This I Believe Testimonial/Speech1
“The theory that gets in my head and sticks—the good parts or the parts relevant to what I must
become and do in my life—performs. That this theory performs me is an existential fact.
That I choose to perform it is my craft” Sonyia Madison, Communication Scholar
Purpose: To contemplate and articulate your beliefs and values.
Parameters: 2 to 3 minutes
Point Value: 5 pts outline; 45 pts speech
Assignment Overview:
This assignment is inspired by NPR’s This I Believe. This I Believe is a national media project
broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Sunday. The program, based on
a 1950s radio program (also entitled This I Believe) welcomes essays from people across the
globe exploring life’s struggles, challenges, and insights as sources of understanding about
humanity. NPR’s website (www.npr.org/thisibelieve) archives all aired essays and thus provides a
vast pool from which you might draw on for your own inspiration. The testimonies are written
and spoken with great humility, humor, and honesty and they reveal expressions of gratitude,
fortitude, and/or profound pain, tragedy, and loss. We encourage you to draw on archived
testimonies as you reflect and prepare your own This I Believe testimonial.
Additional Guidelines:
 Your testimonial/speech should address (but is not limited to) the following two
questions: What important values, attitudes, and ideas do you aspire to, and why? How
do you practice them in your own life?
 You are required not to use a visual aid in your presentation
 This speech is extemporaneous and thus you will not be allowed to read from a
manuscript. You may use no more than 1 note-card.
 In creating your speech, integrate at least one story and one metaphor (poetic devices
discussed in class).
 Focus on the organization of your ideas as well as on making smooth transitions between
your main ideas. Make sure your speech has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
 You are not required to cite sources for this presentation.
 Your final presentation outline is due on the day you speak (using the format provided in
class).
1
Inspired by an assignment designed by Marie Thompson, Doctoral Student, Ohio University
Visual Narrative
Purpose: To inform your audience about a pressing public issue by engaging in multi-sensorial
storytelling in the form of a visual narrative. To demonstrate your ability to engage in journalistic
interviewing and integrate testimony as evidence in a public performance.
Parameters: 5 to 6 minutes
Point Value: 10 pts outline; 90 pts speech
Assignment Overview:
This assignment requires you to choose a public issue and create an informative presentation. In
addition, the assignment urges you to recognize the relationship between seeing and knowing.
Individuals develop self-awareness in part by “seeing themselves” in images materializing in their
surrounds. Visual images activate and articulate social knowledge and provide inventional
resources for identity construction. Visual narratives combine images and words to narrate an
event, experience, defining moment or turning point (e.g., soldiers’ societal re-integration after
oversees military service; cancer diagnosis and treatment; foreclosure on a house mortgage). In
your visual narrative you will creatively integrate photographs (and other publicly available
images) with the spoken word to narrate an event, experience, defining moment or turning point.
With camera in hand, some things you might want to contemplate (but are not limited to): How
can you visually and verbally articulate the plots or key storylines in your narrative? (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder). What causal factors relate to how events unfold across time? (e.g.,
exposure to suffering and death on battlefields). What characters are central to your message, and
what relationships exist among them? (e.g., mothers, spouses, veterans, psychiatrists). What
settings are central to focal events? (e.g., outpatient clinics, VFW clubs). What are the morals or
take-away messages of your story?
Additional Guidelines:
 You are required to use PowerPoint or a Flickr photo essay in your presentation. This
speech is extemporaneous and thus you will not be allowed to read from a manuscript.
You may use no more than 2 note-cards.
 At a minimum, you must include 3 photos shot by you. You are free to integrate other
publicly available images in your presentation.
 You must conduct a journalistic interview with a key informant (e.g., soldier, doctor, city
council member) and integrate his/her testimony in your story. You can include published
external sources of information (e.g., statistics on numbers of soldiers experiencing
PTSD) but are not required to do so.
 Your final presentation outline is due on the day you speak (using the format provided in
class) as well as the protocol used during your interview.
 Creatively structure your novella in ways that address key aspects of storytelling as
discussed in class—who, what, where, when, and why.
 Following Institutional Review Board protocol, you may take photos of people in public
spaces. However, if you take a photo of someone in a space considered private (e.g., their
home), you must have their written permission to use the photo for a class assignment.
Do not be disruptive to others in completing this assignment (e.g., do not take a photo
during class periods). Use the “60 Minutes” rule of thumb—do not turn in any photos that
would not be permissible on the evening news.
Persuasive Speech
“The challenges of the next century must be met by citizens with enormous energy and a well
developed capacity for imaginative discipline. Our communities need creative pioneers, adept at
risk taking, challenging assumptions and questioning conventional wisdom. This is the domain of
the artist: listening, translating, borrowing and synthesizing. The creator takes the old and new
and links them” William Cleveland, Author
Purpose: To persuade audience members about a necessary policy adoption or change, or call
them to action related to a salient social issue. To demonstrate your awareness of “stock issues”
associated with persuasive speeches including the concepts of presumption and burden of proof.
Parameters: 5 to 6 minutes
Point Value: 10 pts outline; 90 pts speech
Assignment Overview:
The persuasive speech requires you to persuade your audience about a policy you think should be
adopted, changed, or maintained on the national, state, or local level. You should select a topic
that has some element of controversy and construct a persuasive message aimed at persuading the
audience about your viewpoint on the topic. The policy you select can be virtually anything.
These types of speeches typically take one of two forms. The first type of policy speech is called
a deliberative speech. The deliberative speech focuses which would be enacted/changed by some
legislative body like the school board or state government. The goal of this speech is to spur
public dialogue about a salient issue, encourage your audience members to support your stand
and perhaps help you support a particular policy. The other type of speech, the call to action
speech, focuses on encouraging audience members to actually do something as a result of the
speech (e.g., donate organs, give to a charity, recycle, etc.). Either type of speech is appropriate
for this assignment.
Additional Guidelines:
 You are required to use PowerPoint in your presentation.
 This speech is extemporaneous and thus you will not be allowed to read from a
manuscript. You may use no more than 2 note-cards.
 Your speech should have a clear introduction and conclusion and well-organized set of
main points.
 You should clearly identify a problem and solution in your speech. To do this, you should
rely on effective supporting material and clear reasoning.
 Your speech should provide a detailed explanation of the solution.
 You must include 5 sources of supporting material. These sources of information must
come from refereed/edited periodicals, newspaper articles, or magazines (online sources
of information are encouraged as long as these come from refereed/edited sources).
 Your final presentation outline is due on the day you speak (using the format provided in
class).
Digital Ceremonial
Purpose: To develop a manuscript for a ceremonial speech and deliver the presentation in a
digital format
Parameters: 2 to 3 minutes
Point Value: 30 pts manuscript and storyboard; 70 pts presentation
Assignment Overview:
With this project we invite you to construct a digital ceremonial presentation. There are a
variety of ceremonial speeches outlined in pages 387-396 of your textbook. Please refer to these
examples for guidance as you construct your presentation. At the basic level your responsibility is
to construct a compelling ceremonial speech that draws on the lived narratives of those
highlighted in your address.
This speech, however, will be different than others we’ve performed in two ways. First,
rather than constructing an outline, you will be writing out a manuscript. Remember that a
manuscript speech requires you to write out your complete presentation in advance of your
performance. Second, this speech will be presented to you audience in a digital format. You will
not conduct a live performance of this speech in class. Rather you will record your speech
digitally, supplement your message with photos and music, upload the speech to YouTube, and
then present it in class as a video.
Both of these components (the utilization of the manuscript as well as the digital format)
necessitate that you focus on the delivery of your presentation. Mostly, you will need to think of
the ways in which you may utilize your voice to engage your audience and emphasize important
points. Additionally, as we’ve done in previous assignments, you will need to take extra time to
consider the photographs and music that may supplement your words.
Additional Guidelines:
 This speech is a manuscript and thus you will need to write out the complete speech.
You must turn in a final copy of your complete manuscript on the day that you present
your video. Your final copy MUST also include the URL to your video on YouTube.
 Focus on the organization of your ideas as well as on making smooth transitions between
your main ideas.
 You are required to use Photo Story 3 or iMovie for your presentation.
 You are required to upload your presentation to YouTube. This will require you to create
a YouTube account if you don’t yet have one.
 You are required to include at least 8 photographs but no more than 12.
 You are required to include music in your final presentation.
 You are required to narrate your own presentation.
 This speech must be a minimum of two minutes but no more than three.
*Check out the YouTube Help Center (or ask a friend) for instructions for creating a YouTube
account and uploading videos.