Addenda

Southeastern Pennsylvania Debate League
= ADDENDA =

Contents

 * Prose Reading Ballot
 * Prose Coaching Hints
 * Poetry Reading Ballot
 * Poetry Coaching Hints
 * Oral Interp ballot (Poetry or Prose)
 * Oral Interp Rules
 * Dramtic Performance Rules
 * Dramatic Performance Ballot
 * Extemporaneous Speaking Ballot
 * Extemporaneous Commentary Ballot
 * Extemporaneous Speaking and Commentary Coaching Hints
 * League Mailing List/Information sheet
 * Directions to league schools

 PROSE INTERPRETATION

Official description: A selection or selections of prose material of literary merit, which may be drawn from more than one source. Use of manuscript is required. Maximum time is 10 minutes including introduction.

What you should expect to get out of this event:

1. You will enjoy some very good literature, making it "yours" in a special way. 2. You will enjoy coming to understand and appreciate what makes it good. 3. You will enjoy sharing your story and your insights with audiences. 4. You will learn greater control of your voice and body, making both more expressive. 5. You will learn self-control and poise under pressure. 6. You will learn to become a better observer of the world around you, as you stay alert for clues that will make you a better interpreter. 7. You will come to a better understanding of yourself, as you search your own experience to help you understand and convey your chosen reading. 8. You will learn to "control a room" with your performance. 9. You will learn a lot by watching excellent interpreters.

Special features of this event in competition: Prose usually has the most entries in every tournament. That means it is very competitive, with many experienced and highly skilled speakers. What you will do to become competitive in this event:

1. Select the Prose event 2. Find a good piece of prose literature 3. Rough cut to approach time limit 4. Type onto computer disk 5. Final cut to about 7-8 minutes 6. Print-out into competition book 7. Preliminary analysis of material 8. Early rehearsals 9. Compose introduction and transitions 10. Polishing rehearsals

Between-tournament preparation: 1. Possible recutting to improve selection 2. Possible revision of introduction and transitions 3. Continuing analysis and rehearsals

Hints for finding material: Book collections of short stories are often good sources for prose readings. Find a book of short stories, look at the table of contents to locate the shortest ones (the fewest pages - the less cutting necessary, the better), then look at those stories to see if any interest you and would make a good reading. Other good sources are current magazines, like the New Yorker, that publish short prose pieces. Page through the past year's issues, find the short stories, and see if any interest you.

 POETRY INTERPRETATION Poetry Official description: A selection or selections of poetry of literary merit, which may be drawn from more than one source. Use of manuscript is required. Maximum time limit is 10 minutes including introduction.

What you should expect to get out of this event:

1. You will enjoy some very good literature, making it "yours" in a special way. 2. You will enjoy coming to understand and appreciate what makes it good. 3. You will enjoy sharing your poems and your insights with audiences. 4. You will learn greater control of your voice and body, making both more expressive. 5. You will learn self-control and poise under pressure. 6. You will learn to become a better observer of the world around you, as you stay alert for clues that will make you a better interpreter. 7. You will come to a better understanding of yourself, as you search your own experience to help you comprehend and convey your chosen poetry. 8. You will learn to "control a room" with your performance. 9. You will learn a lot by watching excellent interpreters.

Special features of this event in competition: Good Poetry Interpretation has quite a different sound from Prose. Poetry is usually compact, with much feeling and emotion in each phrase and line. It takes great care and skill to convey to a listener everything that is there. Poetry is usually a fairly large event, but not as big as Prose.

What you will do to become competitive in this event:

1. Select the Poetry event 2 Find a good poem, of right length or several shorter poems on one theme 3 Rough cut to approach time limit 4. Type onto computer disk 5. Final cut to about 7-8 minutes 6. Print-out into competition book 7. Preliminary analysis of material 8 Early rehearsals 9. Compose introduction and transitions 10 Polishing rehearsals

Between-tournament preparation:

1. Possible recutting to improve selection or timing 2. Possible revision of introduction and transitions 3. Continuing analysis and rehearsals

Hints for finding material: Page through poetry anthologies, and see what interests you. If you find a key poem you want to do, but need more to fill out your program, you can find other poems by the same author by using library indexes and catalogs. Or if you want to build your program around a theme, use the Granger's Index to Poetry (in library reserve section) which lists poems by topic. It takes a little work to track down the poems that are indexed there, so plan to spend several hours in the library, or even to order books of poetry through interlibrary loan. Putting together a good poetry program can be interesting, fun, and satisfying.

 Extemporaneous/Commentary Speaking

To clarify this event: A half-hour before you are scheduled to speak, you are given a slip of paper on which you will find three topics from current events. You have 25 minutes to select one of the topics, and prepare a seven-minute speech on it. Your half-hour preparation time must be carefully used; in it you must formulate a thesis and outline for your speech, support your points with research drawn from your previously-prepared files, and spend a few minutes rehearsing. Notes are permitted - 50 words to one index card. Preparation time increases to 30 minutes for the league semifinal and final tournaments. What you should expect to get out of this event:

1.You will learn a great deal about current events, local, national, and international. 2.You will learn a variety of methods for structuring ideas for clear presentations. 3.You will learn greater control of your voice and body, making both more expressive. 4.You will learn to think systematically and efficiently under time pressure. 5.You will learn self-control and poise under pressure. 6.You will learn to "read" audiences, adjusting your speech to audience reactions 7.You will learn to develop an extensive filing system. 8.You will develop your memory, stocking it with stories, facts, and viewpoints.

What you will do to become competitive in this event: Initial preparation: 1. Learn about speech structure (See below) 2. Develop a filing system to store material for quick retrieval 3. Try out a topic or two, slowly 4. Practice: do it over and over, every day (You will get better!!!) 5. Keep reading in current events, copying and filing useful material on every possible topic

Speech Structure A good extemporaneous speech has the same outline as a five paragraph essay. I. Intro A. Interesting story, or statistic about your issue B. Why the issue is important C. State the question (some coaches prefer you to answer it here too) D. Tell the audience your ideas in the order you are to give them (Transition) II. First idea i.e. Past i.e. Yes III. Second idea i.e. Present i.e. No IV. Third idea i.e. Future i.e. Decision V. Conclusion A. Restate the question B. Summarize speech C. Go back to the intro for the last few lines of your speech HINTS: If you are doing your speech correctly - it will sound repetitive to you but organized to your audience. Make sure to give facts and figures from magazines or other news sources. “Cite” or mention those sources in your speech as you are telling important information. Your analysis of different topics will get better as you mature as a speaker. In the beginning, always try to come up with three idea.