Screw it, Let's Debate...

Image Credit: Blogs

So, if you have been following along in my blogging journey, you may have noticed that I have recently taken up Debate. Well, this week I placed third in my region for Oratory, and I get to go to the state tournament in two weeks! I think I might just die of excitement from this. Anyways, since I'm probably going to be talking about Debate a lot, I thought I should give you a run-down on what the hell it is I'm going to be talking about.

*Cue the jeopardy music, because I'm going to learn you a thing.*

Let's begin with Debate itself. Debate is technically Forensics, and no, not the science. This kind of Forensics is the study of public speaking. If you are in Debate and you do well, you get registered into the National Forensics League, or the NFL (apparently they are also called the National Speech and Debate Association). This confuses most people because a) Debate is not Forensic Science and b) Debate is most definitely not the popular American sport that I personally think should be called hand egg, because this game rarely has anything to do with the feet.

Now that that's out of the way, here are the events that are in a common Debate repertoire:

IE: Individual events

These events include:

Oratory: You write a speech that is between seven and ten minutes long about something inspiring or something you think people need to know. Then you memorize it and recite it, multiple times. (WARNING: Some people confuse depressing life turmoil with inspirational. I have cried while doing this event/listening to other people's speeches.)

Impromptu: You get three topics, pick one, prepare a three point speech about that topic in two minutes, then recite it from memory in five minutes. If you like speech giving but don't want to prepare, this is your event.

Extemporaneous (Extemp): This is basically Impromptu, except you get thirty minutes to prepare your speech, choosing from three current event based topics. National Extemp deals with events that are occurring in the US, and Foreign Extemp deals with problems that are happening globally (e.g. the revolutions in the Ukraine). If you like the idea of Impromptu, but want an extra challenge, try Extemp.

DI/HI/DUO: DI stands for Dramatic Interpretation/Interp. Pick a "cutting" piece from a movie, book, or play, memorize it and perform it (when I tried this I did Clara Oswald's 'Impossible Girl' speech from The Name of the Doctor, and one of my competitor's did an excerpt from The Killing Joke). HI stands for Humorous Interp. Honestly, HI is more difficult than DI because, let's face it, not everyone is funny. Things that I've seen done were a ghetto remake of Go! Diego, Go! and the witch scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail. Duo Interp is is basically HI or DI with two people. This event is for the theater geeks who want to put something that is substantial on their resume for college or for a job. (Really, Debate is a great thing to have on a resume).

Debate Events: These are the events where you actually get down and debate.

Congress: Pretty self explanatory, Congress is like the US Congress, but they actually get stuff done. There's a lot of complicated stuff about bills and priority and speaker points that I pretend to understand but really don't. Basically, if you have interest in the law making side of politics , Congress is a good thing to try.

Public Forum (PF): This is a partner event in which you have a topic for each month that you write speeches for, an affirmative and a negative, and then you and your partner are assigned one side or the other and go up against a team that has the opposing view point. I've never done this one, but Steven has and he's going to the state tournament for it so maybe he can explain it better.

Lincoln-Douglas (LD): Um, I don't really know much about this one... I think it has something to do with morals and why we should have certain morals...? Abi you are welcome to correct me if I am wrong.

SPAR: This is the thing in which you get a topic, a position, and thirty seconds (I think) to come up with an argument. I've never done it, but it seems fun. Most people don't really take this seriously, it's more of a practice event.

Policy: I don't even know where to start on this one. From what I've heard, Policy is like Extemp and PF had a love child that started doing cocaine, but instead of going crack head crazy it became the biggest logic bomb in the universe. And I kind of want to try it out for next year...

Welp, that's basically it...

Oh wait, I forgot one thing. The big thing with Debate tournaments is that they are usually on school nights and they usually result in hours of emotional stress that doesn't end until somewhere around ten and you don't get home until somewhere around midnight. It's basically the mind sport for crazy people.*

*And we Park City kids are the craziest of the crazies. At most tournaments, people don't want to sit near us because we are blasting Finnish Death Metal or talking about the constitutional right to screw horses (long story, and "like riding a horse regularly, it's all in the dismount!").

So, yeah, that's my rant for today. Valete!