NOTE: This is just one student’s perspective, and should be taken as such.

The oral SAC can be easy marks, but this depends on you writing a good speech in the first place. Here are my two tips on how to do that.

Don’t overcomplicate things

A lot of people tend to overthink this task and assume that you have to write a speech using some persuasive essay-esque format, and with an arbitrary requirement of three supporting points wherein the last is a rebuttal.

Maybe that’s what you were taught in early years, but for VCE, that isn’t really the most correct (i.e. safest) or helpful way of doing things. At a bare bones level, the task is nothing more than a conversation with your audience. That’s it – this isn’t a performance where everything needs to be meticulously planned out and rehearsed; just a normal conversation with someone you know. And where you also want someone to adopt your stance on something.

oral sac

Thinking that it’s anything more than this just makes the task more difficult than it actually is, and ultimately leads to a convoluted and disengaging speech.

The best way to approach this task is simply and ‘linearly’. Imagine that you’re taking your audience from point A to point B, where point A is their original stance and point B is when the audience completely agrees with you. Each of your supporting argument should segue from one another and help achieve your goal of reaching point B (otherwise, reconsider including it if it doesn’t fulfil these two things). I’ve found that this way of structuring is the clearest, most direct and easiest to follow. Being easy to follow in particular is especially important in a speech because, unlike with essays where your markers can go back and reread the stuff they’ve missed, you only have one chance to convey your point.

Subtlety is the best form of persuasion

Or rather, the most impressive form of persuasion.

You have to remember that your markers spend a good chunk of the year teaching people how to dissect arguments, so it would be safe to assume that they’re pretty good at it themselves. Obvious attempts at persuasion probably aren’t going to come off as very persuasive to them.

oral sac

Inclusive language? You’re obviously trying to make the idea relevant to me when it isn’t or already is. Rhetorical question (avoid using them in the first place – they’re redundant from overuse and there are more effective ways to drive home a point)? It’s so clear that you’re trying to make me feel something that I already do or don’t. I know it might seem a bit excessive to consider these things, but VCE is as much knowing how to get into your marker’s head as it is knowing your stuff. And plus, in general, people are more likely to be persuaded if they don’t know someone is trying to impose their own viewpoint onto them.

The easiest way to be subtle is to not overdo it with the persuasive techniques. Treat them as support for your explanation, and don’t let them be the main thing substantiating your argument (evidence and explanation should be). They’ll naturally be inserted into your speech anyway, either by you doing it subconsciously as you write or through the way you explain your argument (e.g. connotations, appeals).


Good luck! 🙂