Another really expensive part of being in the speech community is the clothing. Walking into a round in an expensive, well put together outfit is not guaranteed to win you a medal, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Here are a couple helpful tips for looking like a champion without breaking the bank:
1. Consignment and secondhand stores
This is always my first stop. You would be surprised at the gems you can find at a local goodwill. I have bought several gorgeous suits at our local consignment store and I’m always excited to see what they stock. The greatest bonus to such stores is that the suits are often less than 20$!
2. eBay
First, go to a department store like Dillards or Macy’s. Spend time to find clothes that you like and what sizes fit you. Make sure to keep track of your size and the brand of the clothes as well as any other helpful information. Finally, look up your favorite suits/dresses/shoes/whatever on eBay. I thought this was a bit strange when I first heard about it, then I bought a 300$ dollar Tahari suit for 30$. This is magic.
3. Poshmark
It’s a bit harder to find specific clothes on Poshmark as one could on eBay. However, they have a wonderful selection of suits, shoes, and anything else you could want in all price ranges. I have gotten several of my suits through Poshmark anywhere from 35-10$. While the site seems a bit questionable, I have always received my products as expected and in a timely manner. 10/10 would recommend.
I hope this was helpful! Make sure to let me know any other ways you guys save money on your speech wardrobes!
It would be nice if you could memorize a speech by sleeping with it under your pillow overnight. Memorizing a speech is often a painful, boring process. But hey, unlike washing the dishes or mowing the lawn, once you are done, you are done. And memorization is the necessary first step to having a truly polished performance. Luckily, it also gets significantly easier once you do it once. So if you are memorizing a speech for the first time, have no fear. Just rip off the memorization band-aid with these three techniques!
Wait. Before you use any of the following 3 methods to memorize your speech, memorize this sentence: I am more much capable than I think I am. You might think you cannot possibly memorize 1,000+ words. Your memory is much better than you think it is. That sentence is good to file away for speech in general, too.
Alright, got that memorized? Go on:
Method 1: Speed Racer
Speed Racer is also known as “Rote Memorization”, but that has a bad rap. It can be a little more exciting! In “Speed Racer”, the end goal is to memorize your speech so that you can recite it from beginning to end without making a mistake as quickly as possible. I call it “Speed Racer” because your process is structured like a racetrack: you keep returning to the starting point, lap after lap, until the race is done - a race in which you are only in competition with yourself.
Get Prepared: Print your entire script, organized into distinct sections.
Speed Through Your First Section. Say the first section aloud over and over again, as quickly as possible 10 times. Now try to repeat it out loud without stumbling, and without looking at your script. Once you succeed, move on to memorizing the next section in the same manner.
Combine Your Sections. Once you have succeeded at memorizing the next section, say both section 1 and 2 out loud 5 times. If you make a mistake, repeat that line over and over until you have corrected it in your memory - then go back to the beginning of section one, the “starting” line, and try again.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat this process over and over again with each new section until you have said every section consecutively without making a mistake.
Off to the Races! Now that you have laid out the racetrack, time for the final sprint! Say the speech in ½ the time in which you will actually deliver it. So, if you are memorizing a 10-minute speech, you want to be able to say it in 5 minutes without any mistakes: cut your time in ½.
Advantages:
Memorize Quickly: Speed Racer helps you to memorize long speeches under a significant time crunch.
Improve Articulation: Speed Racer helps you with more difficult words, because if you can say “sesquipedalian loquaciousness” 10 times fast, you can say it once at a normal pace like a snap.
Disadvantages:
Tedium: This technique requires tenacity because it becomes boring quickly.
Vocal Strain: Speaking rapidly for hours at a time can take a toll on your voice. Exercise caution.
Method 2: Play by Play
In the Play by Play technique, you will memorize your speech line by line, thinking about the most effective line reading as you memorize. This technique works best if you have a patient friend, coach, or teammate working with you.
Play by Play technique has 4 steps:
Prepare Your Script & Supplies. Print out your script and have several colored highlighters. Assign basic emotions to each color. Some great ones to start with are “joy”, “sadness”, “anger”, “disgust”, and “fear”. Not only are these the main characters of Inside Out, but they are also the Atlas of Emotions identified by Paul Ekman. These are a good starting point for identifying the emotional content of your script.
Color Code. Read the speech line by line, thinking about which emotions are at play in the content of your speech. Ask yourself: what do I want the audience to feel in this section? What emotion logically makes sense based on the events occurring here? Color the line of the script using the highlighter of the corresponding emotion.
Take it Line by Line. Read aloud each individual line over and over, taking the colors of the highlighter into consideration during your delivery. Once you are satisfied with that line reading, move on to the next line.
Persist & Prosper. Repeat this process until you have finished a section, a page, and then the entire script.
Advantages:
Internalize Emotion. Thinking about the emotions involved in your script from the beginning gets your more intimate knowledge of the piece.
Multitask: With Speed Racer, you get memorized first and later, you practice until you identify the best line reading. Play By Play completes these tasks at the same time.
Disadvantages:
Time-Consuming Process: Only attempt this method if you have a long time to get your speech memorized.
Memorizing Bad Habits: If the line reading you prepare from the beginning is ineffective, it can be really hard to get it “out of your system” later.
Method 3: Mind Palace / Method of Loci
You may have heard of the Mind Palace technique if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes. But the Mind Palace is much older than Sherlock - even the Conan Doyle version. It was popular with Greek orators and instructed by Cicero. This technique, unlike Speed Racer, requires a lot of imagination but is faster than Play by Play.
Get Prepared: Print out your script, separated into manageable sections.
Create Your Palace: If you are able, go to a familiar location; if you are not, imagine a familiar location. Designate a familiar pathway through this space and destinations based on how many sections are in your speech. For example, say you chose your house, and say you wrote a speech with an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. You might decide to start in the basement for the introduction, move up to the kitchen for the first point, to the living room for the second point, and upstairs to the bedroom for point 3, and up one more floor to the attic for your conclusion.
Fill the Palace with Objects: Notice the core ideas in your speech. Think about how you could represent them with objects, colors, textures. For example, if one of your core concepts of your introduction is freedom, what does that mean to you? Maybe a civil rights leader. Or a bald eagle. Or George Michael. Whatever it may be, picture that specific object in the basement in as much vivid detail as you can. Continue to establish the objects which belong in each “room” of your familiar location.
Move Through Your Palace: Read your speech, section by section, and move through this familiar space (whether figuratively or literally). “See” the objects you have designated for each space.
Take the Journey Again: As you read the script again and again, or listen to a recording of it, imagine yourself moving through the space and encountering these objects. When you perform the speech, similarly move through your mind palace.
Advantages:
Stay Extemporaneous: This technique works well with speeches that do not need to be memorized word-for-word, but those that just need to convey key points.
History is On Your Side: The ghosts of great orators past will greet you! (But really, this is a proven technique with a long history of being effective.)
Disadvantages:
Use of Creative Energy: Although this technique is fun, it is more time-consuming than Speed Racer.
Visual Learning: For some people, visual learning just does not stick as well.
Refresh Your Memory
Once you tackle one of these 3 techniques, you should be fully memorized! Keep refreshing yourself with one of these techniques to reinforce the script in your memory over time.
Write it Down: Write it out line by line, over and over, by hand. This works best for short pieces, like an introduction in an oral interpretation piece.
Headphones In: Record yourself saying the speech and listen to it while reading your script, before you go to sleep, or while doing chores.
Talk to Yourself: Say your speech in your head during dead time during the day: waiting for the bus, walking the dog, washing your dishes, etc.
These ideas are just a place to start. How do you memorize your speeches? What would you recommend to someone memorizing a speech for the first time? Let me know!
You probably use hand gestures in your day-to-day life without giving it much thought. But when all eyes are on you as a public speaker, you want to think more carefully about how you use gestures. If you watch out for these common mistakes, your gestures will better communicate your message, enhancing it rather than distracting from it.
Mistake 1: Not settling into a neutral stance between gestures.
An ideal neutral stance involves hanging your arms loosely and comfortably at your side. You might feel the instinct to keep your hands in front of you over your abdomen, but doing that makes you look less confident because it appears to be a self-protective gesture. Angela Merkel can pull it off, but since she is basically the most powerful woman in the world, no one can question it. You (probably) have not amassed that much power yet. A neutral stance with arms at the sides increases your credibility. And never, ever fig leaf.
Mistake 2: Gesturing outside the “strike box”.
It’s good to think outside the box when public speaking, but keep your gestures inside the box. “The strike box” is a baseball term borrowed for speech which generally spans from below your shoulders and slightly below your navel. Try to keep gestures inside this box. Gesturing “outside the box” tends to look theatrical, not natural. Jazz hands would just look sad and limp inside the box, but hand gestures outside the box look like jazz hands.
Mistake 3: Moving just your forearms, not engaging your shoulders.
Make sure you’re engaging your shoulders along with your arms as you gesture. Avoid looking like C-3PO (which I am sorry to say was a ballot comment I once received). Maintain good posture, but let your body language shift with your arms naturally. Moving just from your elbows out looks robotic.
Mistake 4: Your hands are too stiff.
Don’t let them look rigid like you’re about to perform a karate chop. Your fingers should curl in a little, naturally. One of my former teammates recommends imitating “Barbie Hands”. Although it may feel a little strange, keeping your index finger slightly out and curling the rest of your fingers in looks both relaxed and graceful.
Mistake 5: Your gestures need more variety.
People may begin to notice your gestures, and not for the right reasons, if they become too repetitive. Bernie Sanders playing the bongos is funny, but not exactly aspirational. Try not to repeat the same gesture more than twice in your speech, or make simple variations on your standard gestures.
Mistake 6: Your gestures are vague and noncommittal.
When competing, just winging it will not fly. Plan the best places to do hand gestures in your speech. Keep in mind that “less is more”. Only include a gesture if it helps you communicate your message in a significant way. For ideas about how to use gestures to support your ideas, rather than distract from them, check our next post, “8 Types of Meaningful Hand Gestures”.
These mistakes are common, but easily addressed! Film yourself, or have a teammate watch for these mistakes during practice. Gestures are a significant component of good delivery, so breaking the bad habits is worth it!
Hello, everyone! I’m a former college forensics competitor and former coach of high school speech competitors.
I’ve just created this new blog for students who need speech resources: whether because they are with a new team, trying a new event, receive little coaching, come from an underfunded school, or any other reason. All are welcome here!
Talent is distributed equally, but opportunity isn’t. Everyone has the potential to become a great speaker, but not everyone gets access to the powerful skillset forensics provides. I hope everyone with big talent, but little opportunity can make use of the resources and encouragement I will provide here.
Feel free to follow speechsource.tumblr.com or send an ask at speechsource.tumblr.com/ask. And if you know any students who are in need of resources, please direct them here!
