Instructions

1. Select a topic which allows you to inform your audience of a significant aspect of a culture that is different than your own. Possible topics include social customs, family traditions, holidays, clothing, food, religious traditions, and sporting activities.
2. Research your topic. Be imaginative in choosing content for your speech. It is not enough to simply summarize basic information from the Internet about a country or culture. Narrow the topic by selecting one specific aspect on which to focus your ideas.
3. Organize the main points of your speech using an informative pattern of organization. Your speech should give your audience a deeper understanding of your topic, but should not be designed to affect your audience’s beliefs, attitudes, or behavior.
4. Provide adequate support for each main point by citing at least three credible sources in the speech. Incorporate examples, narratives, testimonial evidence, statistics, analogies, explanations, and/or definitions where appropriate. Sources must be cited orally in the speech. If you have had direct contact with a different culture, you should supplement your research with your personal experience.
5. Create an introduction and conclusion.
6. Once you have thought through each part of the speech (introduction, body, & conclusion), create a rough draft outline of the speech.
7. Create speaking notes to use during your delivery. Use key words and phrases rather than complete sentences. Your notes should serve only as a memory aid and should not be a word-for-word manuscript of your speech.