The class meets daily during the term and students travel extensively to intercollegiate competitions. The precise requirements of the course are explained in the syllabus. Students may take forensics credit each semester that they compete for the squad and each January Term. As a co-curricular activity, forensics offers intensive training in public speaking, argumentation, rhetorical analysis, research, critical thinking and performance studies. Forensics is also interdisciplinary.
Students learn to see problems and solutions from a variety of perspectives.
A single debate topic, for example, might involve research that spans a number of disciplines. In addition, students learn to approach questions of fact, questions of value and questions of policy from the framework that is appropriate to each type of question.