Q 16Your Oral Interpretationis an opportunity to flex and hone the crucial nonverbal components of Public Speaking: the packaging in which your speech is contained. In this exercise you will focus on connecting with your audience via eye contact and by placing yourself in close proximity to them. You will practice movement, gesturing, pausing, vocal inflection, voice pitch, and volume. Picking a SelectionPick a selection from any kind of literature. This may include a scene or excerpt from a book, short story, or play. Nonfiction is acceptable if it is in the form of a true-life adventure, a famous speech such as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" or humorous writing. Poetry is acceptable, especially if it tells a story. If you have written your own poetry or short story, please shareit. You may also utilize material that you’ve memorized, such as a song lyric.PreparationYou ought to add notes and marks to the textof the selection you use, so you may need to use a photocopy of your material or a downloadable text. If you obtain the textfrom a book, you may want to enlarge the pages as they’re being copied to allow room for your notes on the page. If you download the text from the Web or another source, or if you type it from memory, double-space it. Downloaded text can be copied into a Word document and highlighted; then right-click, and click on Paragraph, Line Spacing, Double. You may also wishto make it more readable by highlighting the selection, right-clicking, then and clicking on Font, All Caps. Add “prompting” notes to the text to remind you to pause and to establish eye contact. Make a prompting mark at the end of every second or third sentence. When you arrive at that prompt you will stop speaking for two seconds---count silently to yourself, “one thousand and one, one thousand and two...”---, look up from the page, and focus your eyes on one member of the audience. Then look down at the page and resume reading until you reach the next prompt, when you’ll pause again and look at another person in the audience. Time constraints for this presentation will be rigidly enforced. You must practice this activity before you record itand upload itso that you can time it properly. The amount of time spent introducing the selection and then reading the whole thing aloud must be five minutes, give or take a few seconds. Rehearse your selection several times until you achieve that goal.If your selection is too short, add more onto it or find another selection. If it’s too long, edit it down to an appropriate length.If you read poetry, don’t pause at the end of each lineunless a punctuation mark is already there. If punctuation does not coincide with the end of a line, insert pauses at approximate 15-second intervals or where grammatically appropriate.You are expected to vocally express emotions contained in the text,and to emphasize the important points by increasing volume, modifying pitch, and pausing dramatically. These points should be underlined or otherwise marked to remind you to voice them properly. Take on the identity of the person who is speaking the words of your selection. Become the author, and express their 17feelings through your voice. Pretend you’re on stage; act out what’s happening. To see the level of animatedness that will earn you an A for this exercise, clickon this link.NOTE: While this may seem like merely a read-aloud activity,it is alsoan actingexercise.Keep that in mind.HAM IT UP!GuidelinesWithin the first 60 seconds of your presentation you must include all the following points:•The title and author of your selection•Your reason for choosing this particular work•The background, context, or historical/cultural setting of what you’re about to read:----the storyline or plot in which the scene is unfolding----the name(s) of any character(s) depicted in or narrating the scene----the author’s presumed purpose for writing this selection•Key points that you want your audience to pay attention to; i.e., imagery, use of specific or uncommon words, the mood or feeling that you think the author wants to convey, etc.•Your nameIf it helps, use this script as a guidelinefor the first 60 seconds. Say to your audience:DeliveryStand in front of the camera. Explain the above points to your audience, state your name, and then begin to read the selection aloud. After a few moments, step away from the center of the roomand, while continuing to read aloud, slowly approach the audience. When you come to a prompt-mark in your text, look up from the page and lock eyes with one person (real or otherwise) close to you. After two seconds, look at the page and continue reading until you come to the next prompt. Then stop reading for a moment and lock eyes with someone else. Do not scan multiple faces(real or otherwise); look at one face at a time during each pause. First look at a facenear the front of the room and then one inthe middle or the back.Hold your text in one hand and use the other hand to gesture and to express the feelings from the text. Continue to slowly walk back and forth across ---Do you have a favorite book, or a favorite author? Well, I do. Theauthor's name is ______. They wrote _______ and _________.---The reading I'm going to share with you comes from the book __________. I first read this book when I was ___ years old.---I decided to share this with you because _____________________.---The first thing I noticed about it was_______________________.---What I like best about it is_______________________________.---The author, _______________, wrote it in the year ________.---The author is also known for writing _______________________.---As you listen to this, pay attention to _______________________.---My name is ________, and I'd like to read you this selection from the book titled__________________________________. 18the front of the room while reading your selection aloud. When pausing in the text, you have the option of continuing to walk or momentarily stand still. Try both until you see which one feels more comfortable. As you approach the end of your reading, make your way back to the center of the room.Finish your presentation from there. Thank the audience for their attention.Then end the recording.This pie chart to the right shows the general categories of grade components for this exercise. Content and information---your introduction---comprise 10% of your grade. Nonverbal skills such as eye contact, movement, gesturing, voice, and so on, constitute 90% of your grade. Please examine the evaluation formbelowto understand specific grade components.Speaker CompetenciesPoints PossibleOutstanding Quite Good Almost Mediocre Poor AbsentGood Okay(A+) (A) (B) (C) (D) (D-) (F) Introduction to material (the story behind it)6543210Eye contact6543210Pausing6543210Voice modulation and inflection6543210Movement around the room 6543210Gesturing with arms 6543210Vocal volume and word rate6543210Facial expressiveness6543210Animatedness and physical energy6543210Timing6543210Content, 10%Nonverbal, 90%To get a good grade, emphasize all