Introduction
While the Hornet Cup has historically been a "debate only" tournament, over the last few years we have begun to compete in extemporaneous speaking as well, so we decided to offer some limited prep speaking at our tournament. We are trying to approach this in a new and innovative way that we hope will be fun for the competitors while still having a quality tournament.
We encourage you to enter your students in "The Triathlon" - a series of three limited-prep speaking events that will be scored cumulatively towards one triathlon champion.
We encourage you to enter your students in "The Triathlon" - a series of three limited-prep speaking events that will be scored cumulatively towards one triathlon champion.
How The Triathlon will work
The triathlon is a new event that we are adding to the Hornet Cup this season. It will be a three round event that poses a different limited-preparation prompt for competitors in each round. Competitors would compete in all three rounds, with no final round. Each round will have three judges (depending on judge availability). Placement would be based on cumulative scores from all three rounds. We will announce the top three, with first place being the triathlon champion.
Round one: Impromptu Speaking We will follow NFA guidelines for impromptu speaking.
Round two: Extemporaneous Speaking We will follow NFA guidelines for extemporaneous speaking.
Round three: Declamation This is a new event we will describe below.
Round one: Impromptu Speaking We will follow NFA guidelines for impromptu speaking.
Round two: Extemporaneous Speaking We will follow NFA guidelines for extemporaneous speaking.
Round three: Declamation This is a new event we will describe below.
Declamation Speaking
In the eighteenth century, a classical revival of the art of public speaking, often referred to as The Elocution Movement was underway. While elocution focused on the voice—articulation, diction, and pronunciation— declamation focused on delivery of the speech. For this event, we have modified the idea of declamation as a limited preparation event. Similar to the model of an extemp round, speakers will enter a common prep room to await their prompt. When their speaker number is drawn, the student will be given three speech transcripts to choose from. For our online tournament, these transcripts will be found in a speechdrop.net room and the student will be given the code at draw time. The students will then have 30 minutes to select their speech, cut/edit, and practice the speech. At the end of their 30 minute prep time, the student should go to their competition room and deliver a five minute speech. This five minute cutting should adhere to the original manuscript much in the way an interp cutting would. The student does not need to rewrite or paraphrase the speech. This is not a speech about the speech, we want the students to focus on delivering their cutting of the original manuscript.
Judges should evaluate the declamation speech based on delivery and effectiveness of the cutting. We have selected our speeches from a long list of historically notable speeches, but the students will have very little control over the content and message of the speech. Feedback about the argument being made in the speech, anachronistic terminology, or the political beliefs of the original speaker, will NOT be helpful to the competitors.
Judges should evaluate the declamation speech based on delivery and effectiveness of the cutting. We have selected our speeches from a long list of historically notable speeches, but the students will have very little control over the content and message of the speech. Feedback about the argument being made in the speech, anachronistic terminology, or the political beliefs of the original speaker, will NOT be helpful to the competitors.