Spoken English

Signposting

HintSay where you are going, then say when you have arrived — the listener never gets lost.

The whyA listener cannot re-read you, so the structure has to be spoken aloud: 'I will cover three things — first...'. Without it, even good content sounds like a string of unrelated remarks.

Anaphora

HintRepetition at the launch of the line, not the landing — a drumbeat at the front of each clause.

The why'Repetition' is the loose name; this is the exact one. Repeating the opening builds a beat the audience can feel coming, so the last line in the run lands hardest — which is why protest chants and conference speeches still use it.

pitch

HintMusicians tune to it, and a question usually lifts at the end of a line.

The whyVarying it stops a reading sounding flat. A voice that never moves signals boredom to a listener, whatever the words themselves are doing.

Enjambment

HintThe thought spills over the edge of the line — do not stop at the margin.

The whyPoets use it to speed a reader up or to make a word at the line-end hang for a moment. Reading it well means obeying the punctuation, not the layout.

Paraphrasing

HintYou run their idea through your own mouth to prove it arrived intact.

The whyIt is the fastest way to show you were listening and to expose a misunderstanding early, before a discussion heads off in the wrong direction.

What the last speaker said

HintBuild on the person ahead of you rather than starting a fresh conversation.

The whyMarks are earned for building, challenging and developing, not for how often you speak. A point that ignores the one before it is a monologue.

Stage directions

HintPrinted in italics, often in brackets — the bits an actor does but never says aloud.

The whyThey are choices, not decoration. A pause, an exit or a prop written into the script tells you what the playwright wanted the audience to notice.

The chair

HintEvery formal meeting has one, and they decide who speaks next.

The whyThe role is to manage, not to dominate. A good one speaks least, brings in the quiet members and summarises where the group has got to.

A few key words

HintAn audience cannot read and listen at the same time, so the screen must not compete with you.

The whyThe slide is a prompt for the audience, not a script for you. If the screen says everything, the room reads it and stops listening.

motion

HintIt traditionally begins 'This house believes that...'.

The whyOne team proposes it and one opposes it, and neither picks its own side. Arguing a case you disagree with is part of the training.

Rebuttal

HintNot simply repeating your own case louder — taking theirs apart, live.

The whyIt is what separates a debate from two prepared speeches. Judges look for whether you engaged with what was actually said, not what you expected.

Standard English

HintNot a posh accent, and not the speech of any one region — the shared formal variety used in writing everywhere.

The whyIt is a matter of grammar and vocabulary, not accent — you can speak it in any accent at all. Dialect is a different variety, not a worse one.