Avoiding wordiness

One of the biggest challenges students have in regards to their writing is the economy of words.  Cutting out the extra words or "bloatiness" from writing is the key excellent speeches.

Work to cut out the extra words from your writing.

CLICK HERE for the exercises we went over in class.

More video clips/Openers due

Just a reminder that your Power Openers are due on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

President Bensen on the Constitution

Here is the video clip we watched in class:

Power Opener/Attention Getter

Your power openers/attention getter/introductions will be due next on Wednesday for Thesis 11.2 (Monday/Wednesday) and on Thursday for Thesis 11.1 (Tuesday/Thursday).

Elements of winning speeches we discussed in class:

Tells a story
Research
Pacing - short sentences, mixed with longer ones
Relates to audiences
Can use general religious references
Call to action
Understands audience/judges
Stories do not have to be true but must be plausible and believable

VOD examples

Remember:  Tell a story only you can tell and do it in your own voice.


Here is the link for the 2011-12 national winner print copy:

http://www.vfw.org/uploadedFiles/VFW.org/News_and_Events/2012%20VOD%20Winning%20Speech.pdf

Video of the winning speech 2011-2012

Here is a link for the audio of all the 2011-12 state winners.

http://heroes.vfw.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8007

Video of winning speech 2010-11

Video of winning speech 2009-2010

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Assessment Answers

Today we went over the answers from the grammar assessments we took in class last week.  It was pretty clear students need extra editing and punctuation practice.  We will be doing that on a weekly basis.

Come prepared to work on your Voice of Democracy projects starting the next class.