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Competitive debating stayed a primarily intercollegiate activity until Bruno E. Jacob founded the National Forensic League (NFL)—since renamed as the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA)—in 1925. A professor at Ripon College, Jacob was inspired by a letter he received asking if a debate league for high school students existed.
The topics for public forum have to do with current-day events relating to public policy. Debaters work in pairs of two, and speakers alternate for every speech. It is primarily competed by middle and high school students, but college teams exist as well.
World Schools Style debates include an additional speech from each team, called the reply speech. This is a short, four-minute speech given by either the first or second speaker from the team, and presented in the opposite speaking order to the rest of the debate (i.e. the Opposition deliver the first reply speech, followed by the Proposition).
For example, an impromptu debate in Policy Style style, for example, might follow the Policy speech format but with radically altered content or speech lengths. The format is conducted in a different way than typical debates. The rules are bent to provide the students with minimal to zero experience in debating to participate in the debate.
Traditionally, rebuttals were half the length of constructive speeches, 8–4 min in high school and 10–5 min in college. The now-prevailing speech time of 8–5 min in high school and 9-5 in college was introduced in the 1990s. Some states, such as Missouri, Massachusetts and Colorado, still use the 8–4 min format at the high school level.
Original Oratory (often shortened to "OO") is a competitive event in the National Speech and Debate Association, Stoa USA, National Catholic Forensic League, and other high school forensic competitions in which competitors deliver an original, factual speech on a subject of their choosing. Though the rules for the category change from ...
Inter-collegiate and high school policy debate are largely similar. Some of the differences: High school debate has its own, separate, leagues and tournaments. High school constructives are typically only 8 minutes, and high school rebuttals are typically only 5 minutes. College times are typically 9 minute constructives and 6 minute rebuttals.
The reply speech is scored on a scale between 30-40. In each debate, the team with the most 'ballots' win the debate. Each judge has one ballot, which they give to the team they believe won the debate, by convention the team with the higher total speaker score.