The Ohio High School Speech League (OHSSL) is the body that organizes high school forensic competition in the state of Ohio. The OHSSL provides all of the National Forensic League events, but also provides several other events including Declamation. In the 2001-2002 season, Impromptu Speaking was added as an experimental event. The following year Impromptu was made an official OHSSL event. Following the 2013-2014 season, Impromptu was removed as an OHSSL event. OHSSL also offers many other common events such as debate and IE events such as International and United States Extemporaneous Speaking, Duo Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, and Original Oratory. Each of the state districts takes part in a district tournament, called "Littles", where a set number of people can move on to compete in the State Championship.
Duet Acting is an event in competitive high school forensics. Similar to Duo Interpretation, Duet Acting varies in two major respects: first, Duet is not an official National Forensic League event although some state organizations, such as the Texas Forensic Association, the Louisiana High School Speech League, and (formerly) the Ohio High School Speech League practice the event. Secondly, unlike Duo, in which the actors are not permitted to make eye contact with each other or touch each other, Duet incorporates an element of acting. Cuttings must be made from scripts.
Dramatic Interpretation is an event in National Speech and Debate Association high school forensics competitions. In the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association the event is combined with Humorous Interpretation to create the Dramatic Performance event. It consists of a piece from any published work, edited to fit within a 10-minute span with a 30-second grace period.
The National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) is a speech and debate league that was formed in 1951. It is organized into regions which correspond to Roman Catholic dioceses. Member schools include both public and parochial high schools. The NCFL recruits member schools in both the United States and Canada. As of January, 2011, there were 65 active dioceses with NCFL leagues. The IRS recognizes the NCFL as an organization eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable donations.
Congressional Debate is a form of interscholastic high school debate in the United States. The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) and many state associations and national invitational tournaments offer Congressional Debate as an event. Each organization and tournament offers its own rules, although the National Forensic League has championed standardization since 2007, when it began to ask its districts to use one of a number of procedures for qualification to its National Tournament. The Pakistan Student Congress event is a conference, and not interscholastic competition.
Individual events in speech include public speaking, limited preparation, and acting and interpretation and are a part of forensics competitions. These events do not include the several different forms of debate offered by many tournaments. These events are called individual events because they tend to be done by one person unlike debate which often includes teams. This distinction however is not entirely accurate any more given the addition of duo interpretation events and forms of single person debate. 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. While there are several key events that have been around a long time, there are several experimental events around the country every year that can be limited to individual tournaments. 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. Outside of the rules for each event provided by the individual leagues, there are several cultural norms within each region that are not written into law but are almost always followed. Rules for time limits vary by event and by individual tournaments, but there are penalties in every event for exceeding the time limits though the severity of the penalty widely varies.
Humorous Interpretation is an event in competitive middle and high school forensics leagues such as the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association and the National Speech and Debate Association. It consists of a piece from any published work, edited to fit within a 10-minute span with a 30-second grace period. It is judged based upon how the person portrays his or her characters and whether the piece is humorous. Ideally proper portrayal of characters should achieve a comedic effect to the judge. Humorous Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation pieces are often used for the National Catholic Forensic League category of Dramatic Performance, which has similar rules but allows for a wider variety of pieces.
Minnesota High School Speech refers to the competitive forensics system in the state of Minnesota. These activities are currently coordinated and organized by the Minnesota State High School League, otherwise known as the MSHSL.
The Texas Forensic Association (TFA) is an organization that provides and regulates competition in speech and debate (forensics) for Texas high school students. The association authorizes forensics competitions nearly every weekend in Texas for the duration of the forensics season, which lasts from early August until the end of February, with the State competition typically in the first or second week of March.
Grand National Speech and Debate Tournament is the premier public speaking event of the National Catholic Forensic League. It is held annually in the United States over Memorial Day weekend. One can qualify for the tournament by performing sufficiently well in a local qualifying tournament.
Prose interpretation is a non-memorized competition event in which competitors choose a published piece of work that is a dramatic or humorous solo that is done in 1st person.
The Florida Forensic League, Inc., or FFL, is a speech and debate organization offered to all schools in the state of Florida. It is the governing body for local and state speech and debate competitions in Florida, with higher-level competition under the auspices of the National Forensic League and the National Catholic Forensic League. The league was officially incorporated by the State of Florida on November 20, 2003, and began operations on January 1, 2004, although it existed some time before then in an unorganized fashion. Competitors in the league have been extremely successful at national tournaments.
The Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) consists of member high schools from four districts in Iowa, United States, and offers three categories of competition: debate, large group, and individual events. At the end of each of the three contests, the Cooley Sweepstakes Trophy is awarded. To get to the all-state speech tournament, one must first proceed from the district and state tournaments. At district for speech, there is one judge who issues ratings and every team or individual who receives a "I" goes on. At State there are three judges, and two out of three must not only give a "I" rating, but also give a recommendation.
The Pennsylvania High School Speech League is a high school forensics league. The PHSSL state championship takes place yearly in March at Bloomsburg University. Each qualifying event contains 2 qualifiers from each district throughout Pennsylvania, and the non-qualifying events have one student from each participating school.
The Tarheel Forensic League is the speech and debate league for North Carolina. It was created in 1976 and is made up of 44 schools. League members compete in the debate events of Lincoln-Douglas debate, Public Forum debate, and Congressional debate. Speech events include Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Impromptu Speaking, Original Oratory, and Radio Announcing.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Forensics Team is a student-run, nationally competitive individual events (speech) team located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Forensics competitors hone the communication skills of writing, speaking, researching and brainstorming. The team competes in events which span the areas of public speaking, limited preparation and interpretation.
The Long Island Forensic Association is a non-profit organization which direct high school competitive speech events. It is affiliated with the New York State Forensics League.
The California High School Speech Association, or CHSSA, is a speech and debate organization offered to all schools in the state of California. It is the governing body for local and state speech and debate competitions in California, with higher-level competition under the auspices of the National Forensic League and the National Catholic Forensic League. The league held its first championship tournament in 1958, and continues to hold championship tournaments every April.
The American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) is an intercollegiate, individual events based forensics tournament held in conjunction with the first Saturday in April, beginning on the prior Friday and continuing through the subsequent Monday. Of the two most prominent college-level IE national tournaments, the AFA-NIET has significantly more stringent qualification procedures and a smaller, but more exclusive field of competition. The AFA-NIET represents the culmination of the forensics season for many collegiate speech teams.
