In impromptu speaking, contestants receive short excerpts dealing with items of general interest, political, economic, and social issues. They have a total of seven minutes to divide between preparation and speaking. Students should speak for at least three minutes. All contestants in the same section speak on the same topic. In extemporaneous speaking, contestants select one of three topics on current national and international events.
Contestants have thirty minutes to prepare a five to seven minute speech on the topic selected.
Notes are permissible but should be at a minimum. Other team members did so well in the preliminary rounds that they narrowly missed qualifying for the final rounds, Murphy says. Jennifer Rusak narrowly missed qualifying for the semi-finals in debate and scored very well in persuasive speaking. Devon Theiler continued her improvement in informative speaking and other dramatic interpretation events. And Kenya Flash performed very well in poetry, missing qualification for the final round only because her preliminary rounds all involved others who did qualify.