Introductory Speech Assignment

• The goal of this speech is to introduce yourself to the class. You should organize your speech around ONE (1) unusual personality trait or value that you have. At the end of the speech, the audience should understand this trait or value very well, and understand why this trait or value impacts your life in significant ways. You should try to show how your one trait or value impacts you a lot rather than trying to tell us about all of the different things about you. Use several examples to tell us about this ONE trait or value. Try to give us an in-depth understanding of this value or trait.
• You must pick a trait or value that is UNUSUAL. If your trait is true of several people in the class, it is not unusual. Some examples of non-unusual traits are: I like talking to my friends, my family is important to me, I really love listening to music, I study hard, I like to meet new people, I'm really friendly, I'm shy with new people, my church is important to me, I love movies, I like to use the computer to email people. Some examples of unusual traits are: I hate animals, baking desserts is my passion, I’m terribly impatient with other people, I’m a philosophical anarchist, I want to be a meteorologist, I'm the youngest of 8 children, I volunteer for the special olympics every year.
• If you pick something that you think might be considered non-unusual, make sure that you show that you hold it to an unusual degree. For example, most people like movies, but you could make this your trait if you plan on being a director and assisted on a film shoot and have 500 movies in your house.
• Do not make the speech a laundry list of facts about yourself. Don’t make your trait or value something that includes lots of different sub-traits or values (e.g., don’t make your trait, "I’m interested in many different things").
• If you have made your speech around one trait or value, and your speech is well written and organized, it should have good unity. That is, it should seem clear that your speech is all about one main idea, and that every part of the speech relates to the same main idea. But be sure that your speech is unified around your trait, and not around something superficial. For example, if your trait is that you like the circus, you might be tempted to write one point about how the clowns remind you of your funny dad, and the lion tamer of your brave mom, and the elephants of you and your good memory. But this would show poor unity because you are just using the circus to tie together a bunch of unrelated points. Your points don't show that your main trait, loving the circus, is really important to you and your life. Thus, this speech has bad unity.
• Your speech should be about 2 minutes long. Time your speech when you practice it. If you are far over or under time your grade will be penalized. Your speech should absolutely not be longer than 2 double-spaced typed pages.
• The speech should be typed out as a standard writing assignment but you will deliver the speech from a brief set of written notes. After you deliver the speech, you will turn in two items:
  1. the speech in manuscript form
  2. a copy of the speech notes you used to deliver the speech
• Speech notes are simply notes that you use to remind you of the content of your speech. For future speeches, you will have specific guidelines for these. For this speech, simply write down words or phrases for each of the main ideas in your speech so that you can deliver the speech with the same basic content as your manuscript. The notes should be an abbreviation of your manuscript and should not have full sentences. As a guideline, your speech notes should have less than 1/3 the number of words as your manuscript. Speech notes should be on normal-size paper.
• Do not worry about delivering the speech exactly as you wrote it in manuscript form. You are not expected to memorize your speech sentence for sentence, and if you attempt this it may hurt your delivery. Try to talk in a relaxed, natural manner. Communicate to your audience rather than reciting to them. Try to have as much eye contact as possible. You should aim for looking at your audience 80% to 90% of the time.
• You should practice your speech many times to get comfortable with it. It is normal to be nervous about speaking in front of other people. The best way to be more confident is practice.
• If you say things out of order, trip over a word, or forget a point, don’t freak out, don't apologize for making a mistake, and don't say "*&%*$!" Simply continue on with your speech as smoothly as you can. You aren’t being graded on following your manuscript exactly, and the error is probably much more noticeable to you than your audience. Your speech will seem smoothest by simply going back and restating the phrase correctly, or continuing on as if you didn't make a mistake.
• Do your best to express yourself clearly and concisely. Organize your ideas carefully. Make sure your speech has an introduction, body, and conclusion. (The conclusion can be short for this speech)
• The grade for the writing portion of this speech (the original and revision combined) will count 30 points. The speech as delivered will count for 20 points. 

  Introductory Speech Introduction Assignment

  After finishing your speech, you will introduce the next speaker by telling the class the speaker’s name, one interesting fact about the speaker, and something you have in common with the speaker (try to find something unusual). This introduction to the introduction should be SHORT--one or two sentences at most. Do not tell a long but interesting story about the person--we simply don’t have time on speech day.

  The speakers will speak in the following order. You are responsible for introducing the person speaking AFTER you. The last person will introduce the first person. You need to contact this person to learn the information you need to introduce them. You should get this person's email in class.

  Section 14: Shaina Kilcoyne, Leah Hunter, Mike Marietta, Megan Rose, Sam Khazai, Leigh Kamrath, Nikki Petzold, Danielle Jerdee, Nicole Wodalski, Rachel Peters, Lade Oduala, Aderonke Adeoshun, Holly Mucci, Kaitlin Frye

  Section 20: Heather Fagan, Adam Sosnoski, Rebecca Cornelius, Kelly Gauthier, Mike Palumbo, Andy Kultgen, Max Miller, Adam Chrudimsky, Jason Skelton, Dan Wolbert, Sammi Orbach, Bhavana Jain, Brian Shanley, Kang Vang