A spoken-prose category in which each entrant performs a passage of ordinary written text in Jamaican language, with the older classes offering two contrasting passages, recorded on the template as a four-minute entry scored out of 100 and offered in all seven classes.
Speech – Jamaican Prose is the fifty-ninth entry on the Jamaican national performing arts festival template and the fourth category of its Speech discipline. It is the prose partner of the Jamaican poem class that comes before it: the entrant speaks a passage of ordinary written text, not verse, and the language of the passage is Jamaican. There is no music and no scenery. The handbook files it as category 4 of the speech syllabus, marked as a prose category, and the abbreviation used on entry forms is JP(B).
The handbook defines prose as the ordinary form of written or spoken language, straightforward discourse of the kind found in newspapers, novels, textbooks and the Bible. In practice a Jamaican prose entry is a short narrative, a piece of dialogue, a humorous account or a reflective passage, set down in Jamaican language and spoken by one person. The shape of a round depends on the class. In Classes 1 to 4 the entrant presents one selection of prose. In Classes 5 and 6 the entrant presents two contrasting selections, for example one comedic and one tragic, and the handbook adds that the items must show variety and contrast to demonstrate range of emotions and vocal performance. It explains that “contrasting” means opposing emotional content. Each selection is limited to three minutes.
The challenge of prose is that it has no line breaks, rhyme or regular beat to carry the speaker. The entrant has to find the rhythm of the sentences, decide where a thought turns and make a listener follow a story from the sound alone. Jamaican language adds its own pace and stress, and a speaker who flattens it into standard English loses the voice of the piece, while one who mumbles it loses the room. The handbook’s marking table is shared across the whole Speech discipline and asks for audibility, clear articulation and enunciation, stage presence and believable feeling, so a strong entry is one the whole room can hear and follow while it still sounds like the person the passage belongs to.
The usual entry rules apply. The right author must be acknowledged, and the entry must say clearly that it is prose and not poetry, using the abbreviation on the form. A copy of the selection is submitted with the entry form. The organising body suggests an online anthology, but a text used in Jamaican schools, earlier published anthologies and other approved published material may also be used. Costume should suit the character or situation of the passage, and the handbook advises against school uniform and against black, white and grey shades unless the mood of the text calls for them.
The template records the item as a team entry, both genders together, with English as the language, a four-minute window with the warning bell at three minutes and a score out of 100, in all seven classes. The handbook describes the category as a solo class with three minutes per selection. An organiser who wants to follow the handbook should set the entry type to individual and set the time limit to suit the number of selections the class performs. Organisers run a Jamaican-language prose class because it gives entrants who tell stories and argue their case in that language a place to be judged on it directly.
Where Speech – Jamaican Prose comes from
Competitive speech and drama festivals in many countries run separate classes for the language of the home and the formal language of school, and separate classes for verse and for prose, because each is heard differently by an audience. Nothing in the source for this template says when the Jamaican prose class joined the festival, who has won it or how it developed, so no festival history is claimed here.
Where Speech – Jamaican Prose is run
On eTalenter this item is used in one template, the Jamaican national performing arts festival template, where it is assigned to all seven classes (six age bands from the youngest children to adults aged 20 and over, plus a combined class) in the Speech discipline, straight after the Jamaican poem class and ahead of the mixed standard-and-Jamaican classes. Classes for prose in a local or dialect language appear in school, community and cultural festivals in many countries, but each event sets its own text lists, time limits and age bands, so the rules on this page apply to the festival the template is built from.
- Jamaica (the national performing arts festival the template is built from)
Key facts
- A prose category: the entry must state that the selection is prose, not poetry, and the right author must be acknowledged; the entry form abbreviation is JP(B)
- Classes 1 to 4 present one selection of prose; Classes 5 and 6 present two contrasting selections, for example one comedic and one tragic, showing variety and range of emotion and vocal performance
- “Contrasting” means opposing emotional content; each selection is limited to three minutes
- The template gives a team entry, both genders together, English as the language, a four-minute limit with the warning bell at three minutes and a score out of 100, in all seven classes; the handbook describes a solo category
- Marked on the shared four-part speech table: voice production, speech, presentation and interpretation, weighted 20, 30, 20 and 30 at auditions, 10, 35, 15 and 40 at parish level and 4, 20, 4 and 22 (out of 50) at the national finals
- Ideas, not rules, for choosing passages: a humorous account of a market quarrel or a family occasion for the comic piece, and a quiet passage about leaving home or missing someone for the serious one. Always check the text against an approved source and the age of the entrant
On eTalenter, Speech – Jamaican Prose is filed under On Stage and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Speech – Jamaican Prose is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 4 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Speech – Jamaican Prose
What a Speech – Jamaican Prose panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- The handbook prints one marking table for the whole Speech discipline, so a Jamaican prose entry is scored on the same four headings as every other speech class; the points below follow that table and are a summary, not a quotation of the rule
- Voice production: audibility, projection, tone, resonance, colouring, texture and pace, worth 20 at auditions, 10 at parish level and 4 of 50 at the national finals. Prose has no line endings to signal where to breathe, so marks go to a speaker who varies pace between narration and dialogue and lose them to one who keeps one steady speed from first sentence to last
- Speech: articulation, enunciation and pronunciation, worth 30, 35 and 20 of 50. The handbook defines pronunciation as the accepted way a word is articulated and names Oxford English as its reference. It does not explain how that applies to Jamaican language, so an entrant should ask the organiser how the panel reads it. Whatever the answer, every word must be clear to the listener, and swallowed word endings cost marks
- Presentation: costume, stage presence, performance energy, style and visual impact, worth 20, 15 and 4 of 50. The costume should suit the character or situation in the passage. A still, grounded stance with direct eye contact and a few deliberate gestures usually scores better than constant movement
- Interpretation: comprehension, expression, mood and feeling and believability, worth 30, 40 and 22 of 50. This is where a prose entry is won. The panel rewards an entrant who understands every sentence, makes the humour or the hurt felt and is believable as the person speaking, and marks down one who reads a story aloud without meaning
- Range and contrast in Classes 5 and 6: the two selections must differ in emotion, so the panel listens for a real change in voice, pace and mood between them rather than the same delivery twice
- Time: three minutes for each selection. A passage that runs over must be cut in rehearsal, never rushed on the day
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Speech – Jamaican Prose under Scoring Setup, or start from the full speech competition judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Speech – Jamaican Prose
How entrants and their teachers usually get Speech – Jamaican Prose right on the day:
- Choose a passage with a clear shape, a beginning, a turn and an ending, that you understand completely. After reading it aloud several times, retell it in your own words; if you cannot, choose another. A passage you only half understand sounds like a list
- Check the rules first: prose, not poetry; written in Jamaican language; author acknowledged; a copy of the selection ready for the entry form; and, for Classes 5 and 6, two contrasting selections. Use the online anthology, a school text or another approved source
- Time it. Speak the passage at performing speed with a stopwatch and aim for about two and a half minutes so the three-minute limit leaves a margin for nerves. Cut a paragraph rather than speed up
- Mark up a printed copy. Underline the words that carry the feeling, put a slash wherever a new thought starts and write beside each paragraph the mood it needs, such as teasing, anger or tenderness. Memorise paragraph by paragraph, not word by word
- Separate narration from speech. If the passage has characters, decide how each one sounds and where you stand or turn for each, then practise switching cleanly between them without losing the thread of the story
- Practise clear endings. Jamaican language is quick and rhythmic, so record yourself and listen for words that disappear at the end of a sentence. Slow the passage down by ten per cent in practice, then bring it back to speed without losing the words
- Choose a contrasting pair on purpose for Classes 5 and 6: one passage that makes the room laugh and one that quietens it. Decide in advance how your voice, face and pace change between them and rehearse the pause that separates them
- Rehearse for a mixed audience, including someone who does not speak the language every day. Ask what they understood and where they lost the thread, then adjust pace and gesture, not the words
- After a result, ask for the adjudicator’s comments and note which of the four headings lost the marks. Most improvement comes from interpretation and speech, so pick a more demanding passage next season and keep working on the sentences that were marked down
Ready-made event templates that include Speech – Jamaican Prose
Open any template to preview it in eTalenter and install it as a live, editable event.
| Template | Category | Score label | Competitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| JCDC National Performing Arts Festival (Jamaica) | On Stage | Marks | 7 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Speech – Jamaican Prose judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is Jamaican Prose the same as Jamaican Poems?
No. They are separate categories in the handbook, numbered 3 and 4 in the Speech syllabus and marked (A) for a poem and (B) for prose. Jamaican Prose uses ordinary written text, such as a narrative or dialogue, rather than verse. The entry must say which one it is for.
How long can the passage be?
The handbook allows three minutes for each selection, and Classes 5 and 6 perform two. The template gives a four-minute window with the warning bell at three minutes, so an organiser following the handbook should change the limit to match the number of selections in the class.
Do I have to perform two selections?
Only in Classes 5 and 6, which are for ages 16 to 19 and 20 and over. In Classes 1 to 4 the entrant presents one selection of prose. In Classes 5 and 6 the two selections must be contrasting, for example one comedic and one tragic, and show variety and range of emotion and vocal performance.
Is this judged individually or as a team?
The handbook describes it as a solo category. The template records it as a team entry, so an organiser who wants to follow the handbook should set it to individual. Group versions of prose classes are separate speaking-ensemble categories.
Is Jamaican Prose the same as Story Telling?
No. Story Telling is its own category in the handbook, defined as the oral art of performing legends, tales, myths and folk tales. Jamaican Prose is a performance of a written passage in Jamaican language, with the author acknowledged and a copy submitted with the entry.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full speech competition judging criteria guide, or browse every on stage competition item.
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