Othello

2025 — Othello, WA/US

• Invite
• Entries
• Live Updates
• Register

Novice Original Oratory

Event Description:

1. Purpose: The general purpose of the speech is to persuade. Any other purpose such as to inform or entertain shall be secondary.

   Subject: Any appropriate subject may be used, but the orator must be truthful. Any non-factual reference, especially a personal one, must be so identified.

   Since these orations have been written by the contestants delivering them, 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/she should be expected to discuss the chosen topic intelligently, with a degree of originality, and with some profit to his/her audience.

   Although many orations deal with a current problem and propose a solution, one should always remember that this is NOT the only acceptable form of oratory. The oration may simply alert the audience to a danger, strengthen its devotion to an accepted cause, or eulogize a person.

   Give the orator free choice subject and judge him/her solely on how that subject is developed and presented. 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 should be noted especially, as they enhance the effectiveness of an oration if used properly. Language use should be more than correct; it should reveal a discriminating choice of words and altogether fine literary qualities. It should be especially 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. 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 delivery, free to choose or develop whatever style will maximize the effectiveness of his/her oration.

   The judge should make every effort remain impartial about the topic, focusing on the construction and delivery of the speech, not on whether they agree with the speaker.

   1. The presentation must be memorized. A speaker who is using notes may not be ranked above a speaker who is memorized. No visual aids are permitted.

   2. The speech must be the original work of the speaker. No more than 150 words of quoted and/or paraphrased material may be included in the oration, and must be so designated in the manuscript. This speech may not have been used in forensic competition by the student prior to the current competitive season.

   3. A copy of the oration must be available from the student upon the judge's request.

   4. Time limit: Maximum of ten (10) minutes, with a 30 second grace period. If the speaker goes over time, a judge may not award that contestant first place in the round. Judges who choose to time are to use accurate (stopwatch function) timing devices. No minimum time limit.