It’s also more than just debate. 

As a member of the Speech and Debate team for the third year in a row now, I have noticed something very interesting: everybody associates Speech and Debate with well… DEBATE.

Based on a survey conducted by The Bite in November 2025, some students admit to not knowing much about what this CCA really entails. Which I know must be absolutely shocking because it’s right there in the title, but really, it is so much more than just arguing politely and writing a few words and speaking them out loud. 

Speech and Debate is something you plunge into blind and unknowing, something that swallows you whole, something that makes you leap into the world of words and voices and thought, deeper than the ocean, so thick with words and experiences you drown in the midst of it all. It’s about partnerships, teamwork, relentless support from your teammates, and so many experiences tangled up in a name that doesn’t represent it as well as it could and should.

In this highly-personal and heavily-biased feature, I hope to demystify Speech and Debate once and for all.  

So Why Don’t People Join Speech & Debate?

To get as accurate an answer to this question as possible, The Bite conducted a survey of 15 Secondary students. One of the survey questions was: “What do you think of when someone says Speech and Debate?”

Honestly, some of the answers in the survey cracked me up:

yap session

I think about talking and acting and screaming at each other

Debating different opinion things like ‘is a hot dog a sandwich’ but not that exact question. I think it sounds fun

Of course, there were answers that were more accurate and formal, but these were my personal top 3 picks for the funny ones. 

Why Speech and Debate? 

You might be wondering what exactly makes this activity so great. Speech and Debate has many benefits, even though most of them are not talked about. 

So I did a little research and, according to both University of the People and the National Speech and Debate Association, these are the main reasons to do public speaking / Speech and Debate:

• Improved ability to speak in public. Speech and Debate relies on public speaking and presenting to an audience, and even though it might not be the same as giving a presentation it sure teaches you a lot of important things about how to be a better public speaker in general, such as how to recover from forgetting something or a fumble in your speech, or even how to use your voice to convey emotion. 

• Improved confidence (or at least the appearance of it): on the stage, in real life, a lot of sources express how public speaking and Speech and Debate help boost your self esteem. At first sight they didn’t seem correlated to me, but thinking about it a little bit helped me make the connection. I am assuming that what they meant was that when you have more practice speaking in public, you are more confident with your abilities and thus more confident in general.

• Getting over your fear of public speaking: Yes. I know it seems counterintuitive to join a public speaking activity when you have a fear of it, but really getting the experience of standing up in front of an audience and delivering your performance, the one you know so well and are so comfortable with, is truly a magical experience.

What events are there in Speech and Debate?

Based on a survey conducted by The Bite in November 2025, some students admit to not knowing much about what this CCA really entails. So here I’ll break the events down for you:

Debate: Probably the most obvious. Essentially, there is a resolution (a sentence) and teams are either on the affirmative side or the negative side. The affirmative side “agrees” with the resolution and argues that it is correct and the negative side “disagrees” with the resolution and argues that it is wrong. (This year, the resolution was something like: Economic interdependence between nations reduces global inequalities.) The structure of this event is complicated, but from what I’ve noticed while watching, it has four main parts:  

• The actual speech giving part (duh)
• Cross examination (opponent asks you questions)
• Clash (criticizing their argument)
• Rebuttal – saying why your team should win the debate

Original Oratory, or as everyone calls it, OO, is probably the second thing a person thinks about when someone says Speech & Debate. And that is well… giving a speech you wrote. You have a 6 minute limit to perform your speech, in which you need to have an introduction, speech, and clear conclusion. In fact, one of the most joked about things when you do OO is that when you perform in front of your friends, you go way over the time limit, and when you perform in front of your coaches or the judges, you go so fast the coaches ask you to slow down next time.

Oral Interpretation, or OI, is something I would recommend to people who are scared of public speaking but want to have the experience of Speech & Debate. The judges turn their back to you, and you have to read a passage from a pre-existing text, such as a book or movie or a script. Then you have to tell the story through your voice and convey emotion and tone and characters with it instead of getting to use body language like you would in Duet Acting.

Duet Acting is by far my favourite event, so I might be biased, but it is essentially what it sounds like. Acting in a pair. Only in Duet Acting you have a 7 minute limit, are allowed no props, hair, make-up, or costumes, and only have a table, two chairs, and your partner onstage. Then you perform your script.

Impromptu is also something I tried but found to be really difficult. Essentially what happens is you get a prompt (either philosophy or world-event related) and you have to write a speech on demand about it for about 3 minutes.

Speech & Debate Student Tells All

I haven’t personally done debate, but to make up for that, I asked grade 10 student Lucia B. a couple of questions.

Why did I join Speech and Debate?

Well, I have always been a very vocal person and have always challenged society’s point of view. Therefore, when I entered Speech and Debate in 6th grade, it felt like the perfect fit for me. I have said that I want to quit multiple times, but it has always looped me back in and forced me into wanting more. The adrenaline you feel when answering questions is something I never want to give up. 

Why do you like Speech and Debate?

I like speech and debate because it lets me be myself and learn more about what the current politics of the world are. It challenges me to think differently and meet more people within a shared space. I also really like arguing and sharing my point of view.

What is your favourite event?

My favorite event is debate, since the adrenaline rush is something I always look forward to. My favorite part is clashing with the audience and answering questions, since you can build more confidence and become better overall in controlling others as well. Debate has been something I have done for 6 years, and that is why it always seemed like the favorite choice. 

So What Happens in a Tournament?

In a tournament, you get “graded” on your event, and you have criteria and feedback sheets for each of your events. Kind of like getting graded on an assignment. There’s a statement or “strand” of your performance, and the judges circle how good you did on that particular piece of your performance. Then a while later after the round, you get your feedback. And that’s basically how it works.

Usually after everyone receives the feedback at least a couple of people complain about the bias or harshness of the judges. It’s actually really funny to watch, especially after a long and tense day when you really need a laugh as your teammates get angry over their tiniest mistakes.

The truth about the whole feedback is that you often get contrasting feedback from judges. You have a “good judge” and a “bad judge”. The better-scoring judge is often favoured and super forgiving about mistakes, while the judge who is more harsh gives more frustrating feedback to look at, let’s say.

For example, this year, my Duet Acting partner and I, Katherine S., got a critique that our characters weren’t connected enough, while another judge told us that our connection was outstanding. 

So, in theory it’s simple, but in reality it gets really confusing, to be honest.

My Speech and Debate Story

So, my first time in the Speech and Debate team I was in 7th grade, right? And I was up for my Original Oratory, or as we like to shorten it, OO. And I had just gone to the restroom, feeling great, feeling ready, absolutely prepared for whatever was thrown my way. Right? Wrong. 

Everyone in the hallway was staring at me. Well, I must look ready for the competition, I thought. Right? Wrong!

I entered the room, ready, so ready, so full of adrenaline. I sat down, greeting everyone as I went, feeling really confident. After all, this was my speech, and I was so proud of it, so ready to make use of all the training I had acquired over the last 2 months. And then I was called up first.

Let me save you all the embarrassing dialogue that ended with:

“Okay, and, your fly is down.”

I still remember the way my smile slipped from place and my confidence took the biggest nosedive in the world. 

“Oh, th-thank you.” I fixed the smile back in place, preparing to zip it back up. But as I turned around so as to do it discreetly I realized that if I did that then everyone else in the room would see me. After a short while of awkwardly shuffling and trying to calculate who should not see me zip my fly, I decided to just turn sideways. 

I went on to deliver my speech. The embarrassment didn’t stop me.

The next year I went on to continue with OO, but this time with an additional duet acting to my list of things I did.

Being on stage with a partner instead of just by yourself is different. For one, both of you can mess up, but both of you have each other’s backs, and it’s kind of like creating your own little world. Suddenly, it’s not you, your partner, the audience, and the judges. Just you and your partner, and suddenly you remember all the times you had this exact conversation, with this exact person, in this exact moment, and your worries kind of fade away.

2025 Speech & Debate CEESA Recap

Being part of the Speech and Debate team this year was one of my best choices. In addition to the whole getting to compete thing, tournaments are actually really fun. Here’s a description of what it feels like to participate in a competition:

At first when you arrive in the school, your team probably picks a space to place their bags, to practice their speeches, to prepare physically and mentally for the upcoming events. Nobody really intends it to become or insists that it becomes your team’s lair, your own private space, four walls within which the mask of formality comes off and itkind of becomes your “home base”, the place that everybody kicks their uncomfortable shoes off, lies down on the chairs, sits on the tables, and scatters their stuff all over the floor, so uncarefully placed that you might just step on someone’s shoe.

And then once you have a room, the coaches come in with you. We all listen to each other’s speeches and performances and congratulate each other and give the best feedback we can. We laugh and hang out and make jokes about forgetting our speeches or going over the time limit.

And then… we wait. That’s it. We wait. We check the schedules to see when our events are. We share snacks sometimes. We go and support our teammates when we don’t need to practice or are performing for our own events.

But the one thing we don’t do is LOSE OUR SPEECHES. If you lose your speech, YOU ARE DONE FOR. DONE FOR! Don’t you even think about not packing it into your backpack first thing in the evening. When you are done with your speech, either you are holding it or someone is holding it for you. You place it in your backpack or keep it near you in the room. You never take it with you to lunch or leave it out of sight because YOU MIGHT LOSE IT. DON’T YOU DARE EVEN THINK ABOUT LOSING IT. It’s actually one of the most stressful parts of the whole thing.

And then the time comes. You go outside of the room of your event around 10 minutes early, afraid to miss the call. You usually have a teammate waiting with you by your side, reassuring you and preparing you mentally. All the adrenaline you’ve been avoiding kicks in. What if you go overtime? What if you stumble over a word? And since when does the competition sound so good? And what if you forget your speech? Or speak too fast? Or too slow? Or what if your voice goes hoarse? You need to cough? What if you get distracted?

And then it all stops. Your teammate is there, next to you. You have everyone’s support and you’ve put in all this work. It’s time for it to pay off.

One really common misconception about the people who do Speech and Debate is that they are just so formal all the time. So serious all the time. But after a long day of competition and performing and all the mental energy you somehow managed to put in, you are so tired that all you do is change into informal clothes and joke around with your teammates.

Really, it’s about making funny interpretations of your speech while you sit in a goofy pose, and complaining about how uncomfortable your clothes are and enjoying being up on the stage and giving your performance to your fellow participants. It’s not just being in a suit and tie or a dress and speaking aimlessly all day long. It’s something you want to show to the world, something you have practiced, something that matters to you.

So from this I understand that people think that Speech and Debate is mostly just boring, aimless talking while you stand frozen on the spot under the weight of so many people watching you, but it’s really not just that. There’s more to the story than people think. And then I understood why not many people join this activity:

Apparently people not liking public speaking or thinking that this CCA is boring is largely influential in whether they join or not, and while I get that public speaking about a pre-selected topic might not be everybody’s thing. I understand that some people just despise all forms of being in front of an audience, and that sometimes it’s just not your thing. 

But honestly, the whole reason for why I chose to write this article is because it had to be shared that this activity is not just about countless hours of “boring preparation” or dressing up all fancy for nothing. It’s about support, friendships, the performing arts, and the unique experience of being part of such a special group.

(Thank you for listening to my speech.)

What about you? What is the CCA you think is most often misunderstood? Add your thoughts in the comment section below!