When you do prose for individual speech events, there are several things that you need to do. First you need to look for a piece that you find interesting. You can use material from recent authors, or authors from the past. Once you find a piece, you must cut it down to something that will get as close to six minutes as possible, without going over the six minute mark. To do so, you can cut out parts of the piece that won’t change the overall story.

Once you have finally gotten the piece to the required time limit, you need to make a paragraph long summary to use before you start reading off the material you’ve chosen. Once you have made this summary, you need to check if you are still within the time limit. If you are, then you are fine. If you aren’t, you need to cut a few more things out to get it back within the limit. Once you have the piece within that time limit, you need to practice it several times.

After practicing the piece many times, you must get ready to perform at competition. When performing at competition, you need to dress up. It doesn’t have to be anything to fancy, a shirt and tie will do if you’re a guy. If you’re a girl, either a dress, or a blouse and slacks will work out fine. You must then get to the place where the competition is being held, and usually you’ll ride on a bus with the rest of the students from your school that are competing.

Once you are finally at the competition, you’ll find out when you are to perform. Once you know when you need to perform, you wait until that time. Once it’s your turn, you will stand in the front of the room where you will perform. The  room will be filled with spectators, and there will also be a judge and a timer. The judge will score your performance based on several things, while the timer times your performance. The timer has flip cards that tell you how much time you have left, starting at six minutes, and working its way down by one minute intervals, and then at the thirty second mark.

When preforming, you must have a clear, strong voice. You must stand straight, and look around the room. If you only look at your papers with the piece written or typed on them, you will lose points. You must also be able to pronounce your words clearly. When you have finally finished your performance, you bow your head. The judge will give complements and constructive criticism when you are done, and when they have finished, you can leave the room.

Results are posted in a gathering spot. You will check this spot often after your performance, hoping to see what your score was. Once all of the scores for the people who have performed from your school have been posted, you and your friends will leave, and go back home.

1. If you play sports, you will almost never be able to eat when the cafe is open.

2. Work studies can make you miss lunch.

3. Three hour labs are fun… depending on which professor you have.

4. Futons are a gift from God.

5. If you have Netflix, you will spend more time on it than actually doing your homework.

6. E-mails are amazing–especially when you need help with an assignment.

7. Procrastination is very real, and happens all the time.

8. Sports aren’t an activity, they’re a lifestyle.

9. Your roommate will either become your best friend, or your worst enemy.

10. R.A.’s are great people, as long as you don’t piss them off.

I wasn’t able to make the Drew MaGary event on Wednesday, but I looked up a video of a speech he gave in Dallas, TX. From what I’ve heard about the event here, it was pretty much the same speech. He talks about his past, and how it kind of ties into the book. He uses examples of how he acted, and tied it into how young adults like us see the world. He told how he wrote the book to try and change the way that people saw things the way they did, because nobody wanted to blame themselves, and instead, blame everybody else. I think that MaGary did a wonderful job of presenting, even if he didn’t talk about the book that much.