Exciting news! The Fillmore Central speech season will be starting on February 14th, 2023. Speech is a great way to expand your public speaking skills, and maybe even get over your fears of speaking in front of people. You can gain opportunities to meet so many new people as well. There are thirteen categories you can choose from if you do decide to join the team. Those categories include:

Creative expression– the performance of material written by the contestant. The mood of the piece you write can be anything you want. There are also no restrictions on what you write about. 

Discussion- Discussion, which is often lovingly called disco, is simultaneously a lot like debate and nothing like debate. Contestants are assigned a group and given a topic, and like the formal name suggests, they discuss said topic with the goal of reaching a consensus. 

Drama- this category uses any published selection of dramatic literature that is already published. The mood of the piece you choose must be essentially serious. Drama is a very dark and saddening category, but is still fun to do and watch. 

Duo–Grad a buddy and a script, because it’s time for the only speech category with multiple contestants! In duo, two teammates act out a published piece, whether that piece be a comedy, poetry, or drama. But be careful–the pair is not allowed to touch or even look at each other. 

Extemporaneous reading- Extemp reading is a great way to learn about how to introduce and read excerpts from prose or poetry for the purpose of appreciation and enjoyment. You will get a book to read from for both prose and poetry. When you get to a competition you will be able to draw to see which poem(s) or chapter(s) you will read. You then will have 30 minutes to write intros and prepare.

Extemporaneous speaking–  Extemporaneous speaking is one of the more challenging categories in speech. Contestants are given a prompt regarding either international or domestic affairs, and they must prepare a factual, persuasive speech in 30 minutes. Then, they must perform such speech in 7 minutes or less using only one side of a 3 by 5 inch notecard. 

Great speeches- If you’re into history and historical speeches this is definitely the category for you. In this category you are able to analyze historical speeches or speeches from any famous speaker. You can analyze up to three speeches that have the same author, theme, or another element of similarity.

Humorous- This category is for the funny and the funny looking! As the name suggests, humorous contestants perform a comedic published piece of poetry or prose. 

Info- The purpose of informative speaking is to present information that the audience may or may not possess and that you believe is important for the audience to hear. You are able to have visuals that are glued onto boards and presented as you’re speaking. 

Original oratory–Arguably the best category in speech (this is a pun, as you will soon see), original oratory is a persuasive speech written by the contestant. The goal is to offer insight and guidance on a current issue using research and your own original thoughts. 

Poetry- poetry is exactly what it sounds like: poetry. You can select poetry from any poet you strike as interesting, and it can come from a book or from online. You also have the option to select multiple selections of published poetry. The mood of the poetry you choose must be essentially serious.   

Prose– The cousin of poetry, prose is essentially any serious work that doesn’t quite fit into the other categories. Typically, this looks like short stories and not-so-short stories that have been cut to fit within an 8-10 minute time frame.

Storytelling- the point of storytelling is to familiarize yourself with multiple stories, and retell them in your own way with your own words. This is another draw category where you pick a story and then will have 30 minutes to prepare. 

If you would like to learn more about the different speech categories, head on over to MSHSL!

Here is the link to the google classroom: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTkxNDAyOTYyNjMz?cjc=ivbtfuq