Delegation Resource Manual: Month by Month Implementation Guide
Page 17
YMCA PA Youth & Government Program
Selling Your Bill
Public Speaking Guidelines
Public speaking is an important skill for a delegate since there are many demands on them to share their ideas and
persuade others of their views. Delegates also need strong public speaking skills when presenting their bill. Your
goal during your presentation to your delegation is to inform and defend the merits of your bill and to persuade them to
support it with their vote. Use the public speaking guidelines below to help you prepare for your oral presentation.
~ Research your bill as exhaustively as possible
~ Know your side of the issue as well as opposing positions
~ Organize your thoughts into a problem, solution and benefits
~ Be persuasive by appealing to the needs of your audience
~ Include visual aides such as charts and graphs to show projections for the future
How to improve the content of your presentation
~ Read it aloud to yourself and ask the following questions
o
Does it make sense?
o
Is it persuasive?
o
Is your message clear?
~ Read the speech given by former Virginia Senator Chuck Robb and answer the
following questions.
o
How does he begin the speech and why is his approach effective?
o
What type of persuasive language does he use in his speech?
o
Can you apply either of the observations made above to your
speech?
Senate Chambers
March 28, 2000
…Mr. President, when I came home from Vietnam a little over thirty years ago, I came home to
a nation divided. I was assigned by the U.S. Marine Corps to head up a major officer recruiting
program on college campuses all across America. It was 1969 and anti-war fever was consuming the
nation. As you can imagine, my Marine uniform on a college campus became a lightning rod for
protests and protesters. In this assignment, Mr. President, incoming bullets, rockets and artillery were
replaced by insults, jeers and demonstrations…
But Mr. President, I rise today to defend the rights of those individuals 30 years ago to protest
me and my uniform. Freedom of speech is the foundation of our democracy--and silencing that speech
would have been against everything I had fought for in Vietnam. To paraphrase an old saying: I didn't
agree with what they said. But I had been willing to die to protect their right to say it.
Mr. President, I am repulsed by any individual who would burn the flag of my country to convey
a message of dissent. It is an act I abhor and can barely comprehend. But in the democracy that our
forefathers founded, and that generations of Americans have fought and died to preserve, I simply do
not have the right to decide how another individual expresses his or her political views. I can abhor
those political views, but I cannot imprison someone for expressing them. That's a fundamental tenet
Know
Your
Content
