Narrative Speech

Speech 1

Personal Narrative: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

3-4 minutes

Purpose: This speech will serve multiple functions in this course. 1) This is our first speech. It should continue to build classroom cohesiveness in an effort to ease our apprehension of giving speeches. 2) Some of the best speeches are stories, but there is an art (or science) to formatting it as a clear, thought out, focused speech. Obtaining this skill is ideal for public speech. 4) Who are you? Storytelling carries values and beliefs of culture. Stories reveal personal and collective truths. We see opposing systems and institutions of power as explicit or subtle characters or backdrops. A story can carry history, fiction, and generational memories.

Topic: Tell us a story of something that you’ve experienced that has left you with a lesson or deeper understanding. This story should in some way be connected to who you are. This can include, but not limited to stories connected to: families, hometown, social circles, etc. Also consider, why it might be important to share this story and lesson with your audience.

Objective: This should be an original story with a clear organization pattern: Introduction (with attention grabber), Body, and Conclusion. Organizing and outlining your speech should help you visualize this. We tend to already tell stories in this way. This should also be how we organize speeches. Similar to how develop and write papers. The lesson should also be clear to your audience. Be creative and interesting! We’re taking the most basic and natural element of human communication —storytelling, then crafting it as a speech.