3 - the speech

• click here for the evaluation of Quirky #2

4 - sources

What constitutes as a separate source?

• Finding the same article on two different sources will NOT count. What do I mean? If the story comes from the AP or Reuters, they might be worded exactly the same way because it’s a pool story—that is not a different source then.

• Finding two different articles on the same site IS OKAY. Be sure though, the articles are different—meaning, it is not worded exactly the same way—it’s probably a follow-up article, etc. That will count as a separate source.

 Combining topics

• do not pick a sporting event unless something newsworthy happened at it

• Look for a common thread in two stories. Examples:

• example: you find a story about an elephant escaping the zoo and another story about a different animal having issues in the zoo, that will work; or, for the second article, you find one about elephants, but it has nothing to do with the zoo, that'll work too

• more examples: two different incidents of elderly people stepping on the accelerator instead of the breaks; two different stories of kidnappings from parks; two different stories about clowns; two different stories about animal cruelty, etc.

• if doing it that way, you then make the connections in the body of your speech between the separate events

5 - attention getter tips

• • You attention getters should cover the common theme in your articles, and not refer directly to one (because your speech is about two different events)

  • consider the common thread in your articles -- that is how you create an attention getter

  • example:

    • • article 1: kindergarten teacher bites her student

      • article 2: a mummy is found in the janitor's closet behind a hidden wall

      • attention getter should refer to weird stories about schools (it should not be about biting or mummies), and you'd need to follow the rule of 3