How many of you play by the rules? Every year, at this time, our team reads through the Speech and Debate Rules… again. We read through League Handbooks, the General Rules, the Guidelines, and whatever else pertains to making sure we fully UNDERSTAND the rules! Today we will break down some of the Interp Rules that pop out at us. I always say, “speech is real, organic, and constantly evolving.” Trends come and go. It's good that leagues look at the rules and adapt or alter them to fit the needs or desires of what they want their competitors to learn. So whether it's a new event, or perhaps a rule was just modified, our desire is to assist you on how to use the rules in unique and interesting ways, using them to the fullest - yet not crossing a line (or even getting close to it)! Staying above reproach. These rules are meant to be followed and understood. Please note, these are OUR understanding of the rules. You should always go to your league and ask for clarification, if needed.
Undoubtedly one or two things come to mind when you hear the word, credibility: that guy who makes up sources for his extemp round, or that team that slices up their evidence cards so that they say what they want them to say instead of what the author actually said. If that is the extent of your definition of credibility, you might need to stretch your understanding of the term.
I've been involved with my home school speech league for ten years. Before that, I taught public school where I coached in a different league. Before THAT, I competed myself in yet another league. All of those leagues have operated with rules. Honestly, no one really loves rules. We understand the importance of them in maintaining a level playing field, but we don't really love them. Our human nature longs to kick against them and give ourselves more room. And when we do, we are in error. Becoming hyper sensitive to rules and every potential violation of those rules is the equal but opposite error. It creates a litigious environment where we are on the look-out for rules violators we can haul off to the compliance team to be punished. There are some dangerous harms in leaning to that side of the balance...
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