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.

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. Watch Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention for a strong example of an Original Oratory.

Judging Speech Effectiveness: Did the speech have any inspiration or purpose to make the audience react? Bodily Movement: What gestures did the speaker perform to help the audience better visualize what you're saying? 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? 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.

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.

Choosing A Topic 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 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 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.

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.

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.

Solutions 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.

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.

Last minute tips! 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.