The Speaking/Forensics thread

[the ghost]

I am not an athlete, I am not a musician, I am not really an actor... so what is it that I do? I participate in my schools(Cal State University Fullerton) debate team. I originally thought it was a pretty specific hobby, but it turns out I am often surprised how many people have participated in the activity. For me personally there are a lot of really cool things about public speaking as a competitive event, like a lot of people do not realize how many events are involved, and one of the reasons I created this thread, because a lot of different people compete in a lot of different events. For example, besides debate there are pros and poetry, where people analyze poetry and what it means, there are dramatic interpretations that can include anything from curse filled monologues in movies to full on musical numbers from Broadway shows.

 

I created this thread for two main reasons... one reason is to see who else does it and what they compete in, what they are researching, what they find interesting about speech/debate and pretty much anything in the confines of public speaking or debating.

 

The other reason is to hopefully encourage people to join... especially those still in school. It really is a great activity as you learn a lot, get to travel to awesome places throughout the state and country, as well as getting potential trophies and even scholarships not to mention being extremely rewarding, or at least I personally find it to be.

 

Now here is a warning so the mods don't kill me... While this is a thread discussing the "sport" of public speaking as well as debating this is not a thread for debating. If you find interesting articles or are particularly interested in a topic you can talk about it, but as a general rule politics and things of that nature are usually a no no here on TPR and while they may come up in regards to discussions of competition keep it civil... THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR DEBATING, BUT A THREAD FOR SPEAKERS/DEBATERS!!!! discuss the activity, even discuss what you are debating, but do not argue... seems kind of ironic I know, but the last thing I want to do is start a flame war, I just wanted to see if there are others who participate as well.

 

Lastly(this is VERY important) while your coaches or team mates are probably not members of tpr BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU POST! For example, while I can say that we are currently debating alternate energy solutions(which is the nation wide topic in college policy debate) and while I can say that we are using OTEC(oceanic thermal energy conversion) I will not get any more specific than that because I don't want to give any of our evidence away. It's not that I don't trust you guys... your all awesome, but I don't even trust my parents with my evidence files because if they were to somehow get "out there" not only would our entire strategy be ruined, but I would also be letting down the entire team as a lot of us use similar evidence. By all means discuss what you are debating, but just be careful.

 

I have seen threads here for runners, actors, athletes, and a huge variety of other activities. This is my activity and it would be VERY COOL if others have similar interests and would like to discuss them here.

[imawesome1124]

I'm not on a "debating team", but I have had some very heated arguments with one of my teachers about hockey. He's a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I'm a Washington Capitals fan, the teams hate each other, and debates about hockey between us tend to get out of hand.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

I did speech/debate my freshman year and it was extremely time consuming. My coach ended up becoming my AP and we got a new coach mid-year. It was crazy, I won't forget staying up until 2am working on a case. I did a spoof of twilight with a friend of mine for duet and duo interpretation where Edward was his actual age (like 107) and I had to act elderly. The judges loved it. My partner ended up perusing a dramatic interpretation so we ditched the duo and I did an oratory on superstition that was a measly 5:00 long. My coach made us eventually all experiment with debate, so I did Lincoln Douglas for ONE tourney and I think I only won one round. We ended up debating whether or not juveniles should be tried as adults.

 

I was also on varsity swim team so I ended up quitting after my first year to focus more on swim and the load is much less heavier than it was. I'm not sure how high cool forensics differs from collegiate forensics, but this is my experience with debate.

 

One thing I do miss is the look on people's faces when I told them I was member of the NFL. (Debate nerds know this quite well.)

[AllenA07]

I'm a criminal trial lawyer, so public speaking is no stranger to me. I also sit a a judge for local mock trial competitions. Not exactly the same thing, but a distant cousin to formal debating.