Story by Anthony Vaquera, Staff Writer | Photo Courtesy Cypress College Speech and Debate Team
The Cypress College Speech and Debate team will host their annual Intramural Speech Tournament on Saturday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Humanities building.
The Intramural Speech Tournament is a speech competition where students will bring their communication and presenting skills to the test in different categories. Cypress’s Speech and Debate team, national champions who competed against fifty-one different community colleges, will lead the tournament and feature presentations from members.
This year’s tournament will be split into three events: informative, persuasive, and oral speeches/interpretations. The informative speeches, which are required to be between 4 to 6 minutes long, will focus on educating the audience on a specific topic using facts, detailed explanations, and visuals.
Persuasive speeches will focus on convincing the audience of a certain point of view on a subject within 7 and 9 minutes.
The final event is the oral interpretation, which includes mini events, prose interpretation, poetry, dramatic interpretation, and reader’s theater.
Students who plan to participate in the event are encouraged to deliver a speech that is researched, structured, and delivered extemporaneously.
Jennifer Page, the director of the speech and debate team, stated, “it’s a common misconception that students will have to go up and stage and talk to hundreds of people for this tournament. Students will need to present their speeches twice in the preliminary rounds. If selected to move onto the final round, they will need to provide their speech one more time then determine the winners.”
The tournament shows the campus community at large what the speech & debate team means to Cypress College.
For any questions or information about the tournament, email Sasha Kuczynski, a professor in the communications department: skuczynski@cypresscollege.edu.
