When most people hear forensics they think of science, but not at MHS. Here, and at many other schools, forensics is made up of speech and debate. This is because the meaning of forensics used to be known as the study or art of argumentation, until forensics was widely connected to science.

In forensics, weather speech or debate you are using a piece to support an opinion or idea.Speech and debate are the two main categories where people compete when they join forensics. But even though they are in the same club, there are differences.

In speech, some categories have you cut up pieces of authors and put them together to make your own new piece. Other categories need you to memorize and say parts of a movie, play, book, or even an entire speech. And others give you topics and you talk for a few minutes about them. In almost all the speech categories you get to pick your own theme or topic to discuss, except for the categories that give you topics to choose from. Speech has so many categories to choose from, so finding your favorite one may take a little digging. However, there are many examples and opportunities to try new ones. Almost all of the categories need you to memorize, but people starting out usually go into POI or OI because don’t need to be memorized.  At the end of the forensics season, there is a states tournament with some of the best speech and debate contestants. To get to states, a person needs to place or be sent there by their club.

In Debate, however, it is completely different than Speech. At MHS, the biggest sections for debate include Lincoln Douglas, Congress, and Public Forum. Public Forum, a more popular section of debate, is a 2v2 style debate that incorporates a monthly topic. For example, February’s topic for P.F. (Public Forum) was “The United States should Abolish the Capital Gain’s Tax”, and then the teams would prepare a case and debate. However, congress is completely different, taking a more philosophical approach, where a room of debaters compete and debate over a certain bill. As the end of this debate season approaches, it has been one of the most successful for PF, and both teams have placed and are going to states. Not only that, but one representative from Congress and LD are also going. Good luck Mr. Forte and the rest of his team at states!