What is National Speech and Debate?
What is Speech and Debate?
Speech and debate is a competitive circuit much like any other sport with competitions mainly taking place during the school year. Speech and debate serves to empower students and inspire the next generation of public speakers, leaders, and world changers. Students that participate in Speech and Debate acquire important public speaking mechanics, critical thinking skills, and develop confidence in themselves. Whether you are an introvert or an introvert, there is a place for everyone in Speech and Debate
What is National Speech and Debate?
National Speech and Debate or NSDA refers to a non profit organization and honor society founded in 1925. It is the largest organization for speech and debate and holds one of the most prestigious national Speech and Debate tournaments every year in June for middle school and high school students.
National Speech and Debate for Middle Schoolers
There are no qualifications that middle schoolers have to go through in order to compete at NSDA. Students can either register through their school if they offer a speech and debate program or through an outside Speech and Debate after school program. Regardless, NSDA is a great way to gain inspiration and test your skills at a national level with students all over the country.
National Speech and Debate for High Schoolers
Different from middle schoolers, high school students need to qualify for NSDA. As most public high schools offer speech and debate either as a club or a class, students need to first place high enough at their district qualifiers in order to gain a bid for nationals. Alternatively, students can also qualify for NSDA by doing well at their State tournament or earning enough NSDA points, which can be done by competing at many tournaments, for one. Speech and debate is not only a way to develop your public speaking and argumentative skills but can earn you scholarships and awards for your college application.
Other Tournaments besides National Speech and Debate Nationals
Speech and debate tournaments come at the local, state, national, and even international level, but for this blog, we will focus on the former three. Local tournaments are often on a smaller scale and allow students to gain feedback on their pieces early on in the season. For students new to Speech and Debate, competing at your local speech and debate tournament is a great way to start and gain valuable competitive experience you do not get through merely practicing. High schoolers are eligible for state tournaments if they qualify their events at their district qualifiers by placing high enough. As for national tournaments, there are several different national tournaments besides NSDA. Tournament of Champions and National Individual Tournament of Champions are just two of the others while many universities like Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley host national tournaments with students from all over the country.
Speech
The way that I like to explain it is that speech is a form of storytelling, a way for you to share your message and make your audience feel something, whether that’s making them laugh, cry, angry, passionate, or inspired. For speech, you are the only one on that stage and you get to command the full attention of the people in the room who have no choice but to listen to you speak for the next few minutes. Speech, under National Speech and Debate (NSDA) guidelines, are separated into three main categories:
Limited Prep
Limited prep events are exactly what the name suggests. Students are presented with prompts in which they have a limited amount of time to prepare before getting up and delivering an impromptu speech in front of their audience. Limited prep events force students to think on their feet and how to effectively communicate their ideas even when under pressure. Limited prep events are:
Impromptu
7 minute run time total (2 minute prep and 5 minute speech)
Given three topics. Choose one to interpret and provide reasoning on the thesis you come up with
Topics can be words, quotations, or proverbs. Some tournaments can get more creative with prompts like physical objects.
Follows a typical essay structure (intro - 3 body paragraphs - conclusion)
Extemporaneous
30 minute prep + 7 minute speech
Research on a question regarding current events
Separated into international, domestic, and mixed
SPAR (Spontaneous Argument)
Spontaneous Argumentation
2-5-2 minute structure
Affirmative/Negation Constructive (your speech), Cross X (questioning), Rebuttal
Interpretation
As summarized by NSDA, “Interpretation events center upon a student selecting and performing published material and appeal to many who enjoy acting and theatre.” In “interp” events, students do not write their own pieces but use material already published by others, memorize it, and perform it in a version that is usually 10 minutes or less depending on the event. Some events require a lot of physicality and movements in their acting while other events emphasize emoting and how well the speaker is able to convey the emotions of their piece. If you are into theatre, acting, or just want to try something outside of your comfort zone, interp events are for you.
Characters, Storyline
Humorous Interpretation (HI) Video, Fresh off the Boat My favorite one ever
Entertaining, funny! Big on movements and characters
Movies, TV shows, books
10 minutes
Dramatic Interpretation (DI) Video
Emotional journey, serious documents: terminal illness, historical situations, discrimination
Strong emotions for performer and audience
Dramatic stories, monologues, newspapers, magazine, short story
Storytelling (STO) How does he even do that? XD
Children's’ book
5 minutes
Can use chair
Poetry Video
Program/Collection of published poems with a common theme
Poems/Song Lyrics
Black book
Prose 2019 Prose Champion
Up to 7 minutes
Black book
Short stories, novels, fiction, nonfiction, The Moth Podcast, Audiobook
NOT: TV show, movie, youtube, poetry, dramatic/humorous interpretation, storytelling
Duo (10:00)
2 people
10 minutes
Dialogue, interview, TV shows, movies, plays, musicals
CAN'T look at partner
CANT touch each other
POI I wanted to cry
Combo of everything - poetry, prose, drama (plays)
Platform
The final speech category is platform. “Platform events feature a speech written by the student, that can answer a question, share a belief, persuade an audience, or educate the listener on a variety of topics.” These are speeches that are written by you! So for those writers out there, platform is the event that provides you a “platform” for your ideas.
Informative, persuasive, and written by YOU!
Expository (EXP) “Confident I Didn’t Need a Title”
5 minute informative speech, without a visual aid
Informative (INF) Info on Aviation!
10 minute personable informative speech, with visual aid
Original Oratory (OO) My favorite OO EVER
Passionate, persuasive speech!
Original Prose and Poetry (offered through CHSSA)/Original Spoken Word Poetry (offered through NSDA) “What Guys Look For In Girls”
5 minute original creative work!
Declamation (DEC) 2023 NSDA MS Champion
Put your own spin on speeches given before! Commencement addresses, TED Talks, Historical Speeches etc.
Debate
Debate events are usually more head to head in which students, competing either individually or in teams, argue for or against topics usually centered around current events. The different types of debate events offered by NSDA are:
Big Questions (BQ)
Congressional Debate (House & Senate) (CON)
Extemporaneous Debate (XDB)
Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD)
Policy Debate (CX)
Public Forum Debate (PF)
World Schools Debate (WS)
Speech and debate is a great opportunity for students to develop your skills.
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