Getting A Head Start To The Season (Pt. 1)
The temperature is warming, humidity is rising, your hands are all sticky from the melted ice cream, and your mom is still waking you up at Seven AM for your at-home-summer schooling. Summer is here! Summer is a spectacular time because it gives you a little rest from your routine. However, if you’re like me, after three weeks of sweating outside and scratching mosquito bites you’re looking for something else to do. Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Summer is the best time to kick off the speech and debate season.
This series is primarily meant to help novice speech and debaters (first or second year) and a second series will be directed towards advanced students.
Don’t Wait For Fall
The summer between my first and second season of speech and debate I had the common misunderstanding that club would have to start before I could start writing speeches and researching the debate resolution. But guess what? You don’t need a club to get started! Many people rely on clubs because getting started themselves is too difficult. Whenever I’m writing a paper for school or doing an assignment, getting started is always the hardest step. But once you start, it’s all smoother from there!
Now, there’s one thing you’ll need to understand about speech and debate: it truly is a sport where hard work is the key. However much hard work you put in is going to determine how well you do (to a certain extent, of course, there is the judging that also plays into it). There are teams who just competed because their mom made them and only used sourcebooks. Then there were the teams that worked late into the night writing briefs and practicing speeches. The work they did or didn’t put in often showed itself in the tournament results. So what’s stopping you from working hard now?
This blog post will be divided into three parts: 1. How to get a jump start in prepared speeches, 2. How to get a jump start in limited preps and Interps, and 3. How to start researching the new Team Policy Resolution!
Getting A Head Start In Prepared Speeches
Platforms
As I mentioned, the hardest thing is getting started, so grab a paper and pen and just spend thirty minutes writing down all your thoughts until you get a general idea of what you might want to write a speech on. You can even make yourself a challenge for the summer to try new things, learn more skills, pick up a hobby and record your progress over the summer. Then write a speech on it and challenge the judge to do something like you did. You could also do what I’ve seen several people do and watch a TED Talk, jot down ideas from there, or get inspiration from any motivational speaker!
Once you’ve got a general idea, you just have to start writing ideas on your paper. You need to answer questions like “What background would the judge need to know about this/What is the context of this speech?” “Why should the judge care about this?” “Why would I care about this?” “Why does the whole world need to care about this?” “How can the judge achieve this?” “How did I achieve this?” “How did others achieve this?” “What does God think about this topic?” “What would I do to take the first step in achieving what I’m challenging the judge to do?” and “What would Jesus do in this situation?” From there you have several points to choose from and can begin writing your speech! By that point you’ve already gotten started, so now you just need to take that next leap and let your hands do the talking as you spill your thoughts onto the paper/computer screen!
You don’t necessarily need your club leader to give you suggestions or get you started. You can take the first step in writing your speech and get a jump start on the season before the club even starts. After your club does start, you can start getting coaching from them right off the bat. Or, if you don’t want to wait until the beginning of the school year, you can start getting coached now by some of Rhetoric LLC’s spectacular coaches! They’re always willing to help you in any way they can.
Part 2 Coming Soon!
