MAKING THE BEST SPEECH.

'Zeus' at Debaters Without Borders (DWB) has kindly given me the permission to post this handy guide on making the perfect speech on my blog. 

But first, some quick info about Debaters Without Borders: it's a Botswana-based organization that focuses on encouraging the country's youth to engage in a variety of issues through Debate, and goes from school to school teaching public speaking and skills in argumentation. We also organize Debate events for high schools to compete against each other for prizes and of course, bragging rights. 

Our motto is very simple: Breaking the chains that bind. We want to change the way people think and see the world from the perspective of a Debater- meaning we  want to break free from the ignorance and fallacies that prevent us from excelling as rational beings.

Now, have a go at reading these tips and try applying them to all your Debates and Speeches.MAKING THE BEST SPEECH.


TIP 1.

Be Memorable:

Sounds easy in theory. Of course, it takes discipline and imagination to pull it off. Many times, an audience may only remember a single line. For example, John F. Kennedy is best known for this declaration in his 1961 inaugural address: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what can do for your country.” Technically, the line itself uses contrast to grab attention. More important, it encapsulated the main point of Kennedy’s speech: We must sublimate ourselves and serve to achieve the greater good. So follow Kennedy’s example: Condense your theme into a 15-20 word epigram and build everything around it top-to-bottom.

There are other rhetorical devices that leave an impression. For example, Ronald Reagan referred to America as “a shining city on the hill” in speeches. The image evoked religious heritage, freedom, and promise. And listeners associated those sentiments with Reagan’s message. Conversely, speakers can defy their audience’s expectations to get notice. In the movie Say Anything, the valedictorian undercut the canned optimism of high school graduation speeches with two words: “Go back.” In doing so, she left her audience speechless…for a moment, at least.

Metaphors…Analogies…Surprise…Axioms. They all work. You just need to build up to them…and place them in the best spot (preferably near the end).



TIP 2.

Have a Structure:

Think back on a terrible speech. What caused you to lose interest? Chances are, the speaker veered off a logical path.

Audiences expect two things from a speaker: A path and a destination. They want to know where you’re going and why. So set the expectation near your opening on what you’ll be covering. As you write and revise, focus on structuring and simplifying. Remove anything that’s extraneous, contradictory, or confusing.

 Remember: If it doesn't help you get your core message across, drop it.



TIP 3.

Don’t Waste the Opening:

Too often, speakers squander the time when their audience is most receptive: The opening. Sure, speakers have people to thank. Some probably need time to get comfortable on stage. In the meantime, the audience silently suffers.

When you speak, come out swinging. Share a shocking fact or statistic. Tell a humorous anecdote related to your big idea. Open with a question – and have your audience raise their hands. Get your listeners engaged early. And keep the preliminaries short. You’re already losing audience members every minute you talk. Capitalize on the goodwill and momentum you’ll enjoy in your earliest moments on stage.



TIP 4.

Strike the Right Tone:

 Who is my audience? Why are they here? And what do they want? Those are questions you must answer before you even touch the keyboard. Writing a speech involves meeting the expectations of others, whether it’s to inform, motivate, entertain, or even challenge. To do this, you must adopt the right tone.

Look at your message. Does it fit with the spirit of the event? Will it draw out the best in people? Here’s a bit of advice: If you’re speaking in a professional setting, focus on being upbeat and uplifting. There’s less risk. Poet Maya Angelou once noted, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Even if your audience forgets everything you said, consider your speech a success if they leave with a smile and a greater sense of hope and purpose.

That’s a message in itself. And it’s one they’ll share.


TIP 5.

Humanize Yourself:

You and your message are one-and-the-same. If your audience doesn't buy into you, they’ll resist your message too. It’s that simple. No doubt, your body language and delivery will leave the biggest impression. Still, there are ways you can use words to connect.

Crack a one liner about your butterflies; everyone can relate to being nervous about public speaking. Share a story about yourself, provided it relates to (or transitions to) your points. Throw in references to your family, to reflect you’re trustworthy. And speak like you’re having a casual conversation with a friend. You’re not preaching or selling. You’re just being you.

 On stage, you can be you at your best.


TIP 6.

Repeat Yourself:

We've all been there. When someone is speaking, we’ll drift off to a Caribbean beach or the Autobahn. Or, we’ll find ourselves lost and flustered when we can’t grasp a concept. Once you've fallen behind, it’s nearly impossible to pay attention. What’s the point?

In writing a speech, repetition is the key to leaving an impression. Hammer home key words, phrases, and themes. Always be looking for places to tie back and reinforce earlier points. And repeat critical points as if they were a musical refrain.

Some audience members may get annoyed when you repeat yourself. But don’t worry how they feel today.

Concern yourself with this question: What will they remember six months from now?



TIP 7. 

Use Transitions: Sometimes, audiences won’t recognize what’s important. That’s why you use transitional phrases to signal intent. For example, take a rhetorical question like “What does this mean” – and follow it with a pause. Silence gets attention – and this tactic creates anticipation (along with awakening those who've drifted off). Similarly, a phrase like “So here’s the lesson” also captures an audience’s interest. It alerts them that something important is about to be shared. Even if they weren't paying attention before, they can tune in now and catch up.

TIP 8.

End strong and Keep it Short:

What is the worst sin of public speaking? It’s trying to do too much! Your audience’s attention will naturally wane after a few minutes. They have other places to be – and don’t want to be held hostage. And the longer you stay on stage, the more likely you are to stray and make mistakes. So make your points and sit down.

Never forget: This is their time, not yours.


***

I hope you found all of those tips useful! If you're based in Gaborone, please keep a watch out for Debaters Without Border's future activities including an upcoming debate tournament and a spelling bee. DWB also needs the help of its citizens so its activities have as much impact as possible. Please like our Facebook Page  and comment, share, like and follow what we've got to say. Also, if you would like to invest, or know anyone who would like to help sponsor us, do not hesitate to email us at flairshsenwedi@gmail.com and tawanda.mulalu@maruapula.org.

For The Love Of Reading

Another silly debate tournament essay... 


For the Love of Reading

I read because I'm lonely. Or I'm lonely because I read. Either way, I read. But I think that's it- love of reading, is love of loneliness. They're inseparable companions, maliciously and bitterly in love. Mutual in every way possible.

"Oh, but you can read a book out loud to others."

Yeah, you can. But what you experience is not what I experience. Reading a book to others is like reaching a hand to grasp to the top of an infinite bookcase, trying to get the one book you've been dying to read. Neither you, or the author will reach your audience the way that you intended. People always think what they think, or what they want or need to think. That won't change just because you use use your voice to speak rather than paper.

"Oh, but you can talk about the book to each other."

This is besides the point. To talk about reading and to read are two very different things. To talk about a book is to reflect on what has happened or will happen in whatever pages you were and will read from. Talking about reading , I think, is very much like talking about sex and actually having it. Not that I actually know the difference. What I mean is that to experience, and to reflect, are two very different things that sound the same, but never are.

"Oh but... I don't want to be lonely."

No one does. But we all are. Have you noticed how we all have our own little inner monologues going on in our heads? That inescapable voice that just has to keep saying something? The same voice that illuminates how fun it is to kiss, the same voice that ruminates how painful it is to miss... It is both a blessing and a curse being human.

The blessing is that you always have somebody to talk to: you. The curse is that the only person you ever really talk to is ultimately... yourself. No matter how carefully you listen to someone...those vibrations happen in your ear, are processed in your brain, are interpreted in your own mind... by the time you're done listening, what you got from that person is what you got from that person...and not what they were trying to give you.

This same paradox applies to reading. I read because I am lonely. Or I am lonely because I read. Either way, I read. If everything I experience is ultimately what I, and me alone, me alone in the whole wide world of billions of people, me alone, experience... then I really have only one thing left to love. Myself. And if I love myself, I love loneliness. And if I love loneliness, I love reading.

Reading is not an escape from the world, it's facing the vary nature of existing in the world head-on. The world is lonely, and so are you, sitting in your bedroom reading your book. The world is lonely, and so are you, talking to the girl you like at a party. The world is lonely, and so are you, delivering odd speeches to people who you hope might just understand.

It's all just... for the love of reading.

Elmo's View of Debate I

ELMO'S VIEW OF DEBATE I- FORM ONE TO NATIONAL TEAM ASPIRATIONS

(This is the first part of a series that you’ll be seeing on my blog very often from now on….  Should be fun right? In any case, National selections were held for Secondary Students across the country to pick the top 10 debaters. After much sweat and blood, I have decided to examine some of my great moments as a debater since my Form One Days, to the present day. I also give a basic outline of what debate is actually like for us word warriors. In the next edition I’ll tell you a detailed explanation of what Debate is and the nature of Debate, and I’ll tell you more about our upcoming tournaments as the Captain of the Botswana Schools Team.)

I've had five great moments in Debate so far since Form One.

The first was when, in the rainy downpour of the late year, I, the only Form One in the whole of the MaP Debating Society was ranked as the top debater in the whole school. I was fourteen years old, and my hair was a bit shorter. I was quite starry eyed and happy, and I had this ability to flood everyone around me with my sunshine vitriol. I had gotten this position because of one book: The Caged Virgin by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The second moment was when I had presented my 'famous' "Logging Off Twitter" speech at the Books Botswana Debate Tournament 2012. I got second place because apparently I wasn't loud enough. Me, not loud enough! In any case I'd tell you all what the speech is about, but it's very embarrassing because it has to do with a girl. And I'll spare both of us any elaboration. This was the Public Speaking Category so really anything goes, one could speak on anything from Neo-imperialism and patriotism, capitalism and communism, and even stupid adolescent affection. My nickname for that tournament as given by Jamie, the great Uhuru Public Speaker was "the man with the big words."

The third moment was when, the night before I had to go for the National Debate Championships, as a confidence exercise, I would cry out to the starry night sky (I had fed the dogs late: I AM THE GREATEST DEBATER IN BOTSWANA! This gave me so much spirit, vigour and passion that I couldn't help but smile afterwards. I use this as my maxim at every tournament to inspire me.

The fourth moment was when I got my Sesame Street inspired nickname at Radisele, and the National Debate Championships. We were doing what is called a demo debate where an example debate is done to show people how the whole thing is done in terms of structure, style and so on. The demo debate consisted of University students but they asked one of the Secondary students to volunteer. I was the only one in that hall of about 500 kids to put their hand. Well I think a few other people put their hand up after me, but still, I was first. The debate was based on a principle motion, so arguments of morality came into place. I used Sesame Street and Elmo as examples of basic morality to undermine the opposing team and to add a bit of humour. Unfortunately, Fangz attacked me in his rebuttals by saying that "We're listening to a guy who takes his debating advice from Elmo." In the end, I still got a huge round of applause and felt proud. And the name Elmo stuck, everyone knew me by it.

The fifth moment was when I got selected as Captain of Botswana Schools Debate Team for 2012/2013. The message I received which I got on Facebook sparked an investigative stance from me. It said "Congratulations Captain, sir" from another team member. Looking at the official statement I was given the position of Team Captain. I think, I'm pretty sure I was the youngest. I'm pretty sure I secured this position after Justice (during Monkgogi and I's selections, he also got selected for the team by the way) heard my speech about my most important concern for the future. I said my Physics education and gave a passionate delivery about why I love Physics, and got to use the famous line: "Ahhhh, What a fine day for Science!"

For me, these are the moments I remember the most in Debate. While I've had plenty of others, my favourite being that they told me that varsity girls like Debaters. So really, no matter how miserable at high school I end up being, I've got a pretty awesome future set up. And I wish to craft many more as I go on, Debate for me is a lifestyle to which I wish to uphold the most fundamental principle in everything I do. And no, to my creationist friends, it isn't to argue. The principle happens to actually be a question: Why?

Debate is all about the one simple question, and that's why I love it some much, because I can link it to my love of Science and Philosophy. Debate is the complex, structured application of the why's and how's of knowledge. And it leads to brilliant results. Though Debate is seen as mostly a political, social and economic vehicle, I prefer looking at it from the less popular perspective, the scientific and philosophical stances and implications. This is why I hate policy motions but love principle motions. And why I'm the only debater I know who wants to a Physicist.

Debate isn't just arguing all day as most people assume. Arguing all day can be quite exciting even, or it can be gratingly irritating. It depends of the people and the structure of your arguments. People unwilling to learn equals a gratingly irritating argument where despite all the efforts, the more intelligent being never seems to be able to educate anyone. Arguing with smart people can be exciting but will eventually end in anger and irritation without structure. Debate is where all of this comes. For one thing, the presence of more than one speaker can help maintain a debate regardless of the intelligence levels of the participants, and structure gives the opportunity for everyone to voice their opinion fairly and allows the clear and distinct thinking to shine through. Of course, oftentimes this can become excruciatingly boring. But, structure, plus willingness to learn plus a good topic will make for a very exciting game of intellectual blood sport. I say blood sport because debate is very harsh, and there will always be victims in the clashes. But the process in which this done, the sheer excitement as a result of the debate as a whole, pretty much negates all the little whiny behaviours as a result of losing... unless you have terrible, biased adjudicators.

Debates, likes stories, have a beginning, middle and an end. They start with an introductory sequence of statements and arguments that define and explain a topic thoroughly, and from there on the debate flows on, arguments and rebuttals, until the conclusive summary offered at the end. It is from this data that the judges, the adjudicators, must judge who argued best from three criteria: content, speech making quality i.e. vocal delivery, eye contact and hand gestures and finally style: the structure and the way your speech was delivered.

Different types of speakers are prominent. You will have strong speech makers, who are loud and entertaining, but don't actually say anything worth really listening too. Mr. Laverick thinks I'm this type of speaker, and therefore said I would make a good dictator because I “say a lot of things but don't really mean anything". They are content speakers, quite, and calculating, these guys focus on the task at hand. These guys are very dangerous, Monkgogi is one of them. What they do is completely destroy the opposition with a second thought, without caring, without any sign of effort or fatigue... and they sit down calmly afterwards. Then they are style speakers, who pretty much use the crowd to their advantage. I, being a crowd pleaser, find myself close to this category, but I'm actually a mix between content and delivery.

Debate can be a very emotional sport to partake in. For one thing, you can feel the weight of your voice when you speak, and thousands of little eyes dart back and forth between your face and lips, the ears focused on you. It is stressing. But if you suck. No such attention is paid to you. This feeling is worse than the stress. Tears fall in abundance at these tournaments. Feelings of inadequacy and defeat, of sheer hopelessness at the prospect of having your dreams and ideas shattered by a particularly intelligent opponent. Or even that horrible, horrible dread of not feeling good enough.

At a basic level, Debate compromises of these things, structure, speakers, emotion, great moments, stories, advice. But most importantly every debate is a learning opportunity. Once the tears are wiped, once hands shake together, once the silence of anxiety in a room is broken as the results are announced.... These, and so much more make up debate.

And as we continue all these journeys together, as we create more great moments together, perhaps this article will become slightly more complete, but for now...

All Batswana reading this support your team. Help get us sponsorship from the likes of Private Companies and beyond. But most of all believe in us so we can reach greater heights in Debate. So we feed this hunger for learning, this desperate need to think. Support us, and help us feel, that we are indeed, the Greatest Debaters!

Debate has horizons that extend everywhere and affects all of us. From the bickering that happens in the Security Council and the General Assembly in the U.N to the stuff happening in the government in our own country. This is why it’s so important that we foster this spirit, this want, this need to learn in any way we can. And Debate, is just another brilliant way for us to apply that simple question that has lead mankind to greater heights: Why?

Good luck Team Botswana.

"Ahhhh.... What a fine day for Science!"

The Fifth One

So now I sit in our school computer room after a long sweeping session.
That is how we do detention at our school, you sweep the classroom. Though it wasn't so bad cause |I met a Form 4 guy who had an interesting story to tell. He got detention because he was apparently being insolent to his teacher... After he explained his story I chuckled at the unfairness of his punishment...

Though I didn't get all the details, he was defending his friend and got in trouble for it. I understand completely what he was going through because that unfortunately happens quite often. He was then told to see the teacher after class.

I imagine the conversation went a bit like this...
"Why are you rude to me?"
"How was I rude?"
"There you go again!"
"What do you mean again?"
"This needs to stop."
"Alrlight."
"Do you think I accept insolence from my students?"
"Alright."

He then proceeded to leave but was the interrupted.

"Aren't you going to apologize?"
"For what?"
"Apologize."

His answer?

"No."

Perhaps that explains why he got detention.

I spent most of my day promoting my blog to my classmates. I even created a little sign on a piece of paper and held it up as my classmates walked by. It was embarrasing, I hope it was worth it. Then my evil friends suprised me with an evil gift when I walked into the Science room. You b@$7@*0$  know what you did and if you think I'm not getting you back you are dead wrong... Just watch this space...

In my next posts I will have a few suggestions from my friends and I will also introduce you to some new people... Tumo and Trevor...

Ya. You guys are dead. :P