National Forensic League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| National Forensic League | |
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| Type | Non Profit Organization |
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| Founded | 1925 |
| Headquarters | Ripon, Wisconsin |
| Key people | William Woods Tate Jr, President J. Scott Wunn, Executive Secretary |
| Website | http://www.nflonline.org/ |
The National Forensic League is one of two major U.S. national organizations which direct high school competitive speech events. (The other is the National Catholic Forensic League or NCFL.). The National Committee meets several times a year for rules revision. The officials vote on each rule change, which affects the entire high school forensics community.
The word "forensic" is an adjective meaning "of public debate or argument." The word is derived from the Latin word forensis, meaning "of the forum." The sense of the word "forensic" that means "pertaining to legal trials" dates from the 1600s (Oxford English Dictionary) and led to the use of the word "forensics" in reference to legal evidence.
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[edit] History
Founded May 25, 1925, the NFL hosted the first national high school speech tournament in 1930 with 49 schools from 17 states. National speech and debate tournaments were not held during World War II; however, due to encouragement by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the national Student Congress continued to be held. By and large the rules that governed that tournament are still in effect today providing one of the longest running national competitions for high school students. Approximately 1 million high school students have been members of the NFL since its establishment in 1925.
[edit] Events
| Part of the series Policy Debate |
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| Organization | |
| Policy debate competitions |
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| Structure of policy debate · Resolution |
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Affirmative · Negative · Judge |
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Stock Issues · Case· Disadvantage |
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| Argumentative Concepts | |
Each year, the NFL hosts the National Speech and Debate Tournament. This tournament attracts over 3000 high school students who compete for national honors in a wide variety of events. These events include:
- Policy Debate (Cross Examination: CX)
- Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD)
- Public Forum Debate (PFD) (Controversy/Ted Turner Debate)
- Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking (FX or IX)
- Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking (DX or USX or NX)
- Original Oratory (OO)
- Dramatic Interpretation (DI)
- Humorous Interpretation (HI)
- Duo Interpretation / Duet Acting (DA)
- Student Congress (Congress)
- Prose Interpretation {PR or Prose} (supplemental event in National Tournament)
- Poetry Interpretation {PO or Poetry} (supplemental event in National Tournament)
- Extemporaneous Speaking (supplemental event in National Tournament)
- Expository Address (supplemental event in National Tournament)
- Impromptu Speaking (consolation event in National Tournament)
- Storytelling (consolation event in National Tournament)
All the above events are NFL-sponsored events which one can compete in at the NFL National Tournament. There is also talk of Prose and Poetry becoming full events at the National Tournament, as well as the addition of Programmed Oral Interpretation (POI) as a supplemental event.[citation needed]
[edit] The Rostrum
The Rostrum is the official monthly magazine of the National Forensic League. The magazine was originally titled the Bulletin, which was first published in 1926. Since its creation, the Rostrum has evolved into a forum for debate education and news, soliciting articles from coaches and debaters. The Rostrum is a popular place for debate camps and brief companies to place their advertisements supporting the magazine. The Rostrum is free to all NFL members, and also contains information on results from the national tournament, opinion pieces on the evolving debate world, and strategy tips for debaters.
[edit] Points
Those who participate in competitive forensics earn points for their efforts. In the debate events, a win in a round is worth six points while a loss is worth three. In the speech events, there are three point brackets; original speeches, worth six points, interpretation events, worth five points, and speaking events, worth four points. Six-point events include Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, and Expository; first place in one of these rounds earns a competitor six points, second earns the competitor five, third earns four, etc. Five-point events include Prose, Poetry, Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Dual Interpretation. The four-point event category is reserved for events such as Impromptu Speaking.
National Forensic League Points (NFL points) are employed in the scoring system used by the National Forensic League to rank competitors' lifetime progress, and to determine how many competitors a school may register in an NFL District Tournament.
In debate events, the winner (or both members of the winning team) each earn six points, and the loser earns three. In speaking events, points vary with the speaker's place in the round. Competitors in events that involve creating original material such as: Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking (FX), Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking (DX), Original Oratory (OO), Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD), Public Forum Debate (PF) and Policy Debate (CX) each earn more points than competitors in events that involve interpreting previously published material such as Prose (PR), Poetry (PO), Humorous Interpretation (HI), Duet Acting (DA), and Dramatic Interpretation (DI). The least expected points are categorized in "Speaking" events. These include Impromptu (Imp), and any other optional speaking events. In years past, Student Congress (StuCo) speeches given each received a score of up to six points. New NFL rules now allow up to eight points per speech. Commonly more than one judge scores each speech in Student Congress, so in this case the scores of the judges are averaged and rounded up to calculate the speech score.
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Interpretation |
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Speaking |
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Members can only earn up to 750 points in each of the three areas of competition: debate, speaking events (original oratory, extemporaneous speaking and the interpretative events), and Student Congress. Points earned at NFL District Tournaments and the NFL National Tournament are not subject to the 750-point cap. The point limit was raised in 2004 from 500 points.
Members can also earn "service points", which accrue for certain activities outside of speech competition. Delivering speeches before audiences of twenty-five or more adults, for instance, earns a fixed number of service points.
As a member accumulates points, they earn NFL degrees. Each degree corresponds to the jeweling pattern of an NFL pin which the degree-holder is authorized to wear, and to a seal which will be placed on the degree-holder's membership certificate. The following are the Membership Degrees:
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Distinction |
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Ruby |
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Distinction |
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Ruby |
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Distinction |
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Ruby |
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Distinction |
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Ruby |
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It should be noted that NFL pins are by no means ubiquitous; some competitors in some areas are more likely to wear them; other competitors in other areas may abstain from them, and even consider them to be highly pretentious. In some forms of speech competition, advertising one's standing with a pin may also place one at a minor tactical disadvantage.
[edit] Point Archive: Coach/Instructor
School Instructors also receive points, which are dependent upon their students' performances. The instructor receives 1/10 of a point for each point received by one of the instructor's students. The better the team, the better recognition of the instructor. Instructors follow the exact same degree as students; however, an instructor receives a diamond after accumulating point totals of 1,500, 3,000 and every 3,000 points thereafter. All instructor points are dependent upon the performance of the instructor's team, although the coach or coaches decide how to award accumulated coaching points among themselves.
[edit] Membership
According to the National Forensic League, any participating high school student who has attained 25 points becomes a member of the organization. However, this new member is required to pay a $10 lifetime fee. Even though membership is lifelong, one can only compete as a high school student (although coaches may receive points as well, as explained above). The lifetime ranking of an NFL member is determined by his or her Point Score, explained in the Point Archive.
[edit] State leagues
While the National Speech and Debate Tournament and the qualifying District Competitions are hosted by the NFL, most forensics tournaments during the school year operate under the auspices of other organizations. Chief among them are the state speech leagues, such as:
- California High School Speech Association [1]
- Florida Forensic League, Inc. [2]
- Hawaii Speech League [3]
- Indiana High School Forensics Association[4]
- Iowa High School Forensic League (Iowa also has the Iowa High School Speech Association [5] though the two bodies are independent and the IHSFL is operated directly by speech and debate coaches)
- Kentucky High School Speech League, Inc.
- Massachusetts Forensics League [6]
- Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association[7]
- North Carolina - Tarheel Forensic League [8]
- Ohio High School Speech League[9]
- Pennsylvania High School Speech League [10]
- South Carolina Speech and Debate Association [11]
- Texas Forensic Association [12]
- Tarheel Forensics League
- Utah High School Forensics Association [13]
- Wisconsin Forensics Coaches Association [14]
- Western Bay Forensic League [15] (Western L.A. County)
In other states, speech is classed with other high school interscholastic competition and is overseen by the same organization as football, basketball and gymnastics such as:
- Alaska School Activities Association [16]
- Arizona Interscholastic Association [17]
- Colorado High School Activity Association [18]
- Georgia High School Association [19]
- Idaho High School Activities Association [20]
- Illinois High School Association [21] [22]
- Kansas State High School Activities Association [23]
- Maine Principals' Association [24]
- Minnesota State High School League [25]
- Missouri State High School Activities Association [26]
- Montana High School Association [27]
- Nebraska School Activities Association [28]
- New Mexico Activities Association [29]
- North Dakota High School Activities Association [30]
- Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association [31]
- Oregon School Activities Association [32]
- South Dakota High School Activities Association [33]
- Tennessee High School Speech and Drama League
- Vermont Principals' Association [34]
- Virginia High School League [35]
- Washington Interscholastic Activities Association [36]
- Wyoming High School Activities Association [37]
State leagues operate independently. Some leagues sponsor events not offered by the NFL. These events may still qualify for NFL points, however.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Peters, Tammy. (2003). In Defense of the NFL (and debate in all its forms). Rostrum. Retrieved December 30, 2005.
- Kempner High School: NFL Speech Events National Forensic League, Retrieved March 9th, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Official Website Website of the National Forensic League
- NFL Reports Website containing all the Reported Points and Standings of Coaches, Students, and Schools.
- The Rostrum The NFL's official magazine
- Archive of Rostrum articles from the University of Vermont's Debate Central.
- Joy Of Tournaments: Official Website Website for the Joy Of Tournaments
- NFL District Standings The Annual School standings within Each District of the National Forensic League.
- National Forensic League Manual National Forensic League Manual, that explains every aspect of the Organization.
- National Tournament Manual The Manual of the National Tournament, which covers all information regarding the Tournament.
- District Tournament Manual Information and Procedures involving the process of the District Tournament.
- UIL: Official Website The Website of the University Interscholastic League.
- NFL District List The list of all the National Forensic League Districts, their District number, and their Head Chair.
- National Forensic League on ForensicsWiki
