<p>Which should I do: speech or debate? Could anyone give me details on either one?
EXTRA:
I am a REALLY good arguer, but I also enjoying theater. I am good at public speaking.</p>
<p>I think debate takes up more time (at my school anyway)…you also have to learn HOW to debate, because it’s not really just arguing. (There are a bunch of debate rules, etiquette, lingo, techniques, etc)
In speech there are many different categories you can choose from, so there will probably be at least one kind you enjoy
Why can’t you do both though?</p>
<p>it is pretty easy to find out which you like more. Would you rather prove people wrong or give an interesting speech? I was very very good at speech but actually enjoyed debate more because it brought a new topic every tourney as opposed to memorizing a speech.</p>
<p>How much time would you say debate takes</p>
<p>totally depends on your event and how your school does things. I did parli debate which was impromptu debating so no prep.</p>
<p>Public forum is once a month at my school. September, October, November, December, January, February, then States in March, and, if you qualify, Nationals in April or May.</p>
<p>But you dont have to go to every tournament. I usually go to September, qualify for states, then chill for a bit and go again in Jan and Feb to get warmed up for States.</p>
<p>It takes about 4 hours to do research and write the case (I am PF debate, so my partner writes the other half) then another hour to learn your speeches and maybe another hour to practice with a partner. So to be pretty well prepared for a debate tournament, it takes about 6 hours. And the tournaments are 9-4. So 1 debate tournament takes up about 13 hours. Not sure about speech.</p>
<p>It depends on your school, your league, your events, whether it has an attached class, et cetera. I spent something like 16 hours a week on average for one semester on debate. But I was the President and taught a full-time, 100-minute a day class on top of prep and tournaments. I varied events, but stuck more to one for my senior year. Also, the two were combined into one class/club at my school.</p>
<p>Speech and debate is really fun. It’s a lot of work, but defininately worth it. I personally do LD and PF debate, and I love it. In debate, you have to prepare to debate both sides of the resolution. And you need to negate EVERY SINGLE ONE of your opponent’s arguments. Sometimes, they may throw in a lot of arguments for the sake of wasting your time during your speech as you try to counter them. (This is called spreading.) And then you have to show how your own arguments outweigh theirs. It takes practice and getting used to, but it’s really worth the effort. </p>
<p>However, if you enjoy doing theater, you might be more inclined to do an interpretation (speech) event, in which you act out a part of a book/play.</p>