Oratorical Contest Rules 2005

(Please note that the New York State Right to Life Committee Oratorical Contest abides by the rules listed below from the The Jane B. Thompson Oratory Contest as sponsored by National Right to Life.)

1. High School juniors and seniors, in that grade February 1 of the year of the national competition, are eligible to compete.  In the case of advanced students or home schooling, the school must recognize the student as a junior or senior (a letter from the school is suggested) or the year the student will enter college will be used to determine eligibility

2. Students who have competed in their junior year may compete the following year as seniors (with an entirely new speech) except if the student has won first place in the national contest.  Second place winners may compete again

3. Contestants are to research, write and present an original pro-life speech on abortion, infanticide, euthanasia or stem cell research.

4. The speech is to be 5-7 minutes in length.  A contestant will be disqualified if the speech is timed to be under 4 minutes or over 8 minutes in length.  Judges are instructed to use their judgement regarding over or under limit speeches.  It is at the judges' discretion whether the time will be reflected in the contestant's score.

5. The speech is an oration.  Appropriate gestures are allowed.  Props are not allowed.

6. Speech content may not be significantly changed as a contest advances.  Fine-tuning for minor corrections or to adjust time is allowed and encouraged.  A written copy of the contestant's speech must be forwarded to the next level of competition to insure that no major changes have been made.

7. The contestant should use up-to-date factual information.

8. The style or speech type should be appropriate to the message of the speech.  Any type the student deems appropriate is acceptable (except a dramatic presentation).  A dramatic presentation is considered anything read or performed that has been previously written; a short story, a poem, etc.  Although quotes to support a position or statement are appropriate, but they may not dominate the speech, and should be appropriately cited.  Dramatic is also defined, for the purposes of this contest, to include acting as a thing or another person, such as acting out the life of an unborn baby.  This rule is not to be interpreted to rule out the use of emotion.  The judges' background and qualifications differ, although all are pro-life.  Therefore, the speech should appeal to a broad audience.

9. No copyrighted speeches shall be used in the contest.

10. The contest may be videotaped.  The videotape will remain the property of National Right to Life.

11. The use of microphones will not be allowed.  The only case in which an exception may be made is when it is determined by the Contest Director that the room used for the contest deems the use of a microphone.

12. The oratory contest will have three (3) judges, one (1) timekeeper and at least two (2) individuals to tally scores.  The contest will begin with at least one preliminary round, depending on the number of participants.  For the preliminary round, contestants will be divided into groups of 5 - 7 to compete.  The two (2) contestants from each group with the highest scores will proceed to the next level until there are six (6) contestants participating in the final round.

13. The order in which the contestants speak will be determined before the contest by lot.  In the following rounds, speaking order will be determined by scores in the previous round.

14. Each judge will receive a ballot for each contestant.  The ballots will be pre-marked with the contestant's name and state.

15. The timekeeper will provide the judges with the time of the speech.  The judges will mark the time on the ballot.  The contest director will be informed by the timekeeper of any under or over length speeches.

16. Each judge will sign their name on each ballot upon completion of scoring and writing pertinent comments.

17. The judges score contestants in four areas; introduction, content, presentation and conclusion.  Contestants are given a score of 1-10, with 10 being the best, in each area.  The scores are then added together for a perfect score of 40.  The total scores from all three judges are added together to achieve a grand total out of 120.

18. The contest director's decision concerning the winner will be final.

19. The judge's decision during the contest will be final.

20. All efforts will be toward accuracy.  In the even of a mistake, every effort will be made to correct it.

21. Ties will be handled by the contest director.

22. These rules apply only to the National Right to Life Oratory Contest.  No other rules from any national, state or local speech group apply.  Only the rules here apply to this contest.

23. The decision of the contest director concerning the application of these rules will be final.

Additional Contest Rules