What We Do

The forensics program at Truman State University offers a broad range of events for students participation. The controlling philosophy at Truman is one of cross-training in forensics. That is, we try to make sure that all students have an opportunity to participate in a number of different events across genres, including debate.

What's This "Individual Events" and "Debate" Stuff?

Students at Truman can participate in parliamentary debate (offered by the National Parliamentary Debate Association), Lincoln-Douglas Debate (offered by the National Forensic Association) and any of the eleven individual speaking events offered by the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) and the National Forensic Association (which offers nine). Debate and individual events competition takes place at joint invitational tournaments throughout the season, culminating in three separate national championship tournaments in the spring.

Individual Events

Extemporaneous Speaking: Extemporaneous speakers receive topics of current national, international or economic importance on which to present a seven minute speech. Students spend thirty minutes preparing, researching and learning their speech, which is designed to persuade an audience about the validity of the speaker's analysis when answering the question.

Impromptu Speaking: Impromptu speakers receive a quotation, object or other similar prompt on which they are to prepare and deliver a speech in a total of seven minutes (preparation is usually about 1-2 minutes of the total of seven). Speakers draw on a body of examples to make an argument in support or rejection of a thesis abstracted from the prompt.

Informative Speaking: Speakers provide an approximately 8-10 minute speech designed to impart new and useful information to the audience. The speech is usually memorized and visual aids are often employed.

Persuasive Speaking: Speakers provide an approximately 8-10 minute speech designed to convince the audience to adopt a new belief or take a specified action. The speech is usually memorized and visual aids are sometimes employed.

After Dinner Speaking: Speakers provide an approximately 8-10 minute speech delivering an informative or persuasive message through the use of humor. While the speech sometimes employs elements of stand-up comedy, the object of event is to use humor for the advancement of a rhetorical goal. The speech is usally memorized and visual aids are often employed.

Rhetorical Criticism: Speakers provide an approximately 8-10 minute speech providing an analysis and critique of a rhetorical artifact (such as a speech, an advertisement, a monument, or a common communication practice). A scholarly methodology or analytical perspective is employed as a lens for the analysis of the selected artifact, requiring the speaker to both educate the audience about an approach to criticism and make an application.

Prose Interpretation: Speakers provide a roughly 8-10 minute presention interpreting a piece of published prose. Usually, but not always, this is a single piece of prose literature. The script is generally memorized, but a manuscript is employed.

Poetry Interpretation: Speakers provide a roughly 8-10 minute presention interpreting a piece, or multiple pieces, of published poetry. What constitutes poetry is fairly widely interpreted. The script is generally memorized, but a manuscript is employed. The poetry program is usually organized around a unifying theme.

Duo Interpretation: Two students provide a roughly 8-10 minute interpretation of a piece of drama. The script is generally memorized, but a manuscript is employed. Community conventions govern acceptable forms of movement, contact of the performers and so forth.

Program Oral Interpretation: A single student provides a roughly 8-10 minute program combinging elements of two or more genres of interpretation-worthy literature (prose, poetry, drama). The program is organized around a common theme or argument. The script is generally memorized, but a manuscript is employed.

Dramatic Interpretation: A single student interprets a piece of dramatic literature cut to roughly 8-10 minutes in length. The literature may be a monolgue or contain multiple voices, so long as it was authored with the purpose of dramatic performance. The script is generally memorized, but a manuscript is employed.

Parliamentary Debate

Common throughout the United States, Canada and most of the English-speaking world, parliamentary debate is the most popular form of intercollegiate debate in the world and it is growing quickly even in non-English-speaking environments. The format employs some of the stylistic conventions of the British House of Commons, however, as practiced in the United States (NPDA-style) parliamentary debate much more resembles high school and collegiate policy debate. The most notable differences between the two genres are the lack of evidence ("cards") and the general lack of speed in delivery. Argument by example and from common knowledge becomes the primary vehicle for demonstrating proof in this environment.

Topics are different in every round and students receive the topic 15-25 minutes before the debate begins. In essence, parliamentary debate merges some characteristics of policy debate and extemporaneous speaking, as arguments in parliamentary debate are developed with relatively limited preparation.

In 2004 over 300 teams competed in the NPDA National Tournament, making it the largest intercollegiate debate tournament in history. The debate is formatted as follows:

NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Lincoln-Douglas debate is a one-on-one format of policy debate. The time limits are somewhat similar to high school Lincoln-Douglas, but unlike that format, debaters use the same topic all year. The type of arguments and use of evidence are very similar to policy debate on the high school level. NFA-LD lacks the speed found in other policy formats (NDT and CEDA), but employs some of the same technical tools.

What Do These Events Look Like?

The Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association has assembled a nice package of sample speeches presented at one of their seminars. Most of these speeches were championship speeches in individual events. Check them out!

http://www.moorparkcollege.edu/pscfa/Videos.htm

Tournaments

Students compete in intercollegiate tournaments on college campuses across the country. These tournaments normally consist of six preliminary rounds of debate and two preliminary rounds of individual events, followed by an appropriate number of elimination rounds based on the size of the tournament. Tournaments consist of multiple colleges and universities (generally at least ten...often many more) and dozens, if not hundreds, of individual competitors and coaches.

At Truman, all of a student's primary expenses for competition are paid for by the University. This includes all entry fees, transporation costs (auto, rentals, airfare), hotel lodging and a modest daily meal allowance. Students are only responsible for the cost of office supplies needed for competition, tournament-appropriate clothing and occasional extra meal expenses.

National Competition

Truman normally competes in two national competitions each year--one in individual events and one in parliamentary debate (AFA-NIET and NPDA). Truman recently changed its individual events affiliation from the National Forensic Association (NFA) to the AFA-NIET (effective 2004-2005 academic year). In years where students qualify for the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) or the Interstate Oratorical Contest (IOA), additional national competition is added to the schedule on a funds-available basis. Truman is also a member of Pi Kappa Delta, a national collegiate honorary, which holds national tournaments every-other-year. Truman participates in these tournaments when its schedule and the tournament's location permit.

Campus Exhibitions

Truman Forensics has a long tradition of campus exhibitions. Several exhibition debates are offered each year, exposing students to a publicly-accessible variation of the kinds of debates seen in intercollegiate tournaments. Individual events competitors often hold showcase events and present their work to speech classes as a way of reinforcing the work done there.

Outreach

Truman has participated in a number of outreach efforts, including judging at high school tournaments, sponsoring a summer camp, hosting tournaments, leading workshops and in-services for teachers, authoring topic papers for the national high school topic selection process, and providing trainers for international debate programs, such as the FLTRP Cup (pictured bottom left) in Beijing.