YFCU members put their speaking skills on display

Members had the opportunity to compete in two different categories: prepared and impromptu.

In the prepared section, competitors delivered a pre-prepared speech chosen from a specified list of topics.

These included:

l Brexit - No deal is better than a bad deal

l Immigration encourages diversity

l Cyclists should pay to use the roads

l Education and farming are interlinked

l Online gaming leads to offline issues

l Education vs experience

l Succession planning in agriculture

l The visual effects of climate chance

l Should NI Assembly Members salary be suspended?

l Evolving agriculture

l Everybody should learn to play a team sport

l What happiness means to me

‘Evolving agriculture’ and ‘what happiness means to me’ proved to be popular topics.

In the impromptu competition, members were given an unseen topic and a limited amount of time to structure their speeches and deliver them to the judges.

Speeches were assessed according to platform manner, voice production and on the content and marshalling of facts. The judges were thoroughly impressed by a range of varied and entertaining speeches, thus had a difficult task due to the high standard presented.

The art of public speaking is a valuable communication skill and this competition provides members with the opportunity to showcase their public speaking and presentation skills in front of an audience and judging panel, while gaining vital experience and enhancing their talent.

The top competitors from each county will compete in the finals of the public speaking competition which will be held on Tuesday, November 6th at Magherafelt High School.