St. Mary’s Academy invites you to the annual Junior Douglas Campbell Provincial Public Speaking Tournament, to be held Sunday, January 12, 2024. A complete agenda is located further down in this invitation.

Date: January 12, 2025

Location: St. Mary’s Academy (550 Wellington Crescent) 

Registration for Competitors: 12:00 - 12:15 PM 

Registration for Judges: 12:00 - 12:15 PM

Awards: 5:45 PM (approximately)

Each competitor will compete in two categories: Impromptu Speaking, and Persuasive Speaking. There will be two rounds of each. See the bottom of the invitation for descriptions of each category.

Each school may send six competitors, all of which will be placed in the open category. The top students from this event will qualify to represent their school and Manitoba at the Canadian Junior High Speech Nationals tentatively to be held in Vancouver in May. Additional spots may be requested in the registration form below.

In order to ensure your spot at this tournament, coaches must register their students before Wednesday, December 18, 2024. Please use the specific registration form at the end of this letter.

Competitors should also independently acknowledge that they understand the Code of Conduct for this tournament by Tuesday, January 7, 2025.

Schools must bring a minimum of one judge for every two competitors. If you can bring additional judges, please let us know so that we can ensure there are an adequate number of judges for the tournament. As this is a junior event, senior high students in grade 11 and 12 are eligible to judge. All judges must register prior to January 7, 2025.

Please use the specific registration form shared at the end of the letter.

Please find enclosed:

• Code of Conduct

• Guidelines for Persuasive Speaking

• Guidelines for Impromptu Speaking

• Agenda

Please email Paula Fleury at pfleury@smamb.ca or contact 204-930-1897, if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at the 2025 Junior Douglas Campbell Public Speaking Tournament.

Sincerely,

Paula Fleury, Rob McCaffrey, and Taylor Reimer 

St. Mary’s Academy Debate Teachers

REGISTRATION FORMS

School Participation Registration Form

Due December 18, 2024

https://forms.office.com/r/eU594XJCq3

Competitor Registration Form (Completed by Student After School Registration by Coach)

Due January 7, 2025 

https://forms.office.com/r/xie1qmtPwy 

Judge Registration Form

Due January 7, 2025 

https://forms.office.com/r/40RPum4ARZ 

1. CODE OF CONDUCT

As this is a provincial qualifier, please note that all speeches must be:

• Created after September 7, 2024;

• The participant’s own, original work.

If there is evidence of a speech violating one or both of the above points, the participant risks disqualification from the competition and ineligibility for participation at the National level.

2. GUIDELINES FOR PERSUASIVE SPEAKING: 5-10 MINUTE SPEECH

This speech is designed to persuade and must be on a serious topic, although this does not mean that humour might not be useful at points in the speech. A problem/solution approach must be taken, i.e. speakers must identify a problem (it need not be an earth-shattering one) and propose, or at least examine, one or more solutions to it. Speeches should be prepared beforehand (i.e. prior to arriving at the competition) and should be from five to ten minutes in length. The same speech should be used throughout the competition. Speakers may use a single note card double sided (4x6 inches recipe card size); although, memorized speeches often have a greater impact because the speaker can connect more directly and consistently with audience. Participants’ speeches are scored on the analysis of the problem, on the persuasiveness of the discussion (logic, appeal), on interest and on delivery.

*There will be 15 seconds grace time for going over time or under time. A 2-point time penalty will be applied to speeches between 15- 30 second over/under time, and a 10-point penalty for speeches exceeding 30 seconds over/under time.

3. GUIDELINES FOR IMPROMPTU SPEAKING

2 MINUTES PREP TIME, 3-5 MINUTE SPEECH

Speakers will draw three topics, which may be a word, a quotation, a phrase or anything not related to current events. They must choose one of them and then prepare within two minutes. They may write notes but may not bring anything up to speak except for the prompt paper, with no notes on it. The speech must last from three to five minutes. Speakers may speak in favour of, against, in favour of and against, or about the topic. It should be the sort of speech that would be delivered if the speaker were asked to speak on short notice to a general audience on the topic given. They may interpret it within reason, including treating it as a metaphor but must speak about the topic that they have been given. It is strictly understood that competitors will not use prepared material for this event. Wit, humour, logic, philosophy and sentiment are all equally welcome. Judges will be looking for agility of thought, substance, organizational ability and, above all, the ability of each speaker to communicate with style and originality. Points will be scored for adherence to statement of topic, organization, interest, and delivery. Specific restrictions in this category: The interpretation of the topic and the speech should correlate in a meaningful way. ‘Canned’/‘rehearsed’/’reworked’ impromptus will be penalized. Hate speech of any kind is unacceptable. No props of any kind are permitted. No notes of any kind, other than the topic paper are permitted during the speech.

4. SCHEDULE

12:00 - 12:15 PM: Judges and Debater Registration 12:15 - 1:00 PM: Judges Briefing

1:00 PM: Persuasive Round 1

1:40 - 2:00 PM: Break

2:00 PM: Persuasive Round 2

2:40 - 3:00 PM: Break

3:00 PM: Impromptu Round 1

4:00 PM: Break

4:15 PM: Impromptu Round 2

5:45 PM: Awards