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.
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.
Labels: challenging, contest, grammar, I have a dream, judges, Martin Luther King, mispronunciation, quoted material, speaker, speech, speech writing
posted by Angela Lansbury Author at 7:57 PM
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