About

Meetings
Meetings are every Monday (or Tuesday if there is no school on Monday) at 3:00 PM in room 408.

During meetings, we sign up for tournaments and discuss/debate the current National Forensics League topic. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to know what you missed at a meeting.

Event options
Debate:

Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD) - Currently the most popular form of debate on the high school circuit. A form of one-on-one debating that will help you sharpen up your logic and reasoning abilities considerably. There is a heavy emphasis on structure, and topics tend to be philisophical or theoretical in nature.

Public Forum Debate (PF) - Also known as "Ted Turner" debate, this is a form of debate where you debate with a partner in "Crossfire" style. It is much less structured than LD, and topics tend to relate directly to current events (e.g.-Resolved: The costs of legalized casino gambling in the United States outweigh the benefits). Members who have done this event in the past say that it is much less time-consuming and more informal than LD, but unfortunately, much fewer tournaments offer this form of debate.

The following events are individual speaking events (IE's)

Impromptu Speaking - Our most popular IE. Students are given 3 separate prompts. The clock starts as soon as they start reading. In the next six minutes, they need to both plan and deliver a speech on any one of those prompts. No note cards allowed. Most novices will think for two minutes and speak for four (A 1:2 ratio), where as most varsity speakers will think for one minute and speak for five (A 1:5 ratio). The prompts are usually some form of concrete words, abstract words, verbs, proverbs, aphorisms, and quotations. Here is a set of topics that you may encounter:

Family

"A pessimist, confronted with two bad choices, chooses both." --Jewish proverb

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."--Groucho Marx

Memorized Speeches:

Expository Speaking (Expos) - An 8-minute informational or educational speech on any subject of the speakers choosing. Notecards are allowed. Examples of topics that have worked in the past include things like: Infant Psychology, Coffee, Dr. Seuss, Pop Tarts, Peppers, Disney, M&Ms, Magic, Palmistry, Fencing, Olive Branches, Monopoly, and the Barbie Doll. Really, anything that you're interested in, or that you think that people should know more about. People who compete in this event are encouraged to bring in visual aids, usually in the form of physical props or poster board displays.

Original Oratory - Oratory is a persuasive speech for our more polished speakers. It is an 8-minute, memorized speech. Speakers are not allowed to use more than 150 words of quoted material. The goal is not simply to inform the audience on a certain issue, but to actually persuade them to a certain view. Obviously, the more effective speeches are going to be the ones that express views that your audience wouldn't normally have or think about.

Frequently asked questions
Question: How can debate help me?
Answer: Debate is incredibly helpful in helping students build confidence, as well as helping them to improve their skills in research, analysis, composition, and delivery. If you’d like to learn learn more about this program, the National Forensics League has created a promotional video on the subject, which you can watch online. Windows Media Player Require: View NFL Promotional Video.

Question: What’s the National Forensics League?
Answer: The National Forensics League (NFL) is the organization that overseas speech and debate activity. The word “forensics” loosely translates into “forum.” Students who join the team will become members of the NFL, and will accumulate points for both themselves as well as for their team as they compete.

Question: Isn’t debate really hard and confusing?
Answer: It can be, and has been in previous years. Unfortunately, learning Lincoln-Douglas Debate format can be extremely overwhelming for beginners, and it can be difficult to teach it to a large group of students in just hour a week. That’s why we’re going to try a different strategy next year, by starting students off on individual first, and slowly transitioning them up to Lincoln-Douglas afterwards.

Question: Individual Events? What are those?
Answer: Individual events account for the “speech” in “speech and debate team.” These activities are relatively simple to learn, so that you can go out and start practicing on your own early on. Additionally, they help build confidence and give you the basic skills you’ll need in order to do debate later on.

Question: You mean I don’t actually have to debate in order to be in the debate club?
Answer: No. In fact, it’s best not to bite off more than you can chew.

Question: What if I still want to learn debate?
Answer: Debate is still an incredibly rewarding activity, and if you’re genuinely interested in learning it, we’ll do our best to help you along. However, you need to realize that it simply is not feasible to learn debate just from attending our meetings, which means that you’re going to have to learn a great deal about the basics on your own.

Question: How time consuming is this club?
Answer: It depends on which events you do, and how much you want to get out of it. However, you should generally aim for at least 1-2 hours a week on your own time to prepare.

Question: Can debate help me get into college?
Answer: Most definitely, but only if you can prove that you are actually willing to work at it. Remember, colleges don’t just want to see that you can signup for a club, what they need to see is that you’re willing to put in the effort and that you’re capable of learning

Question: Can I win awards if I do well? Go to state? Go to Nationals? Earn a Letter?
Answer: Yep.

Question: Sounds good. Anything else?
Answer: Students who have competed at the varsity level can earn Knight Valor hours by judging. To be eligible as a judge, you will need to have competed at least once at the varsity level.

Question: What’s the most important thing that you can recommend to a prospective member?
Answer: Have fun, enjoy yourself, and be willing to step up to a challenge and try try new things.