EXTEMPORE SPEECH GUIDE

Dear Friend,
1. I wish you all the best for the upcoming att at PMA. The most important aspect
of winning att at PMA is managing extempore speech like an ace. It is much dreaded
but believe me, making an extempore speech does not require a seasoned politician’s
soul. It is a much-feared oratory challenge wherein, one has to stand infront of a large
audience and wobble with high chances of not having anything in mind to wobble. One
can imagine the wobbling then!
2. It is imp to know the envmt where you are going to conduct this tricky op. A
panel of 9 will be sitting infront in a semi-circle to gauge you. They will observe your
walking style, your mil bearing and your dress at the first instance. Make sure you
have everything squared away beforehand. Aspiring Pl Comds will be sitting beside
the wall and you can expect around 60 – 70 pairs of eye shamelessly staring at you.
Don’t get panic, the evnmt is specifically designed to test your nerve. Understand it
that it is natural to feel nervous and you have to man it up. Just play the game ball.
3. Extempore if managed with a tact is as easy as a speech delivered rote. Fol is
a guideline how to manage an extempore speech :-
a. Give your Tongue some Warmup. According to experts if your
tongue gets a little warm before the speech, it will reduce aahh, hmm by
nearly 60 %. Way to go about it – tongue twisters. My personal favourite
is “She saw a sea shell at the sea short”. Repeat it atleast 50 times at
fast pace 5 – 10 mins before you are going to pick up that dreaded chit
from that dream shatterer bowl in PMA.
b. Mental Preparation. Know what to speak before delivering the
speech. Ponder over the topic for some time and prepare the flow of
delivery. Your previous extempore practice sessions would surely help
here.
c. Start speaking at an even pace. Do not start really fast, as you are
likely to end much earlier than the given time. It will also give you much
needed time to maintain your composure.
d. Confidence. Confidence, along with knowledge, always helps, even in
abstract topics where you are tested on presence of mind, spontaneity
and analytical skills.
e. Handle Mental blocks smartly. At times, when you go blank, try to
manoeuvre yourself out of the situation gracefully by avoiding being
nervous. For such situations, it is better to have back up plans. In those
mins before the speech should think of a related topic on which you can
speak well, just in case.
f. Control on speech. Don't get emotional about the topic, avoid
getting too personal on sensitive matters, don't deviate from the topic
and talk about irrelevant stuff.
g. Presenting both sides. In case of controversial topics, you may
choose to explore both sides. In an extempore, since you are the only
person speaking, it becomes possible for a smart, strategic speaker to
discuss both aspects of the controversial topic. However, one has to be
careful about the time constraints while taking this stand.
h. Managing Material for the Speech.
(1) Competence, Enthusiasm & Adaptability is the key: Work on your
competitive advantage which may be excellent vocabulary, good
general knowledge, etc.
(2) More often than not, you can use the following guidelines to talk on
an extempore topic: -
(a) If possible give definition of the topic or specific terms of
the topic.
(b) If there are any widely known classifications of the topic,
talk about the classifications.
(c) Provide supporting evidence in the form of data or
examples.
(d) If the topic provides scope for narrating personal
experiences, you can use the opportunity to do so.
(e) We can also divide the topic into its constituent parts like
things to be done at national lvl, regional lvl and personal
lvl.
(f) If nothing works, break it down in Mil AP style. Think of
analysis pts and recom pts and you can conclude at the
end.
3. Master Fixers. Fol are some paragraphs which I call – Master Fixers, as
they can be fixed in almost all the relevant topics. They will be used as crutches if you
can’t find a good beginning or end of a speech in time: -
International Affair/ Foreign Ctys.
• In international affairs, “There is some self interest behind every friendship.
There is no friendship without self interests. This is a bitter Truth. International
politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power, a matter of costs and benefits,
without any moral anchorage. Ctys utilize all means at their disposal to fulfil
their foreign policy and only unwise can expect any moral righteousness.
Cultural Values.
• People without knowledge of their past history origin and culture are like trees
without roots. Nations culture resides in the heart and soul of people. It is what
defines them, it is what differentiates them, identifies them and makes them
unique.
• Culture is the total way of life that people in the society are blessed with. Culture
is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from
language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Through culture we
are governed by norms and customs, which are the pillars of any society.
Moral Values.
• Moral values is what differentiates between a man and a breast. Strength of
character is the pillar on which edifice of man, a community or a nation stands.
• The society is made of individuals. What is true for an individual is also true for
the society. A society that is not founded on moral values is doomed to fall.
• Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations,
neither the law, nor government, nor even the market economy can function
properly.

Pakistan plaguing problems

• Pakistan is a nascent country. It is a country that was won great struggle and
sacrifice. Creation of Pakistan represented a unique challenge, a diverse nation
with various ethnic groups, speaking different languages brought under one
flag, one nation. The creation was a wonder of God, a priceless gift but latter
on as we traversed times, we found ourselves facing challenges which are
 entrenched in our history, our culture and what we decided for ourselves. One
of such problem is _____.
Conflicts Muslim World
• Islamic world is a tragedy to even look at. At one side, it is suffering from
immense social and economic imbalances and on the other side it is being
treaded upon by foreign troops and armed militants working on behest of other
nations. Muslim of today is the most miserable creature, down trodden, poor
and hopeless. In analysing the current predicament, we find ourselves in, one
of the major problem is ______

Education / Struggle / Hardwork

• The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important
because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you
live. You weren't born just to live a life and to die; you were born to accomplish
something specifically. Matter of fact, success is making it to the end of your
purpose; that is success... Success is not just existing. Success is making it to
the end of why you were born.
• It has been observed that educational system by and large is devoid of creativity
and innovation, imagination and self development, communication skill both
written and oral which ultimately create educated unemployment.

Human psychology (hope/fear etc)

• “Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.
• Our lives are a mix of happiness and suffering. Some people experience more
of these emotions than others. Yet, we can overcome hardship with hope. Hope
provides us strength to conquer misery and despair.
History
• History provides the means to understand the past and present. History
teaches us to be more civilized than our ancestors. History illuminates the
 psyche of the human race. History preaches “learn from your mistakes of the
past.”
• History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is
obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their
own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, ‘What is
history, but a fable agreed upon?”—

Drug Culture
• “Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in
front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of
judgment.” It is disease that makes you too selfish to see or care about the
world around you. The habit yells loud to declare insolence, irresponsibility and
indifferent attitude. A drug addict is a burden to a society where he cannot play
any productive part.
Psychology.
• Human psy traits are the functional product of the law of natural selection and
find their roots by psy adaptation. Interaction b/w human and societies foster a
set of universally understood principles. These principles guide our social
norms and dealings and give us a socially accepted way of life. One of these
principle is of psy reciprocity / ______
Hardwork.
• Mankind is always in a pursuit of excellence. It is inherent in our genes and our
make up. We strive to excel. Take an example of Quaid e Azam who despite
all odds carved a nation in the sub-continent. It was due to his hardwork and
an unflinching faith in the in himself.

Self Mastery.

• Life is necessarily filled with challenges. And thank goodness. How boring it
would be otherwise. But while we can’t control the cards that are dealt us,
what we can control is how we react to those events.
Globalization & Economics
• The modern world is a world of eco and business. Due to innovations in
transportation and communication, the world has shrunk into a global village.
 Example Stories

Abdus Sattar Edhi. A migrant after independence and belonging to a humble bkgr,
Edhi is a symbol of humanity and kindness. His self-less services and devotion to
cause has won him many accolades. He started with nothing and but eventually
established the largest ambulance service in Pakistan.

Quaid I Azam. “Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still
modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-
state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.”

Micheal Jordon. "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost
300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

JK Rolling. Not only did she fail to make progress on her first book, but after falling
in, and then out of, love, she ended up with a failed marriage and a baby daughter she
now had to raise alone. She came back to nothing. She had no job, no finished product
and two mouths to feed. She had hit rock bottom. As she struggled with depression,
raising a child on her own and living off meager unemployment benefits, she resumed
work on her book in cafes while her daughter was asleep. Rejected by 12 publishers
and was finally selected by Bloomsbury , only when the editor’s 8 yrs old daughter
urged her father to let her complete the book.

Steve Jobs. Lived in foster houses and dropped out of college. Belonged to a
disturbed family. Travelled the world in poor condition. He also worked as an engine
mechanic in US coat guards. Kicked out of the coy he created.

Walt Disney. As a young man, Walt Disney was fired from his newspaper job
for a lack of good ideas. Then he started his first animation company in 1921 but
quickly went bankrupt and ate dog food to survive. If you were subsisting on dog food
because of the failure of your first animation company, would you start another
animation company? Probably not. But that’s exactly what Walt Disney did. In fact, he
had to restart several more times after that before finally becoming successful.
Henry Ford. In 1899, Henry Ford left his long-term, comfortable job to establish the
Detroit Automobile Company with $150,000 of investor money. A little over a year later
it went bankrupt. Somehow, his investors still had faith in Ford and invested in the
Henry Ford Company in 1901. But this company went bankrupt as well. Having lost all
your investors’ money twice, would you try a third time? Ford did, establishing the Ford
Motor Company in 1903. Five years later the company became a success with the
release of the Model T.

The Charge of the Lt Bde

Not thou the soldiers knew
Someone has blunder’d
There’s not to make reply
There’s not to reason why
There’s but to do and die
Into the valley of death
Charged the six hundred.

Invictus
by William Earnest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Best of luck my friend. Hope you come out of extempore as happy as a kid with a
candy!!!

Maj Umair Imran Qazi

6 Lancers