Advocacy Speech Assignment

ASSIGNMENT:

Deliver a speech on behalf of a campaign of your creation; you may get inspiration on issues to address from other advocacy campaigns already in existence but the actual campaign, including key messages, unique stance and call to action must be uniquely yours. Your goal as a speaker is to persuade the audience that what you are saying is important, and to take action on behalf of the issue. Please feel free to use any effective presentation aides. *Again, if you choose to use video created by someone else, it must be less than 30 seconds in length if it has voice over, or you can let it run in the background while you talk. (Basically, you may not let a video speak for you for more than 30 seconds).

You must provide information and background about the topic, thoughtful opinions from a variety of perspectives, and rationale for why you take a certain stance on the topic. A good speech will include a brief history of the topic, an explanation of why the topic is relevant (and to whom the topic is relevant), a variety of opinions or takes on the topic (potential differences from multiple perspectives), a brief reasoning for why other approaches to the topic may not be valid, a concise and informative reasoning for why the speaker takes a certain stance on the topic, the resulting call to action stemming from the speaker's stance and concluding remarks which sum up the entire speech. 

*You may choose to work in groups of up to three people, but your speech length must equal the number of participants x 8-10 minutes.*

GUIDELINES: 8-10 minutes per Participant

Pay close attention to the following when preparing your speech:

• Introduction:  attention-gaining material, thesis statement, preview.
• Thesis Statement:  Clear, specific, directly related to your main points, includes call to action.
• Information: Background, History (remember that "history" is also culturally biased, so make an effort to be inclusive), multiple perspectives surrounding the issue
• Opinion/Point you are advocating: provide rational, back up ideas
• Call to Action: How can your audience invest in this issue in a meaningful way?
• Conclusion:  signal end of speech, summarize main points, decisive close.
• Outline:  Typed, proofread, passed in the Monday prior to speech, includes the correct citation of at least three (3) sources.