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Join the Speech Team

If you’ve ever wanted to perfect your speaking skills, travel to different schools and meet students from other schools, and have a lot of fun in the process, then Augsburg Forensics is for you!  We encourage you to check out what being on the “speech team” has to offer.  And–new for incoming students–we have forensics scholarships, from $3000 to $5000!

Augsburg’s Speech Team participates in 8-10 interscholastic speech tournaments each year in eleven different events, which include:

Interpretation Events

  • Dramatic Interpretation –  Students interpret a piece of dramatic literature performed by one individual utilizing two or more characters.
  • Duo Interpretation –  Two students interpret a cutting from a play.
  • Poetry –  Students interpret a poem or a selection of poems.
  • Program Oral Interpretation –  Students interpret a themed program containing two of the three interpretive genres (prose, poetry, drama).
  • Prose –  Students interpret a piece of prose literature using a manuscript.

Limited-Preparation Events

  • Extemporaneous Speaking –  Students give a five- to seven-minute speech on a domestic, international or economic topic, delivered after a half-hour preparation period.
  • Impromptu Speaking – Students have seven minutes to prepare and deliver an impromptu speech, usually on a familiar saying or significant quotation; may also be an object or cartoon.

Public Address Events

  • After-Dinner Speaking –  Students deliver a humorous speech designed to entertain the audience while persuading or informing.
  • Communication Analysis –  Students deliver a speech in which the speaker describes, interprets, and evaluates a speech or other rhetorical artifact.
  • Informative – Students deliver a speech that heightens the audience’s awareness of some subject.
  • Persuasive – Students deliver a speech designed to persuade the audience.

At Augsburg, you are welcome to set your own level of participation in the activity.  If you only want to attend one or two speech meets per year, that’s fine, and if you want to go to 7 or 8, that’s good too!  We are here to serve your needs and make being on the speech team a manageable and worthwhile experience.

If you’re interested in being involved with contest speech activities, contact David Lapakko, Director of Forensics, at lapakko@augsburg.edu