What is lecturette?
Lecturette is a 3 minute impromptu speech to be given by candidate at SSB interview. It is generally last event of day-1 of GTO tasks(or day-3 of SSB).
Conduct of lecturette:
Group will be made to sit in semicircular fashion, and GTO sits behind at a distance; candidates are called one after other and given with a chit with four topics in it.
It contains one easy topic (ex. my hobby)
two moderate topics (ex. global warming, Mobile technology)
one high level topic (ex. G-20)
The time given to prepare the speech will be approximately 3 min. Candidate has to pick up one topic from the chit and he/she is expected to give a short and sensible speech on chosen topic of 2.5 to 3 mins in-front of remaining group members.
How to choose the topic among four?
As we know 4 topics will be given. In four topics generally;
1 high level topic
2 average topics
1 easy topic;
In the market it is told that if you choose high level topic you will be given with extra marks; this is a misleading idea. It is obvious that if we choose difficult topic over easy one it will have impact provided if you deliver the lecturette sensibly. Whenever happens so it shows you are well read and confident about your knowledge;
but
what is the point in choosing the difficult topic, if you can not speak over it confidently. So, it is sensible to choose the topic on which you are confident to speak on for at-least 2 minutes+. Be it be easy one such as my hobby, my best friend and my pet etc.
As most of the students become nervous and go out of thoughts while delivering lecturette. I have come up with a simple framework(mind map) to deliver lecturette on any topic fluently and confidently.
How to give a lecturette: Skeleton plan
There are four phases explained below, by following which you can speak on any topic sensibly.
Phase-1: Greetings and Why have you chosen the topic?
This is the initial phase of the talk; where you will pass the greetings of the day and give one prominent reason of why have you chosen the topic and why it is important to talk on the topic.
Duration: 20 sec (2-3 lines)
Phase-2: What is the topic about? brief intro on the topic
Give brief introduction into the topic and state what is it? You can also tell what are you going to discuss in your talk and why it is important?
Duration: 30 sec (3-4 lines)
Phase-3: Advantages/ disadvantages | scope of improvement | cause and effect
This phase is main body of the talk. It should contain your thoughts, opinions, advantages and disadvantages etc. You can also make your point by stating the cause and effect or you can even deliver a personal story or anecdote to convince the audience.
Duration: 90 sec (elaborated part)
Phase-4: Bottomline | conclusion
This phase is concluding part of the talk. Where you can state conclusion which you have drawn from your thought process. This is wrapping up part of the talk.
do not forget thank at the end with a smile.
Duration: 30 sec (3-4 lines)
Things will get clear after reading and relating to below example.
To show the implementation I have taken example of an easy topic - Mobile Phone below is write-up
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Good morning gentelmen/ ladies. The topic which I have chosen today is mobile phone. I personally believe, we youth always complain that; mobile phone is wasting our time and our parents are also having the same notion; that is why I felt it is important to choose and speak over this topic.
We all know that mobile phones have made its way into our life in late 90s. Now we have smart phones with touch screen capabilities. As every things under sun have good and bad attached to it. Smart phones also have its own list of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
*with growing technological advancements, pretty much everything is available just one tap away. I am sure you must have used e-commerce websites such as flipkart and amazon so no need to explain power of smartphone any further.
*We have seen during wake of COVID-19 pandemic it is the mobile phones and apps such as Arogya -setu which enabled us to collect data and draw statistics.
Disadvantage:
*Parallely with advancement of technologies such as AI and machine learning the social media sites are coded in such a way to latch the user into it. Which is kinda unethical. It is actually killing lots of productive time from our pocket.
*With the wake of social media the privacy also has become big concern. lets not forget that.
Bottom line is; Everything comes with advantages and disadvantages it is left to us, how do we make better use of anything. I strongly believe teachers and elders should guide younger generations on better use of mobiles or any piece of technology for that matter.
Thank you!
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How to prepare for lecturette at home?
1) Start to use the above trick in write ups, answers and in normal communications etc. so that the format becomes habituated.
2)Take a list of 10 topics, allow yourself with 3 mins preparation give a lecturette; try to record it and listen later and analyze;
3)Read news paper and articles to increase your vocabulary and knowledge-base.
Bottomline:
It does not matter which topic you choose, if you are able to convince/motivate the group and effectively deliver the content. SO level up your knowledge and effective communication skills.
Below are links to write-ups of some common average level topics,
