Individual events (speech)

Individual events in speech include public speaking, acting, reading, and interpretation. Competitive speech competitions and debates comprise the area of forensics. Forensics leagues have a number of speech events, generally determined by geographical region or league preference. Forensics leagues in the United States include the National Speech and Debate Association, the American Forensics Association, the National Forensics Association, and Stoa USA. Organized competitions are held at the high-school and collegiate level.

Original Oratory, or Oratory, is one of the most common speech events and is the only public-speaking event at the National Forensic League National Tournament. In Original Oratory, a competitor prepares an original speech which may be informative or persuasive in nature. A competitor may use one speech for the entire season. The purpose of Oratory is to inspire belief or reinforce conviction.

At the high-school level, the speech is generally delivered without visual aids or notes. In many leagues (including the two U.S. tournaments), the number of directly-quoted words from other sources in the speech is limited; at the NFL nationals, the limit is 150 words. Speeches are generally eight to ten minutes in length, with a warning often given when the allowed time has expired; most tournaments have a 30-second grace period.

Persuasion is often considered the collegiate equivalent of Oratory. The focus of the event is to change, reinforce, or instill the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the audience. Although few rules that dictate what topics or formats are permissible in persuasion, most persuasion speeches are policy-based; speakers advocate a specific policy proposal to address a need, offering their recommendation in a problem-cause-solution or cause-effect-solution format. In 2006, the winning persuasion topics at the American Forensics Association (AFA) and National Forensics Association (NFA) were how to improve teacher retention and encourage citizens to correspond with their members of Congress.

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