Improving your speaking

As a Member of the Association of Speakers Clubs (ASC), Cardiff Speakers Club runs competitions and helps members towards the ASC certificates. These are optional and some members prefer to work at a more relaxed pace to improve areas of their speech they wish to focus upon!

Certificates:

The Certificate of Achievement is issued by the Association of Speakers Clubs (ASC). Under guidance from the Club's Education Director and their mentor, Members aiming for this certificate need to complete several of the following assignments from the ASC manual:

• Making a start

• Mean what you say

• Speech construction

• Use of gestures

• Use your voice

• Vocabulary and word pictures

• The use of notes

• The use of humour

• Audience rapport

• The masterpiece

Members aiming for the ASC Certificate of Advanced Achievement need to complete several of the following assignments from the ASC manual:

• The impromptu speech

• The outside assignment

• Using a microphone

• Use of visual aids

• Chairmanship skills

• Lecturing

• Business presentations

• The written speech

• Speaking without notes

Competitions:

For Members who wish to test their Speaking Skills, the club has several competitions:

• The Annual Speech Competition
• The Evaluation Competition
• The Impromptu Speech Competition
• The Novel (or Short Story) Competition
• The Topic Knock-Out (Sam Black Memorial) Competition.

Success in some of these competitions can provide an opportunity to represent the Club at district, area or even national levels!

Cardiff Speakers Club also have an annual Inter-Club debate with Cardiff Mixed Speakers Club (CMSC), and competes with CMSC, Brecon and Newport Speakers Clubs for the One Title Contest.