CEREMONIAL/TRIBUTE SPEECH ASSIGNMENT To pay tribute to a person, place, object or abstract idea Purpose: Length: 6 – 7 minutes Points: 125 points (out of a total 700 available in the class) About 18% of your total class grade Specific Requirements: In this speech, you will choose a person, a place, an object or abstract idea to pay tribute to. This may also be a toast, a eulogy or best man/maid of honor speech. The purpose of this speech is for you to demonstrate your knowledge of the power of creative language techniques and to practice the art of ceremonial speaking. The creative use of artful, descriptive language and the use of language resources such as repetition, parallel structure, antithesis, metaphor, simile, alliteration, etc. will be incorporated into this speech to demonstrate the connection between the creative and emotive power of our words. This speech should be 6-­‐7 minutes in length. You are required to incorporate the techniques of identification and magnification into your speech in order to emphasize shared values, emotions, memories, motives and culture as well as to maintain focus on the relevant, honorable and praiseworthy characteristics of your chosen person, place, object or abstract idea. Remember you are paying tribute to your topic, so specific examples and short stories are great for supporting your information in a way that enhances credibility but more importantly that demonstrates what you are saying in a way that creates interest for your audience, helps us understand the topic and its significance and better commemorates your chosen topic. It also can be a great way to increase your ethos and pathos. In a Eulogy you might tell a brief story or an example to demonstrate the individual’s character, qualities, influence or how they impacted you and others. •
Make sure your speech is easy to follow in terms of structure, organization and clarity •
Be sure to incorporate the use of language strategies as mentioned above (refresh yourself on those language strategies by reviewing the textbook and class discussions/slides) •
Meet the needs and basic expectations of a tribute speech •
Overall, pay tribute to the specific topic chosen and connect with your audience as though they were paying tribute too •
Strong delivery is KEY to success, please be well prepared and extemporaneous in delivery •
This needs to be a TRIBUTE speech (honoring your topic). You are not to give a roast, after dinner speech, acceptance, presentation, introduction speech or a motivational speech. •
Refer to your textbook and the class website for examples of Special Occasion Speeches and for additional reference materials •
Remember you will need to submit a full sentence outline with this speech •
Visual aids are not required for this speech