About Penn Speech and Debate
Who We Are
We are an academic team at Penn High School. We focus on high school debate and high school speech. We prepare students to be able to compete in competitions in the debate classes and at practice, and we frequently attend both debate and speech competitions on weekends at other schools in the state. We research topics involving current issues, develop arguments, prepare speeches about many different things, perform skits, and so much more. As of last year, we are a TOP 5 debate team in the state and we are the SECOND BEST speech team in our sectional (and we hope to improve on both of these this year!)
What We Do
We meet at practice every Tuesday during the season and offer an optional practice on Thursday. Before tournaments and at practice, we prepare speeches and evidence for our competitions on the weekend, we practice giving our speeches and we debate against each other. On weekends, we travel to other high schools or colleges around the state to compete against students from other schools all over the state.
What IS Debate?
Debate is exactly what it sounds like: debate! It consists of five events in the state of Indiana. Two of the events (Congress and Lincoln Douglas) are solo, two of the events (Public Forum and Policy) are partner, and one event (World Schools) requires teams of five. Debaters will prepare for and debate on either side of a topic against students from other schools, and will be judged by coaches from other schools, former debaters, and volunteer parents. In a round, debaters will present their arguments, rebut their opponent's arguments, ask each other questions in cross examination, and eventually summarize the debate to your judge. Debate is excellent for developing research, analytical, and public speaking skills, all of which are very helpful to have in the future.
What Is Speech
Speech is a collection of multiple different types of events. They include interpretation events (where students act out pre-prepared skits), public speaking events (where students deliver pre-prepared speeches), argumentation events (where students deliver speeches arguing a certain point of view), and mass media events (where students act as if they are on TV or the radio). All of these events are performed in front of a judge, who will rank their performance compared to other competitors. Speech features a wide variety of events, and whether you are a debater, theater kid, or aspiring television host, you will find an event for you.
Competitions
In Debate and Speech, we participate in various tournaments throughout the year. Our tournaments are typically hosted at high schools or, on occasion, at colleges. Most of these tournaments occur on Saturdays, minimizing any school day disruptions, but they do require a full-day commitment.
For a detailed schedule of upcoming tournaments and their dates, please refer to the schedule page on this site. As a team member, you are not obligated to attend every tournament. We fully understand that individuals have busy schedules and may not always be able to commit the necessary time.
