes of the Prepared speech. (Actually a speech of four and half minutes is allowed. However, most speakers go over time. I have only seen the occasional speaker (twice in ten years) who forgets their speech and loses heart and leaves. I have watched them forget, start again, get lost again, give up again.

They did not think to sum up but left  abruptly and did not reach the five minutes. That's the problem with not having a proper set of notes to consult in an emergency. No husband or wife or mentor in the audience to shout a prompt.

The other problem is needing to read a speech like a memorised poem. You should have three main stories, and a clear link. Then the speech is like pearls on a chain. If it is a time line - title, explain title, summary, my childhood, may teenage years, where I am now, conclusion - repeat title, it would be hard to get lost.

A table topic is different. You have to devise the answer to the question. You can read/repeat the question which seals it in your mind so you don't wander off topic and this gives time to think but takes up time reducing the number of points you can make.  If it's a long question, or quotation, you have time to really both halves.

A recent challenge took place at a contest at Singapore's venue on the East coast near Changi airport. The topic was a quotation by Churchill, about optimism and pessimism.

Most contestants heard the topic, then took hold of the left hand side of the piece of paper with one hand, their right hand, sharing the paper with the contest chair,  and read it silently, or took the paper in both hands and read it silently or aloud and then handed it back.

One contestant took hold of the paper and kept hold of it. He answered the first half of the question and from where I was sitting (a few rows back) seemed to put it in his pocket. (I worried through the whole speech that he would 'lose' it, leaving the rest of the contestants with no topic1

Then, if I both saw and remembered rightly, he got it out again to read it again to be sure he answered the second half of the question.

Later contestants are not allowed the advantage of hearing the question prior to their entrance, nor hearing another speaker before they speak, so the only rival contestant who saw this and objected must have been a previous contestant. (Or one whose friends and family or fellow club members had told him about it. Only the contestant could object, not his club members or family members in the audience.)

When the chief judge returned with the results, a member of the audience (the objecting contestant) raised his hands to say he had an objection. The judge said to the audience that he had already been told of the objection.

The contestant in the audience protested that everybody should hear the objection and the reasons for it and have a proper debate on the subject in case it arose again.

By now members of the audience were intrigued, curious, anxious to know, and supported the contestant objecting and wanted to hear the objection.

The objection was that the person who kept hold of the piece of paper with the topic a) should not have been allowed to do so and it was against the rules and this should not be allowed in future contests b) the contestant who did so if it was against the rules should possibly be disqualified for doing so.

Various members of the audience started saying that it was or wasn't in the rules, and some people got out their handphones (previously off and silent during contests so as to not distract speakers)and starting hunting on line. Nobody could find a specific rule about the contestant not being allowed to keep hold of the paper.

The Chief judge said that the chief Judge's ruling was final. He remained very calm, decisive, polite to the parties and good-humoured, treating it not as a confrontation but as an interesting technical point. After two or three times saying that the judge's decision was final, he ended by drawing a conclusion by saying we had to finish so that people could go home but could continue debating the point later.

The person who complained turned out to be one of the (two, I think) winners going forward to the next contest.

The Chief Judge said that the objection had nothing to do with the fact that he had won. (Which is decided by the number of points allocated to each of the top three speakers, thee points for those you think should be first, two points to the person who is second, one point to the person who is third. If the number of points is equal for any of the top three, then the tie-breaker's scoring is used. The tie-breaker's marks are not needed and not checked unless there is a query.

***

Angela Lansbury, speaker, winner of club contests (UK), judge and tie-breaker judge in some contests (UK and Singapore). You are not allowed to be a judge at your club or another club if you are a speaker in a contest in previous contest in that area or listed as a future contestant at another club in the area (which comprises about four or five clubs - too complicated to go into here, but you get the idea). Equally you cannot be a contestant if you have previously been a judge.

Lots more information on club websites and the forums on LinkedIn. I have written this post because I have far more to say than would be reasonable to write on the forums where each comment is about 3-5 sentences and 3-5 lines long.

Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG.

Challenging The Contestants and Judges - who can challenge?

I have sat in a contest and listened to a so-called Prepared Speech given by a contestant which was based on a humorous story (in the humorous speech contest) which was basically an elaboration of a joke going around, but told as if it had happened to the speaker and a girl he met on the internet for a blind date.

In a contest organised by Toastmasters International clubs worldwide the Prepared Speech must be substantially original, although you can use up to 25% of quoted material provided you attribute it to the source and do not pass it off as your own. So, for example, you could not pretend that Martin Luther King's speech I Have A Dream or any speech by a well known speaker such as Anthony Robbins was your own material. However, you could give a speech quoting them and showing how they had influenced your life or were still as relevant today to todays audience as the time you had first heard them.

The only people allowed to challenge the originality are other (peeved!) contestants or the judges (supposed to be judging the content as well as the performance). However, you are mainly judging performance, not contest, even if you do not agree with what was said. Download the judging form or read it on line. You can see that marks are given for structure, gesture, use of stage and so on.  Right at the end is a mark for use of voice, correct pronunciation and grammar. So if two speakers give equally good speeches, but one is full of mispronunciations, oddly contracted sentences, and ambiguities, or jargon or local dialects, that speaker loses a vital point which could tip the balance.

As a judge I have often found it hard to distinguish and choose between a well written speech badly performed and a badly written speech well performed. But it is not a speech-writing contest, but a test of speaking, not writing.

Supposing I run a club and I'm looking for an after dinner speaker. Who would I choose? I'd probably choose the better speaker, and ask him to ensure that the content was original and relevant to my audience, rather than trying to persuade the speaker that the contest was lovely but please be more animated.

A recent contestant in the impromptu speech contest gave an amusing speech about how irrelevant performance was in every day life, because you would not use exaggerated gestures to somebody you met at the MRT (Singapore's mostly underground tube train).

Angela Lansbury, writer and speaker, member of HOD and Harrovians speakers clubs in London, England.

Table topics - what are they and why are they so named? Reading and choosing topics in contests

Glossary
Table Topics - are impromptu speeches on a subject written on a piece of paper.

Contest Topics
In a contest the topics are usually selected at random from several concealed inside a sealed envelope.

In some clubs in England I have seen the topic chosen at the last minute by a visiting VIP, related by phone to somebody who types it out, such as the Sergeant At Arms. In other situations it could be the Area Governor, (maybe this was because we/they discovered at the last minute that nobody had brought the topic, so sometimes it is even written out by hand.

Picking out the topic
In a contest to promote the appearance of fairness where there are several topics the folded piece of paper with the topic written inside may be picked out of the envelope by a visiting VIP. Alternatively it is selected by somebody not competing in the contest such as the Chief Judge?

Reading out the Topic
The topic is read out to the first contestant (who is in the room). The topic is read out by the table topics master or in a contest by the contest chair (person), named table topics because in the early days and occasionally still today the topics written on slips of paper are placed face down on a table.

Where Does The Contestant Stand?
In a recent contest the first contestant was in his seat in the front or second row and the contest chairperson was about to read out the topic. Somebody in the audience called out that the contestant should move to stand at the edge of the stage. (Therefore he would not have the advantage of the extra minute taken to step forward but would be seen to be treated fairly and equally with other contestants brought in to stand just inside the door at the edge of the stage.)

I have been a judge in several contests and in the audience at several more.

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, CL, ACG speaker.

CL = Competent Leader
ACG = Advanced Communicator Gold

Practising Speeches Every Day Before Contest

After Barclays Bank toastmasters club held their contest, members told me that the speech contestants had gathered together in a room every day for at least two weeks before the contest. They each rehearsed their speech in front of all the others and got feedback from everybody. If they had time left over, they tried practising table topics (impromptu speeches).

Occasionally the numbers dropped if one or two or several of the speech contest contestants was away on business. But they all had lots of practise. That is one of the advantages of an in-house club, or one in an area where several people work near each other.

Angela Lansbury, speaker and author.

How do I persuade a bilingual club to enter contests?

How Do I Persuade a Bilingual or Foreign Language Club To Enter Contests?

The French speaking club in Singapore has never entered a contest because it's in English. Some of the members have never attended a contest or don't even know about contests. I've been to a Tamil bilingual club and a Chinese bilingual club, but unless I ask them for a summary of a speech there are not handouts and no way for me to understand a single word. I'm considering starting a Translators' Club in Singapore and another in London. Members and guests can speak in any language but must use Google translate to give us the title and a summary in English - and/or simultaneous translation and/or a handout with the translation in English. One speech each meeting should be a guide to beginning speaking another language, or a guide to speaking English given in another language.

Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG.

Feedback and Topics: age, emotion,

Contest Speech Feedback
At a contest the contestants cannot get feedback from the judges. Why? It could lead to ill feeling if the contestant feels they have been marked down unfairly.

How else can you get feedback? By taking along family and friends. At a recent contest one of the contestants revealed on stage when interviewed by the contest chair that the timer had given feedback.

Subject Versus Presentation
The hardest job is distinguishing between two speeches when one is a good subject badly presented (speaker was too quiet, or muttered) and another speech which had poor or unoriginal content but was delivered with verve.

Topics To Inspire Toastmasters
On my way home, after being a judge in a contest where speaker spoke on subjects such as Anger and being a good listener, I looked at the subjects in my Leadership manual. The subjects included Listening skills.

It occurred to me that to prepare a subject for Toastmasters, you can select from the following:

1) Age related issues
You could use the classic seven ages of man, adding some modern variations which will affect members of your audience:
Your children (tantrums, teaching, lessons learned, conflicts)
School teachers
Students
First Job
Young married
Marital conflict
the Boss
Your parents
Your grandparents

Make a list of the topics in a card index as divider cards. Add favourite stories from your life and put them behind the appropriate divider card. Note areas where you need a story. If you have a series of subjects with three cards for three anecdotes, that is the possible subject for your next speech. You can add quotation cards for the title, opening line and closing.

2 Emotions
7 deadly sins
Anger
Confidence
Contentment
Envy
Jealousy
Lack of confidence
Resentment
Stoicisms
Parents' proverbs and advice and says

3 Toastmasters' Manual Subjects
Delegation (delegating at home, school, work, Toastmasters)
Listening (at home, school, work, directions when travelling)
Motivation (homework, work, exams)
Team work and team building

Table topics  - see later posts
Angela Lansbury, CL ACG (update 2018 now 

Mentoring a Speech - and ideas for speech and props

It is very true that teaching others helps you to learn. I have just mentored somebody with their speech. One idea I gave them about props I have just used for my own speech. Can you guess what it is? Read on.

I wrote to my mentee: What project is it? Five? Your body speaks?

Video yourself and note the gestures you make and exaggerate them and write them into the draft in another colour. Make sure you have a gesture or movement every couple of sentences.

From what I remember of your test speech at Harrovians’ contest, as well as other people’s, you had good stage control already, and lots of conversation. Although this project is not about voice, you need to remember these 

points:

1 When asking a rhetorical question pause, raise eyebrows. If you don’t want shouting and heckling tell them to make a mental (or written) note.

If expecting an answer, show the audience you expect an answer.

2 If this is a speech to Toastmasters (eg to deliver as an officer training workshop or a training for newcomers, rather than simply rehearsing at Toastmasters for another occasion such as a wedding speech) make every other sentence related to Toastmasters, (eg climbing through the manual). You could alter your tone for each part - eg extra enthusiasm, smiling, speaking louder for all the sentences relating to toastmasters, or vice versa. 

3 Avoid being monotone - find a word to emphasise and underline it in the speech

4 Allow extra time if you are crossing the stage without saying anything or if walking about will slow down your delivery.

5 Try to get the important word  at the end of the sentence. Don’t tail off at the end of the sentence, going quieter or losing the last word. eg end on mount TOP, rather than top of the mountain. Add a few shorter sentences for variety.

You already did a good job of conversation in your last speech. Maybe you can invent an imaginary mountain climbing guide, perhaps with a German accent, encouraging you or not allowing you to fall back or ignoring your protest.

Which country is the mountain? Plenty of scope for two different accents. 

I hope this helps.

Now, dear reader, you may have gathered which tip I am using in my speech.

 Two or three copies of the photo in progressively larger sizes.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, CL, ACG.