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PUBLIC
ADDRESS EVENTS
(i.e. your traditional stand-up speeches)
• PERSUASIVE SPEAKING: The purpose of this 10-minute event is to convince, stimulate, or actuate the audience concerning some significant issue.
• INFORMATIVE SPEAKING: The purpose is to describe, clarify, define or explain an object, idea, concept or process. Visual aides are usually incorporated into this 10-minute speech.
• SPEECH TO ENTERTAIN: The primary purpose of this 10-minute presentation is to entertain. However, as in any speech, there must be a central purpose, theme or thesis around which the speech is developed.
• COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS: The subject may be a single speech, a single speaker, the rhetoric of a movement, or any other legitimate communication event. The speaker then analyzes in a 10-minute speech the impact of the subject using communication theory found in a journal article or the like.
LIMITED
PREPARATION EVENTS
(i.e. speaking on a moment’s notice)
• IMPROMPTU SPEAKING: Topics are of a philosophical nature, usually consisting of a single word, a quotation or similar. The contestant selects one of three topics drawn and then has a total of seven minutes to prepare and present the speech.
• EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING: The contestant is given a choice of three topics concerned with national, international, or economic current events occurring within the previous 90 days. They then choose a topic and have 30 minutes to develop a seven-minute speech. Contestants are allowed to use print materials they have brought with them to the tournament.
• PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE:
Teams of two are given a topic of a philosophical, value, or policy nature
15 minutes before the debate is to happen. They then formulate positions
and prepare to defend their given side of the debate. While parliamentary
debaters are not allowed to use documented evidence, they can use examples
and knowledge afforded to any college student to support their arguments.
ORAL
INTERPRETATION EVENTS
(i.e. dramatic readings where the performer holds a script and uses suggested,
rather than fully realized, performance choices)
• DRAMA INTERPRETATION: One or more selections of dramatic literature (plays, screenplays) by any author(s) from any period are used in a 10-minute program. If two or more selections are used, they should be developed around a central theme.
• POETRY INTERPRETATION: One or more poetry selections by any author(s) from any period are used in a 10-minute program. If two or more selections are used, they should be developed around a central theme.
• PROSE INTERPRETATION: One or more prose selections (novels, short stories, etc.) by any author(s) from any period. If two or more selections are used, they should be developed around a central theme.
• PROGRAM ORAL INTERPRETATION: A thematic program made up of two or more selections from two or more literary genres (i.e. prose, poetry, drama). The 10-minute presentation should include an appropriate introduction and, if necessary, transitions.
• DUO INTERPRETATION: This 10-minute event consists of a team of two persons who perform a cutting, cuttings, or a complete scene from a single piece of literature. Any genre of literature is permitted and the contestants may play two or more characters.
• INTERPRETERS THEATER: The interpretation of a piece or pieces of literature by a group of three or more oral readers who act as a medium of expression for an audience. All types of literature (poetry, prose and/or drama) may be employed. The 25 minute presentation usually remains in the realm of suggestion and stimulates the audience’s imagination. Movement is used liberally.
