The American Legion Oratorical Scholarship
Program
- A Constitutional Public Speaking Contest
Eligibility
To participate in the Oratorical Contest of The American Legion, the prospective
contestant must meet the following criteria:
1) a citizen, or lawful permanent resident, of the United States.
2) Under the age of 20 years on the date of the National Contest
3) Enrolled in an accredited school (public, parochial, military, private,
or state accredited home school) with a curriculum that is considered to
be of high school level (grades 9 - 12) at the time of participation in every
level (local through national) of the contest.
4) Legal residence and/or school attended must be in South Dakota.
5) Can not have been a prior finalist at the national contest.
The Contest
Each participant will prepare an Oration (speech) of 8 to 10 minutes in
length, and will also need to present a second speech of 3 to 5 minutes on
one of the Assigned Topics that will be randomly chosen and then given to
the contestant approximately 5 minutes prior to their presentation.
All speeches will be given in the English language and will be presented without
the aid of a microphone, notes, podium, or any props. Contestants
will not be allowed to hear or see each others presentations during the contest,
and will be in a separate room until it is their turn to speak.
Further details of each speech are provided below.
The Oration
The Oration will be the first speech presented by each contestant, and
must be on some aspect of the Constitution of the United States with
emphasis on the duties and obligations of a citizen to our government. Any
portion of the Constitution can be used for the prepared oration, other
then those that are part of the assigned topics for the current year
This speech will be prepared ahead of time by the contestant, and a typed
copy of it, with the contestants name on the cover sheet, must be presented
to the judges prior to the start of the contest. The same prepared
oration will be used at each level of the contest, but the contestant can
do minor revisions at the early levels.
Quotations used must be indicated, and if they are longer then 10 words,
the author's name must be cited in both the manuscript and the oration.
The contestant will be allowed to maintain a copy of the oration's manuscript
up until the time they are called to the stage for their presentation, but
will have to recite the oration without any external memory aids.
A designated judge will keep track of time, and will indicate when the
speech has reached 8 minutes, 9 minutes, and 10 minutes by holding up a
card with each number on it as the speech reaches that time. If the
speech runs long, the 10 minute card will be lowered and no further indicator
will be given.
Assigned Topics
One of four topics (all of which will be provided to the participants in
advance) will be drawn at random at the start of each contest. The topic
will be kept secret from all contestants until approximately 5 minutes before
it is their turn to present on it. During that time, no notes or reference
material will be provided, only the card with the topic on it. After
their 5 minutes is up, they will have to turn the card back in, and then
present a 3 to 5 minute discourse on the topic. Similar to the prepared
oration, a timer will indicate when the 3 minute mark has been reached, and
will also show the 4 and 5 minute cards.
For
more on the Oritorical Contest, please see The American Legion's national
website on this topic