30.3: Tribute Speech- Assignment

Tribute Speech Assignment

First graded speech: Social Justice activist

For this speech assignment you will identify a social justice activist who interests you. According to the Oxford reference website, social justice is defined as, “The objective of creating a fair and equal society in which each individual matters, their rights are recognized and protected, and decisions are made in ways that are fair and honest.”

Some broad categories of social justice include reducing economic inequality and injustices relating to race, gender, and environment. In Chicago we can look at the criminal justice system, housing or redlining, pollution in poorer communities, the impact of gentrification, food deserts, gun violence and many more issues. From your own experience, you may have experienced social injustice. This may be the starting place for a speech that matters to you and will inspire and educate your audience. A Tribute speech does not persuade, it inspires the audience about the chosen person.

 

Speech Requirements:

• The speech will be 5-7 minutes

• The speech will have a clear introduction, body and conclusion. 

• The body will have three main points. 

• The speech will include two sources, which will be cited out loud during the speech and clearly identified in the body of the outline and in the corresponding works cited page.

• You do not need to give every little detail of the person you choose; instead provide major talking-points using a topical or chronological organizational pattern.  

• You must narrow your focus so you can adequately inform your audience in the given time frame. 

• If you go under or over the time requirements, it will impact your grade. 

• The main points are completely up to you. I have provided two examples but you may write the speech in anyway that makes sense for your person and your interest.

 

General purpose: To inspire

Specific Purpose: To inspire the audience about Malala

Central Idea/Thesis: Malala Yousafzai is a courageous woman, who became an advocate for education for all at a young age, survived persecution at the hands of the Taliban and continues to pursue educational rights for all as a young adult.

1. Advocate for education

2. Survived persecution at the hands of the Taliban

3. Continues to pursue educational rights for all.

 

General Purpose: To inspire

Specific Purpose: To inspire the audience about the story of Roberto Clemente

Central idea/thesis: While you may know Roberto Clemente as a remarkable baseball player, he is also remembered for his charitable acts and his legacy as a role-model for other Latin Americans. 

1. Baseball career

2. Charitable acts

3. Legacy as a role-model

 

Use of Artificial Intelligence in creating this speech. AI continues to evolve and is a tool that can be used in some aspects of your speech creation. While you should not use AI to “create” sources or personal examples for your use, you can use it to help you identify topics, main points and help you with phrasing of some sentences. You do need to cite your use of AI in your speech.  Each chat prompt is unique so you cannot cite it in traditional ways. The APA has developed some guidelines on how to cite this. You can find that information here. Your outline will need to include a very specific discussion of how you used AI to create the speech and during the speech, you will need to cite your use of AI out loud. This does NOT count as one of your two required sources. Any outline and speech that is found to be 50% or more created by Chat GPT will be returned for a rewrite. It is a TOOL, not the whole speech. 

 

AI is a tool but the speech has a personal component that AI can not truthfully supply. If you are inspired by the person you have chosen (and hopefully you are), then that story of how and why you are inspired should be in your own words with your own ideas, memories and/or experiences.. The computer is not a substitute for your unique soul and voice. If you have an interest in this person, that needs to come directly from you. During the introduction, you will begin with an attention-getter but you will supply your reason for sharing this topic as part of your credibility statement. That should be written entirely by you. Anything requiring sources or personal experience should be wholly crafted by you.

 

Tip for using AI: While you can use it, you need to make sure your own abilities are represented in the writing.  If you use AI in creating your speech, go through and identify words that you do not know. Look them up and make sure you know how to pronounce the words. Most online dictionaries have a tool to help with pronunciation. If the word is not easy for you to say, use an online thesaurus to identify a synonym that is more to your liking. Inability to correctly pronounce a word will negatively impact your credibility. Public speaking is different from writing and sometimes Chat GPT creates complicated sentences which are not appropriate for a listening audience. Make sure that your audience will be able to follow your words easily. So while you may use SOME part of a sentence, you will likely not use the whole sentence because it would not be appropriate for a spoken speech. 

 

 

Social justice. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 15 May. 2024, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100515279.