OJCL Election Guide A Comprehensive Guide To OJCL Elections | Page 9

A Short Guide to
Speech Writing
and Public
Speaking
Speech Rules (again)
1. Nom Com
a. This speech is only necessary when there are more
than two candidates for an office or you applied
State-of-Emergency (guide for that below)
b. The speech may be no longer than 1 minute
c. Voting delegates will vote to reduce candidates to
two based only off of this speech
2. GA II General Election Speech
a. This speech will be given by all candidates in front
of all delegates at convention
b. Traditionally, you have a friend introduce you, but
the introduction and speech may be no longer than
3 minutes total
A Guide to Public Speaking
Speaking in public can be a daunting experience. Meet the
Candidates can be particulary scary with the need to think
of ideas on the spot. These simple tips should help:
1. The Speeches
a. Certainly run through your speeches multiple times
before convention so that your delivery is fluid
b. Remember that you can bring paper to Nom Com
and the Speech so if you struggle to memorize
speeches, bring those, but don't just read off of it
c. If you get stage fright, look at people's foreheads.
People will think you are making eye contact, and
you'll be less nervous because foreheads are funny
2. Meet the Candidates
a. The rule is that answers must be 30 seconds or less.
b. To prep for this, have teachers and peers ask you
questions and then answer them within 30 seconds
c. Definitely know your platform very well so that you
can think of answers on the spot
d. You already know that there will probably be a
question about your experience and your ideas, so
use that when practicing your answers
e. This is actually a pretty chill event. Don't stress too
hard, and have fun with the silly question!
This page is meant to help you
figure out how to write your
speech(es).
Speech Writing Strategies
1. Divide your time
a. The introduction should be kept short. Try to keep
it at a max of 30 seconds so that you still have
plenty of time for your main speech.
b. You may want to split your speech into ideas and
experience and split the time 50-50, although this
is not always the case. Make you choice based on
what you think is more important.
c. You don't need to take the whole time. Not every
delegate listens to the whole speech, so stay
interesting, and maybe even short if you think that
would help.
2. Don't write complicated sentences. People are
listening to your speech, not reading it, so complicated
sentences are a great way to lose the audience. Keep it
simple!
A picture of previous 2nd VP Andrew Cahall struggling to
understand the art Julia Dean just asked him to categorize for his
silly question.