Students benefit from a wide variety of speech and debate events. To create standards for national competition, the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) has defined a number of events, described below. These events are prevalent in the United States, and many states adopt the NSDA’s rules and guidelines for each event.

Congressional Debate is like a simulation of the real United States legislature. A group of 10-25 students, called a Chamber, will compete in a legislative session. A series of bills and resolutions will be proposed by students from various schools. Students in turn will be selected by a presiding officer — a student elected to conduct the business of the round — to give speeches both advocating for and encouraging the defeat of the measure in front of them. Following each speech, competitors will be able to pose questions of the speaker. Once debate is exhausted on a particular item, the chamber will vote either to pass or fail the legislation, and debate moves on to the next item.

World Schools Debate Teams are composed of 5 debaters and is a three-on-three format. While a given team may consist of five members, only three students from a team participate in a given debate. Resolutions come in two types: prepared motions and impromptu motions. Teams will be assigned one of two sides in each round- either the government team proposing the motion or the opposition team advocating the rejection of the motion. Debaters present their position on a topic, refute their opponents, and respond to questions throughout the course of the debate.

The spirit of the event comes from one of the most common forms of civil discourse the general public will come in contact with. Facts, figures, statistics, and persuasive tactics are the key characteristics of this format that make it approachable to all competitors and judges alike.

LD’s lineage dates back to the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial election. The series of debates were largely focused on addressing slavery’s extension into the territories. Debaters today evaluate moral and ethical issues presented in the resolutions through philosophical thought experiments. Sometimes the journey to the objective is more important than reaching it. Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Is it ever an acceptable amount of harm we can tolerate in a society? These are the kinds of questions that await you.

Students compete in a one-on-one format with limited prep time to prepare for the topic they are to debate. Students present arguments and engage in rebuttals, however, unlike other common debate events, students debate a number of topics, as opposed to a single topic for the entire tournament. Each round students are presented a unique resolution. They are given a minimum of thirty minutes to prepare for the round.

n Original Oratory, students deliver a self-written, ten-minute speech on a topic of their choosing. Competitors craft an argument using evidence, logic, and emotional appeals. Topics range widely, and can be informative or persuasive in nature.

Prose is an event in which students will use a short story, parts of a novel, or other published works of prose to construct a speech. Prose combines multiple elements of oral interpretation of literature.

Impromptu is a public speaking event where students have seven minutes to select a topic, brainstorm their ideas, outline the speech, and finally, deliver the speech. The speech is given without notes and uses an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Radio broadcast is a speech event in which a student presents a classic, "top-of-the-hour" news broadcast in the voice of a single professional broadcaster. Content is focused on the last 48 hours prior to the competition.