Lincoln Southwest Forensics is a program that offers training in speaking, acting and debating to make students successful public speakers. The two teams in forensics Speech and Debate have different competitive events within them.

Mandatory meetings are on Mondays for both the Speech team and the Debate team.

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The LSW Speech team.

The Speech meetings are held in B212 and the Debate meetings are held in B211. The first mandatory meeting for the Speech and Debate was held on Monday Oct. 4.

The debate students learn how to vocalize argumentative researched based opinions against others. There are three competitive events within the debate team: Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate and Student Congress.   

Lincoln-Douglas Debate is a comparative contest between a negative debater who debates against the resolution demonstrated by the affirmative debater. An example would be the value of justice might be achieved by affirming the resolution, “Global concerns

ought to be valued above conflicting national concerns.” The value of societal welfare might be achieved by negating it.

Public Forum Debate is a partners-based competition where the debaters argue against current events topics. It mainly consists of eight speeches and three crossfires (similar to CNN’s Crossfire), each with a time limit. Team members will rotate their position to debate the opposite team. The entire round lasts thirty five  minutes, and individual speeches should be longer than four minutes. Topics also change every month. For example, commercial airline pilots should be armed in the cockpit. 

Debaters in Student Congress learn how to acquire public speaking, discussion, debate and parliamentary procedure as required to participate in a democratic process. Debaters write and introduce legislation in the form of bills in a mock legislative session. The presiding officer (the PO) will alternately call speakers to give speeches supporting and/or opposing a piece of legislation. At the end of the discussion, the body will give votes to reject or pass each of the bills or resolutions and then choose outstanding students.

With restrictions passed by different counties to stop the mass spreading of Covid-19. It has affected many school activities, Forensics being one of the activities. Last year, the LSW Forensics team competed in classes of LSW on Zoom.       

“We will be traveling to other schools in order to compete instead of debating over Zoom,” said Mrs. Toni Heimes, head coach of the debate team. “We are very excited for our freshman and sophomores to actually get to experience the full debate experience. During eac

h debate tournament, our students debate 5-8 different hour-long debates.  Also, students will have debates on both sides of their topic.” 

The speech students learn how to think and listen critically, and articulate their thoughts confidently. There are two categories of competitive events within speech: Rhetorical events and Interpretation events.

“Those take place in the classroom. With a small audience of usually six to eight people and those would be other competitors and your judge,” said Mr. Matt Heimes, head coach of the Speech team. “You perform again, usually with a bigger audience and this time with three judges, to determine who gets in the awards and the places. In the Auditorium they’ll announce awards for all the different events. In the process you also become a social justice

warrior with all the subjects we talk about. I think it’s a great activity with a lot of work but there is a lot of fun.”

One category of these competitive events are the rhetorical events. Speeches are researched and written by the speaker, with a focus on, persuading, informing or entertaining the audience.There are five events within this category. 

• Informative Speaking (Info)
• Persuasive Speaking/Original Oratory
• Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp)- is a five to seven minutes speech where speakers write and prepare an answer to a question of  a current domestic or global event issue in thirty minutes after drawing three topics and choosing one using the app  Genie – Extemp, Congress, Debate. 
• Entertainment Speaking
• Impromptu Speaking- is similar to Extemp in the manner that Speakers will draw three topics and pick one of them to prepare to perform. However, Impromptu is different from extemp in the sense that it is humorous. They’ll be given five minutes to prep, and will have the time limit of three to five minutes.    

The other category of these competitive events are the interpretation, events also known as  competitive acting performances. Speakers will find literature, cut it to meet the time limit, prepare an introduction, and then practice the presentation to bring the literature to life with the  assistance of coaches. There are six events within this category. 

• Serious Prose/Dramatic Interpretation (DI)- Speakers can use a manuscript but will need to memorize. The script is normally a dialogue or a monologue from a story, play or novel that should build up to a climax with. The maximum time limit is ten minutes. 
• Humorous Prose/Interpretation (HI)- Speakers can use a manuscript but will need to memorize. The script is normally a dialogue with comic action from a story, play or novel that should build up to a climax with. The maximum time limit is ten minutes. 
• Poetry (POE)- Speakers will use a booklet to put in a series of poems thematically with places to transition in between the poems and write an introduction. The maximum time limit is between six to eight minutes. 
• Duet Acting or Duo Interp-  Two speakers can use a manuscript that needs to be memorized. There will be an attention getting introduction where the characters and setting of the play will be introduced. The play needs to be theatrical and full of blocking and movements. There will be two chairs and a table placed as props if needed. The maximum time limit is ten to twelve minutes. 
• Oral Interpretation of Drama (OID)- a group of three to five speakers must use a booklet that contains the manuscript that needs to be memorized. There will be an attention getting introduction where the characters and setting of the play will be introduced. There will be a lot of acting but limited movement. There will be staging blocks or stools for levels and props . The maximum time limit is fifteen minutes. 
• Program of Oral Interpretation (POI)-  Speaker will use a booklet to put in a series of different types of literature genres that are concerned with a single conflict. Speaker also needs to write an introduction to state the pieces of literature and the authors with the thesis of the issue. The maximum time limit is ten minutes. 

For any additional information you can go to the Forensics website.