Public Speaking Rules & Guidelines

Only Sr. 4-H members age14 and older are eligible to compete at this time. This is an individual competition only, no teams allowed.

4-H members must prepare all speeches and a new speech must be prepared each time/year.

Judges will base their scoring on the time the speaker can hold the audience’s interest no less than 5 minutes and not to exceed 10 minutes.

Reciting a story, poem or quotes does not qualify as a public speech. However parts may be used if written by the presenter or a quote can be interjected or added to enhance their speech. Also please give credit to the person, book or reference you are quoting from.

The types of topic, the degree of difficulty of the subject matter presented, with respect to their age, are to be considered in the evaluation.

Judges are to be oriented with rules and polices of public speaking to avoid confusion on scoring and develop consistency.

All score sheets will be returned to the presenters and judges are encouraged to add appropriate written comments on their impressions and constructive criticism. These notes are extremely meaningful to the 4-Her in preparing their next speech.  

No props are to be used and applause shall be held until the end.

A participant is allowed to use notes/ mapping or outline however it should not distract from the presentation.  

Each judge is encouraged to ask the presenter a question at the end. The question must be repeated and the answer should be brief.