4-H SPEECH CONTEST
EVENT:
ORIGINAL ORATORY
TIME:
Maximum
-
Senior: 10 minutes
Junior/Intermediate: 5 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Since the contestants delivering the speech have written these orations, the judges
should consider THOUGHT, COMPOSITION and DELIVERY. However, as this is a
contest in speech rather than in essay writing, the emphasis should be placed on the
speech phase. Thought and composition should be considered primarily in the way
they are employed to make effective speaking possible.
The orator should not be expected to solve any of the great problems of the day.
Rather, he should be expected to discuss intelligently, with a degree of originality, in an
interesting manner and with some profit to his audience the topic he has chosen. He
should be given wide latitude in the ideas he expresses, but held closely accountable
for the manner in which he expresses them.
Although many orations deal with a current problem and propose a solution, you are
expressly reminded that this is not the only acceptable form of oratory. The oration may
simply alert the audience to a threatening danger, strengthen its devotion to an
accepted cause or eulogize a person. Give the orator free choice of subject and judge
him solely on the effectiveness of its development and presentation.
The composition should be considered carefully for its rhetoric and diction. The use of
appropriate figures of speech, similes and metaphors, balanced sentences; allusions
and other rhetorical devices to make the oration more effective should be noted. Use of
English should be more than correct; it should reveal a discriminating choice of words
and altogether fine literary qualities. It should especially be adapted to oral
presentation.
Delivery should be judged for mastery of the usual mechanics of speech – poise, quality
and use of voice, bodily expressiveness and for the qualities of directness and sincerity,
which impresses the oration upon the minds of the audience.
No particular style of delivery is to be set up as the one correct style to which all
contestants must conform. Rather, each contestant is to be judged upon the
effectiveness of his delivery, free to choose or develop whatever style will best give him
that effectiveness with his particular oration.
NFL CHAPTER MANUAL, 1965, page 20
Reprinted and revised from Hawaii Speech League, page 23
2/03
4-H SPEECH CONTEST
EVENT:
STORYTELLING
TIME:
Maximum
-
Senior: 10 minutes
Junior/Intermediate: 5 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Storytelling has the primary objective, as do most interpretative arts to be entertaining.
The storyteller has a story, that has interested him and he wishes to share with others.
Storytelling differs somewhat from other interpretative arts in the delivery used. Most
storytellers use the extemporaneous delivery. They have spent hours in preparation, if
their storytelling is effective, but have not memorized the author’s words. The storyteller
does not use the lecture or script.
The storytellers have analyzed the story thoughtfully, edited and cut it for the occasion,
and then have told the story again and again to an imaginary audience, using their own
sentence structure, until they have complete command of fluency. While achieving
fluency, the storyteller concentrates on directness. He recognizes that storytelling
requires a more intimate communication than almost any other interpretative arts.
He works with visible and audible techniques to enable him to share his interest in the
story. He listens to his voice attentively, trying to develop a flexibility that suggests
mood, suspense, voice quality that suggests character, and all of the quality that
suggests character, and all of the vocal techniques that will help his audience to
recognize story progression – transition, suspense, building and climax. He works for
expressiveness and control of visible techniques. He attempts to keep his eyes, face
and body alive to all of the mental images he wishes to share with the audience.
The types of stories suggested for use are: children’s stories, fables, legends, fairy
tales, folklore, short stories and cutting from novels.
Some informal essays lend themselves to telling and the monologue can be used;
however, the monologue does not lend to directness, which is one of the delightful
qualities of most good storytelling. The types of literature chosen will influence the
techniques of delivery used in storytelling, as it will for any other interpretative art.
The storyteller should also attempt to develop a style that is most effective for his own
personality. There is no one style that is right for everybody. Although techniques must
be acquired for storytelling, it is only arresting and entertaining when the teller seems to
be completely spontaneous and natural in his expressiveness.
Perhaps the best test of effective storytelling for the listener is, “Was I entertained? Did
I, at times, forget all about the techniques used and find myself lost in the story?”
Reprinted and revised for Hawaii Speech League
2/03
4-H SPEECH CONTEST
EVENT:
DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION
TIME:
Maximum
-
Senior: 10 minutes
Junior/Intermediate: 5 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The art of interpretation is to be regarded as recreating the characters in the story
presented and making them seem living and real to the audience.
Selections for interpretations must be cuttings from novels, published short stories or
plays. Adaptation may be for the purpose of continuity only. They should be judged for
their appropriateness as contest materials and their suitability to the contestants using
them. The use of good literature should be noted favorably and the “pieces” devoid of
literary merit graded lowest.
This is a contest in oral interpretation, not solo acting. Although gestures and
pantomime are not barred, they should be used with restraint. The contestants should
be graded on poise, pronunciation, enunciation, inflection, quality and use of the voice
and especially the ability to interpret characters correctly and consistently. Narrative
should be vivid and animated so as to be an interesting and integral part of the story
rather than just “filler” between portions of dialogue.
The final test of good interpretation is the ability to use all these factors so successfully
and unobtrusively that the hearer forgets that this is a contest and in perfectly created
atmosphere is carried away to the time and place of the story being unfolded.
Contestants shall preface their presentations by naming the author of the reading and
the book from which the cutting was made.
Presentation preferred from memory and without the use of physical objects or
costumes. However, lecture, manuscript and prompter will be permitted.
NFL CHAPTER MANUAL, 1965, pages 18 – 20
Reprinted and revised from Hawaii Speech League, page 29
2/03
4-H SPEECH CONTEST
EVENT:
GROUP INTERPRETATION
TIME:
Maximum
-
Senior: 10 minutes
Junior/Intermediate: 5 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Two or more contestants will be considered a group. One contestant may present the
narration and many characters may present description or certain parts of it. Any of the
contestants may interpret more than one of the group; girls should interpret female parts
and boys, the male role if boys and girls are members of the group. Since this is
interpretation, if all members of the group are girls, they may interpret male parts as well
as female parts, and an all-boy group may interpret female parts.
The contestants should be cautioned that they are interpreters of literature, not actors.
Their responsibility, therefore, is to react to the imaginary characters in front of them,
not to the contestants who stand beside them. The characters presented should be
suggestively portrayed.
The contestants should have a sensitive appreciation for mood, the conflict, suspense,
transition and climax. They should not only have a thorough understanding of
characters or character they are interpreting, but should also know mental, physical and
emotional relationships of characters to each other and the dramatic value of each
character presented in their reading. A careful timing that suggests naturalness of
reaction to the dramatic value is very important.
Narrative should be held to a minimum, a bare necessity, but that which is used should
be vivid and animated. It should have conversational directness and expressiveness.
The play contestants lead or guide his audience with narration towards an intellectual
and emotional understanding of anything, which needs explanation. If narration must
be used for any reason, it must be important and should never be presented as just a
“filler”.
Most of these will be interpretations of scenes from plays; however, other literature
primarily interested in people and their relationship with others may be used.
Reprinted and revised from Hawaii Speech League, page 42
2/03
4-H SPEECH CONTEST
EVENT:
POETRY READING
TIME:
Maximum
-
Senior: 10 minutes
Junior/Intermediate: 5 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
In the interpretation of poetry, the student has a chance for a finer and more delicate
presentation. Not only must the reader have the desire to share his aesthetic pleasure
with the audience, but also he must be ever mindful that his duty is to suggest, not to
subject his audience to a recital of rhythmic acting.
The rhythm of poetry is part of its beauty, but it should usually be supplementary.
Rhythm is more often underlying. The pulse of the metric beat should be very
infrequently present. The communication of emotions and ideas are of importance in
the presentation of poetry as they are in the interpretation of prose. To present the
ideas of poetry, very careful attention should be given to word grouping, word emphasis,
the stress of thought carrying phrases and sentences and meaningful voice intonation.
To present the emotion, the reader must have a careful understanding of the mood, and
of the author’s point of view in relation to who is speaking, to whom he is speaking and
where he is when speaking. The reader must project the emotion sincerely. He must
have a sympathetic feel for climax and for timing, which is suggestive natural for the
expression of the emotion.
The selection should first of all be one of literary merit. It might be a ballad, a narrative,
epic or dramatic poem. It might well be one long poem, several selections or a group of
poems concerning a central theme.
The reader is a go between for the author. He has so carefully studied the poem that
he has almost made it his own. The reader’s satisfaction comes from a sincere desire
to share with his audience that which someone else has written which has become very
important to him, the reader.
The reader must always remember that he is interpreting the poem or poems from the
printed page; he is not exhibiting his skill in memorization, neither is he doing sightreading. But his interpretative reading of poetry should be the result of much study that
gives him great familiarity with the selection, freeing his eyes and voice directed toward
the printed page. Where the reader directs his eyes will be governed by the author’s
purpose in any particular poem.
Whatever form of manuscript the reader takes to the platform with him, it should be one
that is easily, and not awkwardly, handled. The book or manuscript is the reason the
reader and listeners are gathered together. The reader should not be ashamed of it.
He is going to read from the book or manuscript with his audience. But effective
POETRY READING- continue
2
reading from the printed page demands a high degree of familiarity with the passage,
but not memorization, a freedom from the page and the achievement of a well-balanced
distribution of eye contact with the audience. Interpretative reading is communication –
reading with a listening and seeing audience.
The interpreter may use facial and body expressions as long as they do not call
attention to the interpreter as a performer, detract from the meaning of the material or
constitute acting or impersonation.
Adapted from the Handbook of the Kentucky High School Speech League, Centennial Edition.
Reprinted and revised from Hawaii Speech League, pages 35 – 36
2/03