Prose READING

Prose Reading is an individual speech event in which a student selects a piece of writing from a published short story, novel, or essay which has a central or unifying theme of interest. The student creates an original speech of no more than eight minutes by "cutting" the piece down to its essential and most powerful components. The speech should introduce the piece before beginning. Rather than memorize, the speaker uses a printed manuscript book as a prop for reading with added effect. The speaker focuses on delivering with vocal inflection, facial expression, and gestures to enhance their interpretation and the overall mood of their speech. See the above PDFs for the event rules as well as a sample ballot a judge uses to evaluate a round. See the tool to the right for creating an introduction.
View the below videos for performance examples.