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forensics / public speaking
i'm in forensics, and for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a school activity and many schools throughout the nation have their own forensics team and it's competitive public speaking. there are different sections, two of which are debate & speech. well, i'm in speech, declamation specifically, and i had to memorize someone else's speech and i simply have to recite it (with hand gestures, etc.) several times in the different rounds. my state tournament, nj, is from march 7-8, and well, i'm pretty nervous. i've never been to a state tournament before, and it's a two-day tournament except not overnight. i'm just nervous because the only reason i broke (break = get to the final round) in one of my last tournaments (in order to qualify for state tournaments, you have to break in at least one tournament) was because there weren't that many people. but now that it's the state tournament, it's going to be very competitive, and there's going to be a LOT of kids who do better than me.
here are my questions. you can answer any or all of the following:
1.) does anyone have any advice for a declamation speecher in forensics?
2.) any advice for public speaking in general? (don't tell me the obvious. doing say "hand gestures" -- please be as specific as you can)
3.) any advice on how to be less nervous? i know by thursday night i'll be spazzing.
thank you!
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Maybe give some free advice about: Random Weirdos?
here are some helpful links that give advice on public speaking, etc.
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now for not being nervous, i would say to keep practising, knowning the material will give you confidence in not messing up, look at the audience and the judges (dont look down). try your best, have fun, make it sound interessting (so the audience is interessted too).
i know you will do great because i did this and i won first place in a speech contest myself.
Godd Luck!
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Don't freak out about possibly not doing well- if you made it to the state tournament, you must be pretty darn good! And as long as you represent your school well, then it doesn't matter what place you get. With that out of the way...
1.) & 2.) These links may not help, but it's worth a shot:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Also, I know that people say "look at the back of the room" or whatever, but I can totally tell when people are doing that. When I give speeches, I try to make eye contact with everybody in the first and second rows throughout my speech. That way, they know that I'm talking TO them and then they want to hear what I'm saying. Speak clearly and confidently. If you trip over your words, that makes me not want to listen to you. I recently saw a former president speak, and he made eye contact with many people in the room and enveloped his audience because he was such a confident speaker. You will seem much more personable if you make LOADS of eye contact, smile every once in a while, and speak confidently. Just walk in that room thinking that you are the best of the best and the people in the room are just glad to be graced with your presence :)
3.) Practice, practice, practice! If you have any doubts about your speech, you WILL get nervous. Try drinking hot tea, taking deep breaths. There are good and bad forms of stress, and getting the butterflies before a speech is a good form of stress so it's pretty much inevitable. If you do get nervous, grab the edge of your podium (if you have one) so that people don't see your hands shaking.
Good luck!
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