Public Speaking Senior Project Guide

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Overview

Georgia 4-H Project Achievement empowers young people with skills for a lifetime. Through a competitive process, students explore their interests, unleash their creativity, share their work, and celebrate their achievements! This guide provides 9th—12th graders with examples for getting started with their project exploration.

Overview of Project Achievement Process

1) Choose project
2) Develop skills in leadership and service
3) Prepare portfolio for work completed from January 1 – December 31
4) Prepare presentation
5) Practice
6) Compete
7) Reflect

Description of Public Speaking Project

4-H’ers may explore the process and act of speaking to a group in a
structured and planned manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain
an audience. Through this project 4-H’ers may:

• Determine appropriate styles of speaking for various audiences and purposes
• Organize material for a speech in a careful and deliberate manner
• Develop a pleasing voice and appearance appropriate for the audience and topic
• Speak convincingly in public
• Analyze a speaker and speech for effectiveness and appropriateness
• Explore careers in the area of public speaking

Examples of Project Development Experiences

• Develop informative, persuasive, and entertaining speeches and presentations incorporating information from fact-based research and effective quotations from inspirational and/or professional people as needed for the purpose of the speech
• Research famous speeches and the impact of those speeches in history, government, business/ industry, religion, and society
• Analyze speeches and presentations for introductions/hooks, key points, and summaries
• Observe speeches and presentations of professional public speakers, such as news anchors, radio announcers, government leaders, and inspirational figures

Project Sharing and Helping Examples

• Organize a public speaking project club to teach younger members how to develop and present an oral speech or presentation for different purposes, including informative, persuasive, or entertainment
• Develop and present an informative speech to local civic groups
• Speak at a fundraising event with the goal of persuading others to contribute financially to a worthy cause (i.e., 4-H programming)
• Evaluate and critique speeches/presentations of younger 4-H’ers in preparation for Project Achievement; provide constructive criticism to encourage improvement
• Present speeches or presentations for classes at school
• Compete at a literary event based on speech, presentation, dialogue, or monologue, coach others on the team
• Organize a youth-led program or assembly at your school, and teach others the best practices of public speaking
• Organize and coordinate an extemporaneous speaking activity at a club meeting; constructively discuss ways each speaker could improve

Special Considerations

• Practice internet safety when communicating with new people online
• Be respectful of other cultures
• Live animals and weapons are not permitted
• The Public Speaking project utilizes a separate score card comprised of general appearance, projection, voice control, pronunciation and enunciation, language effectiveness, organization of contents, overall quality, and length of presentation.

Recommended Resources

• Project Achievement – Georgia 4-H
• Usnpl – Where Stories Unfold
• Advertising & Public Relations Degree | Grady
• Speakers League: Public Speaking, Speech and Debate Club, Leadership & More!
• Welcome! | Department of Communication Studies

At Competition

Public Speaking projects have access to a podium to deliver their speech. The time limit for these speeches is 10 minutes. Computers, projectors, screens, and other technological devices are not permitted in this project.

Prepared by: Mandy Marable, Keri Hobbs, Elyse Daniel
Reviewed by: Natalie Bock, Jason Estep