As part of your assessment for VCE English, you are required to ‘ develop and present a point of view text.’ In other words, you need to complete an oral presentation. This is quite unlike the other assessments you get, as you are required to plan, write, and present a speech.
Most students find this assignment daunting, but it can also be very enjoyable as you get to explore a current issue (more on this later). This article will give you a run down on what to expect from this assessment, and tips and tricks to help you ace it!
The most important part of this assessment is choosing a suitable topic. VCAA stipulates that the issue must have appeared in the media before September 1 st of the previous year. In some cases, your teachers may give you a short list of topics to choose from, or if you’re lucky, you will be given completely free reign.
Either way, you need to choose a topic that you have a lot to write about. After all, you do need to talk for around five minutes!
Start by making a list of some significant events that appeared in the media in the last year. You can use news articles to help with this! Using these events, see if you can brainstorm the issues that occurred. Of course, there are multiple issues that can stem from a single event. You can use these to come up with some topics, for example:
Event
Issue
Topic
Businesses were struggling to stay afloat
Was the economic impact of the COVID lockdowns worth it to suppress the disease?
Firefighters are volunteers but are required to work a huge number of hours in bad bushfire seasons.
Should the volunteer firefighters be paid for their time?
Lots of teachers have been quitting their jobs within the first five years of work.
Not enough teachers to maintain schools.
Should the minimum wage for teaching be increased?
To help decide your final topic, brainstorm some arguments for each one. You should choose the topic that has the strongest arguments, and the one you will have the most fun writing.
It’s a given that the most important part of this assessment is writing the actual speech. Before you begin writing, make sure that you have done a lot of research into the topic, have plenty of evidence, quotes, and a rough plan. Here are some other tips:
Your listener needs to be able to follow along with your speech – therefore, you need to have a clear structure. They should know when you are starting a new argument or reading out your conclusion.
The best way to introduce your arguments is by signposting. You should have about 2-4 of them. This is when you very clearly state what your argument is before you begin discussing it (think topic sentences).
Your speech should also have a clear introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should also contain your contention, so your listener knows what your perspective is. Make your contention specific and unique!
The very first sentence that you read out sets the mood for the rest of your speech. Therefore, you should start with an engaging hook to keep your listener’s interest. Some good ways to start are a speech are using analogies, anecdotes, or a shocking fact or statistic.
Taking on a persona is a unique way to present an oral presentation. This is where you put yourself into someone else’s shoes and write in their perspective. Usually this will be someone that is more heavily involved in the issue than you are.
Perhaps you are writing about the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence software such as ChatGPT. You could write as a University Professor who is concerned about plagiarism or as a student finding it useful for studying.
You don’t have to use a persona – you can do just as well without one. It also fits certain topics better than others. If you choose to use one, make sure you do lots of research to understand the character, and make it clear to your audience who you are.
Depending on your topic and persona, there may be a certain register than suits your speech. Register refers to the level of formality and really depends on the context.
If you are presenting a speech in front of work colleagues, you may require a formal register. However, if you are presenting a speech in front of primary school children, an informal register will be best to keep their attention. Of course, you will be presenting your speech in front of your classmates/teachers. However, depending on the persona you adopt, you can change your register to suit.
When writing a speech, you need to connect with your audience and really try and show them that the issue impacts them in some way or another. Therefore, try and use inclusive language where possible!
The job isn’t over once you have written your speech – you then must present it! Here are some tips to help you with this part.
It is likely that your teachers will set a time limit for your presentation. Usually it is around 5-6 minutes, which is equivalent to around 750 words. Before the day of your presentation, it is important that you practise the speech in timed conditions.
This will tell you if you need to cut and change parts of the speech and prevent you from getting penalised.
Your voice is a very powerful tool – by changing the tone of your voice, you can add emphasis and draw attention to specific parts of your speech. No one wants to hear you speak in the same voice for five minutes straight – this shows a lack of enthusiasm and passion towards the issue. Change your tone to match what you are saying – does a certain part of your speech make you angry, frustrated or even sad? Show this through your voice! You can also change the pace that you are talking at and change up your volume.
A cue card is a small piece of paper that has words written on them, that tells you what you need to say. This is much preferred to reading off a sheet of paper! Although they are very useful, you shouldn’t rely on them – your marker doesn’t want to see you staring at them for the entire duration of your speech. Therefore, make sure you practise your speech enough times so your cue cards become your safety net in case you forget something – not what you rely on completely.
Giving eye contact is a sign of confidence and connects you to your viewer. Make sure you regularly look up from your cue cards and don’t take your eyes away from your audience for too long.
Just like varying your tone, physical actions can help enhance your presentation too. Don’t stay rooted to a single spot during your presentation, feel free to walk around a bit and use hand gestures. Don’t overdo it though!
Hopefully you found this article helpful and are now feeling more confident about completing your oral presentation. Just make sure you choose a topic that you are passionate about and practise your presentation as much as possible – you can certainly ace this assessment!
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