Transcript Individual Events:

Individual Events:
Original Oratory (OO)
Overview
Original Oratory (or OO) is an individual
event in the National Forensics League
and National Catholic Forensics League. It
consists of a written, memorized, 7-10
minute speech on a factual, slightly
controversial topic of the speaker’s
choosing.
 Original Oratories are typically persuasive
in nature.
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Overview
Original oratory topics should focus on
some pressing issue in society. The
speaker attempts to alert the audience to
a societal problem, then convince them to
make a choice or initiate change.
 Watch Barack Obama's speech at the
2004 Democratic National Convention
for a strong example of an Original
Oratory.
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Judging
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Speech Effectiveness: Did the speech have any inspiration or
purpose to make the audience react?
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Bodily Movement: What gestures did the speaker perform to
help the audience better visualize what you're saying?
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Supportment: Was what the speaker said backed up by proof?
Was the evidence visualized with current proof, past proof, or
quoted by words from other experienced people?
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Factual: Is what the speaker said really true? Was the purpose of
your Oration mostly truthful and not mostly opinion based?
Who Excels in Original Oratories?
The key is excelling in Original Oration has more to do with
your passion than your topic or your stance. Judges will look
for how well you connect to the audience, and whether or
not the audience reacts to your speech.
 Therefore, although there are not many participants in the
Original Oratory event, those who do compete are
confident, capable, and talented.
 Those who wish to compete in Original Oratories should be
able to work a crowd, be quick on their feet, and maintain
excellent body language, relatability, and charm throughout.
 On a sheet of paper, write a paragraph outlining reasons why
you may or may not be suited to compete in the Original
Oratory event.
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Rules
7-10 minutes with a 30 second grace
period.
 No more than 150 quoted words or 30
seconds worth of quoted material.
 Oratory is given standing up.
 At no point may the speaker turn his or
her back on the audience or the judges.
 No props or visuals allowed.
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Choosing A Topic
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The first step is to choose a topic. Choose a topic
you’re interested in, but not one you’re too personally
involved in. Personal bias can potentially ruin a good
argument.
You must take a stand on this topic. It’s not enough to
say you’ll talk about environmentalism: you have a take a
specific stand on environmentalism.
In groups of four, come up with a topic for an Original
Oratory. The topic should be broad to start out,
something like: war, racism, school, or animal rights.
Create A Thesis Statement
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Your thesis statement should be a whittled down
version of your topic in which you take a stance on a
controversial issue within the topic.
For example, if your topic was animal rights, a
controversial issue within animal rights is whether or
not we should genetically alter animals to make meat
cheaper.
With your group, identify a controversial issue within
your topic and take a stance on it.
Create A Purpose Statement
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Your purpose statement simply states the purpose of
the speech. For example, my purpose statement could
be “To convince people not to eat genetically altered
meat.”
Although your purpose statement will not appear in
your speech, it is important for you to know what your
purpose is and to keep your purpose in mind as you
write your speech.
In your groups, come up with a purpose statement for
your speech.
Introduction
The set up to your thesis should be
catchy and able to instantly grab the
audiences attention.
 Consider opening with a related joke, a
story, quotation, or startling fact.
 Once you’ve grabbed the audiences
attention, hit them with your thesis.
 Come up with a catchy, creative hook
with your group.
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Problems
Now that you’ve introduced the thesis, you need to
convince the audience that it is important cite
additional examples (statistics, stories, and quotes)
that illustrate why your topic is important.
 What or who is being harmed? Is the harm
significant? Remember: the actual validity of your
position is not nearly as important as how well you’re
able to justify it in this section of the Original
Oratory.
 With your group, discuss who or what is being
harmed by your problem and explain two or three
ways you may be able to best illustrate that to an
audience.
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Cause
Here, you should explain why the
problem exists. Once again, you will rely
on facts and opinions, so more quotes
and stories are appropriate.
 With your group, come up with three
potential causes of your problem. These
should be causes you’re able to defend
through facts, quotes, or stories.
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Solutions
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What are the suggested solutions to your
problem? This should generally relate to the
speech’s purpose.
For example, if the speech’s purpose was to
get people to stop eating genetically altered
meat, the solution should involve people no
longer eating genetically altered meat.
With your group, come up with three
potential solutions to your problem. Make
sure they relate back to your purpose.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should tie back to your
purpose and thesis. Like in any other
speech or essay, new information should
not be introduced in your conclusion.
 With your group, come up with two or
three different ways you could conclude a
speech on your topic.
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Remember…
Show, don’t tell! Don’t say “genetically altered animals
have health problems” when you can say “somewhere
on a farm in California, there’s a cow so fattened it
can’t stand without breaking its own legs, but it tries
over and over again all its life, so all it knows is pain,
but it can’t conceive why.”
 Alternatively, you can cite a statistic that proves your
point, but make sure you put the statics on terms that
audience can understand through metaphor or
illustration.
 With your group, come up with five different
metaphors that could be peppered throughout a
speech on your topic.
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Last minute tips!
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Humor and emotion are a must for keeping your
audience engaged, but don’t overdue them.
Be facially animated!
Look individual audience members in the eyes,
especially when making key points.
At the end of your speech, nod politely and hold
your position for applause. Don’t rush off the
stage immediately.
As always, remember to smile, take your time, and
be professional. Alter your pace, pitch, and volume
as needed, and remember to watch your body
language.