Louise Colligan

The first half of this book is an exceptional primer for middle school/junior high students who are tasked with giving a speech at school. The author provides a 10-step guide for preparing and presenting a three to five minute speech before a classroom. She makes sure to get down into the nitty-gritty details, such as making sure the clothes the student wants to wear the day of the speech are clean beforehand. Along the way, she gives short examples of how to use her tips. The second half of the book goes through these 10 steps with more detailed examples: one in what she calls the “informative” style (based on personal information), one “narrative” speech (a topical speech based on factual information such as history or science), and one persuasive speech. This second half I think would be better as a separate book for students interested in pursuing this topic further. Having young students read 100 pages before preparing a speech is a lot to ask; the first 50 pages give the needed information for the majority of speeches, regardless of the particular type of speech, in a much more manageable dose.… (meer)