Individual events (speech)

Individual events in speech generally span the areas of public speaking, acting, reading, and interpretation. Competitive speech competitions, combined with debate, comprise the area of forensics. Different forensics leagues exist, each having a select number of speech events—these are generally determined by geographical region or league preference. Well-known forensics leagues include the National Forensics League, the American Forensics Association, the National Forensics Association, and the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association. Organized competition takes place both on the high school and collegiate level.

Public-Speaking Events

Original Oratory

Original Oratory, or simply Oratory, is one of the most common speech events, and is the only public speaking event offered as a main event at the National Forensic League (NFL) National Tournament. In Original Oratory, a competitor prepares a speech on a topic of his or her choosing, and can be informative or persuasive in nature. Often, a competitor may use only one speech for the entire season. The purpose of Oratory is to inspire belief or reinforce conviction.