AILA Dreams

1. AILA Dreams How to Deliver Your Dream Solution on Immigration

2. What is AILA Dreams? • AILA Dreams is a speech contest and professional development opportunity for AILA members. Through the contest, AILA members will be trained and empowered to write and speak about immigration in a way that is forward-thinking, inspiring, and accessible. • Just as important, it is a chance to: • Envision an immigration system that is not completely bound by the present-day political landscape. • Focus on solutions, not problems. • Learn how to give a persuasive speech with simple (yes, really!) techniques used by everyone from presidents to community leaders. “Audiences don’t need to hear every detail in a plan as much as believe there is a plan.” - The Political Speechwriter’s Companion, Robert Lehrman

3. Why Should You Participate? By participating in this contest, you will: • Gain experience in speech writing and public speaking. • You’ll learn how to write and speak about any issue in an accessible, persuasive way. • These skills can be beneficial on multiple fronts—in discussing cases with clients, going before the immigration court, or even explaining our issue to friends and family. • Raise your professional profile in the AILA community. • The winners will showcase their talents in front of the AILA community at the American Heritage Awards. • Have the chance to attend AILA’s Annual Conference and the American Heritage Awards for free. • Winners of AILA Dreams will receive free entry (or a refund on a previously purchased ticket) to Annual Conference as well as the American Heritage Awards.

4. Topic You are essentially writing your “I have a dream” speech on American immigration. The speech should be between 400 to 650 words (3 to 5 minutes long). The speech must: • Reflect on what America would look like if it had a 21st century immigration system. • Describe that America. What does it look, smell, sound, and feel like? • Cast a vision that everyone in America can see themselves in. • Appeal to hope and do more than point out problems or hand out blame. • Offer values, solutions, and facts (in that order). If the word limit seems short, consider this — the Gettysburg address was fewer than 300 words!

5. Where Do You Start?

6. AILA Dreams 101 Giving a speech doesn’t have to be a nerve-wracking experience. When you’re starting your speech, consider these simple guidelines: • Determine the basics: • Who is your audience? • What’s the problem you’re sharing with them? • What’s your solution to that problem? • Write like you’re telling a story. • All of the best speeches tell stories. • It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from a politician discussing healthcare reform or a pastor giving a sermon—the ones we remember tell the best stories.

7. Audience Before you set pen to paper, you should consider who your audience is and what they value. • Who is your audience? • You are trying to reach a mixed audience. Write your speech like you’re talking to the immigration bar and your local garden club. • What should the audience’s main takeaway be? • What is the goal of your speech? What do they need to understand about your dream immigration system? • What does your audience value? • Identify some core values that your audience can rally around. Then shape the speech to speak to directly to their values. • Topline values will vary audience to audience. For example, a speech to members of the military may focus on establishing better rules for the immigration system. A speech in front of a church congregation may focus on compassion for asylum seekers.

8. Build an Idea Your main task as a speaker is to build an idea inside of your audience. Think of your idea as a gift. How do you give that gift to the audience? • Focus on one major idea. • What would America look like if it had a 21st century immigration system? • Limit your content to this one idea so you can explain it properly. • Make your idea vivid, give examples, and make it the theme through your entire speech, so everything links back to it in some way. • Give your audience a reason to care. • What do they value/ need and how can a modern immigration system fulfill that value/ need? • Stir their curiosity by identifying what's missing in the current immigration system. • How can your solution fill those gaps?

9. Build an Idea Those four principles can be used across the board. Even in a simple speech about tying your shoes…

10. Build an Idea • Focus on one major idea. • Tying your shoes. • Limit your content to this one idea so you can explain it properly. • Physically demonstrate how to tie your shoes during the majority of the speech. • Give your audience a reason to care. • Don’t you want to know the right way to tie your shoes? • Stir their curiosity by identifying what's missing. • There is a knowledge gap in tying shoes. Offer your technique as the solution.

11. What’s your main objective? Build the idea and then persuade your audience that your idea is worth acting on Persuasion is the process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people’s values, actions, or beliefs. This is the primary goal of any speech. You need to make your audience believe you have the solutions to the problems you’ve identified. “Politicians are not in the business of simply conveying information—they are also advocates.” - The Political Speechwriter’s Companion, Robert Lehrman

12. Persuasion In order to be persuasive, your material should: • Identify problems, but focus on solutions. • Audiences want to solve problems. Use your speech to help them connect the dots between the problem and solution. • Be upbeat. • Audiences respond best to optimistic speeches. Rather than assign blame for the present, cast a hopeful vision for the future. • Be understandable to average people outside of the immigration bar. • Remember your two audiences—the immigration bar and the people at your local garden club. As listeners, neither can go back and reread if they’re confused. No one will be persuaded if they can’t understand what you’re saying. • Be quotable. • Think of some of the most famous lines from speeches: “yes, we can,” “I have a dream,” and “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” They were simple and short and relied on repetition.

14. Persuasion The Hemingway App is a great tool for determining your reading level and making your writing accessible.

15. Types of Persuasive Speeches Though there are many ways to write a persuasive speech, we’re going to address two types today: The “problem, value, and change” speech The “story of self, story of us, and story of now” speech

16. Problem, Value, Change In order to persuade your audience to act, you need to persuade them about the facts, then demonstrate how these facts affect their values. Only then can you get them to take action. Facts and values intertwine, but facts must always be the supporting role to values. There are three questions persuasive speeches should address: • What is the problem you’re trying to solve? • Identify the problem and your idea/ solution. • What value is at stake if you don’t solve it? • A fact isn’t enough to persuade on its own. You also need to address your audiences’ values. • What is the change you want to make? • What action should be taken?

17. Problem, Value, Change in a speech about office attire

18. Problem, Value, Change • State the problem: • It’s too hot to wear full-length pants to work all year around. • What is the value at stake? • Some men may feel like their masculinity is being “threatened” by wearing shorts into the office. But really, shorts are just shorts. • What is the change you want to make? • Companies should update clothing policies so everyone can be comfortable.

19. Story of Self, Us, and Now A story of self: why you were called to what you have been called to. A story of us: what your constituency, community, organization has been called to in its shared purposes, goals, vision. A story of now: the challenge this community now faces, the choices it must make, and the hope to which “we” can aspire. Marshall Ganz is a storyteller and professor who created the “self, us, and now” narrative. He’s taught politicians—including President Obama—how to use this template to share their Public Narratives. A public narrative story includes three elements:

20. Story of Self, Us, and Now Story of self: your personal reason Story of us: the reason why it affects all of us Story of now: why we have to act immediately

21. Story of Self, Us, and Now Story of self: My child has autism. These are our personal experiences. Story of us: Autism is all around us, but the healthcare system can be difficult to navigate for those with autism and their loved ones. Story of now: Because so many children have autism, it’s critical that we collectively learn more about it and fund autism research now.

22. Persuasion Another important technique of persuasion is “the appeal to hope.” To use this technique, you will: Ask your audience to imagine a more optimistic future. This can be done by evoking emotion through anecdotes, stories of real people, and concrete details. Offer solutions. Explain how those solutions will shape the immigration movement in the future. Offer some evidence (even if that evidence is not grounded in current law or policy). Evidence reinforces your appeal and helps those on the fence move to your side.

23. Be Creative Your speech doesn’t have to be dry, even when you’re covering a difficult topic. Speeches use humor, music, powerful images, and—in some cases—even a firefighter uniform to keeps things entertaining. Using humor in your speech Using music in your speech Using an interesting outfit in your speech

24. Recap Understand your audience and what they value. Build an idea. Be persuasive by keeping things focused, simple, and optimistic. You can identify your problem, ask how that influences your audience's values, and offer solutions. Tell the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now. Appeal to hope by evoking emotion, offering solutions, and providing evidence. Be creative.

25. Structure Now how do you sit down and write a good speech? Here are key components you should keep in mind. All speeches need: • An engaging opener. • You have about 30 seconds to grab (and keep) an audience's attention. For instance, you could start off with an intriguing question, humor, or a powerful visual. • A beginning, middle, and end. • This may seem obvious, but be sure that your speech follows this pattern. At the end of the day, you're telling a story, so roadmap it like a traditional narrative.

27. Rhetorical Devices • Anaphora repeats a word or phrase in successive phrases. • “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the land, we shall fight in the field.” • Epistrophe is repetition of words at the end of multiple sentences. • “Yes, we can!” • Tricolon is a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. • “Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” • Epizeuxis is when the same word is repeated over and over again. • “Jobs, jobs, jobs!” • Diacope is the repletion of a word broken up by intervening words. “ • The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Drill, baby, drill!” • Antithesis makes a connection between two things. • “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” • Antimetabole repeats words or phrases in reverse order. • “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” Consider using rhetorical devices to create “sticky” messages:

28. Delivery So you’ve built a great idea and gotten it down on paper. Now you need to deliver it. Public speaking doesn’t have to be nerve-wracking. Here are some tips. Use eye contact: Making eye contact with your audience shows that you are engaged and confident. Project your voice: Even if you’re using a microphone, be sure to speak clearly and loudly enough so the furthest member of the audience can hear you. Maintain good posture: Keep your body open and resist caving in or fidgeting. Be natural: You don’t need to force emotion or gestures. Allow your emotion to come out naturally—don’t write it into your speech or plan for it in your delivery.

29. Delivery

30. Delivery Before giving your speech in public, you will record yourself delivering it. This is also a great way to practice, receive feedback from friends and family, and get a feel for the flow of your speech. Here are some tips for recording your speech: Location: Pick a quiet place with enough lighting. Natural light is better, but any well-lit place will work. Avoid having windows or bright lights on in the background. Clothing: Natural colors (blue, gray, tan) and medium tones work best on camera. Please avoid: dark, bright, or pink clothing; small patterns and stripes; and big jewelry that might make a sound. Eyeline: It is best if your computer or phone’s camera is close to your eye level, and you are looking into the camera. Throughout your recording please try to maintain eye contact with the camera. Microphone: Please make sure the microphone is set up correctly before you start recording.

31. Submission Requirements Topic: Inspiring speech that describes your vision for a 21st century immigration system. Written Speech: 400 to 650 words. Video: 3 to 5 minutes long.

32. Questions?

33. Thank You! For additional questions, please feel free to contact me at mcruz@immcouncil.org