Please note the key dates below for 2023-2024.

  • March 1 - Regional in Surry County - Piney Grove Baptist Church
  • March 9 - Regional at Jay M Robinson Middle School in Charlotte, seeking Regional hosts in the Triad and Fayetteville
  • March 23 - State Finals (middle school only), site TBD

Elementary Schools may participate in two events: Original Oratory and Storytelling.

2024 Middle School Topics

Public Forum Debate Topic: Resolved - The benefits of AI in education outweigh the harms.

Regional Extemporaneous Speaking Topics:

Round 1 - US Immigration

Round 2 - K-12 Education

State Extemporaneous Speaking Topics:

Round 1 - US Elections

Round 2 - Energy and the Environment

Round 3 - Amateur Sports

 

We have resources to help new coaches understand forensics and judges to prepare to judge the events. The Prezi required for all judges is here.

The judge training video for Public Form Debate is here.

A video to help understand Public Forum Debate is here.

All ballots are now posted in the resources section of our website. They can also be found here for Speech events and here for Public Forum Debate.

Complete rules are included in the NCASA competition rules linked here. All competition dates are shown above.

Middle School Events (and number of students per entry)

  • Humorous Interpretation (1)
  • Dramatic Interpretation (1)
  • Extemporaneous Speaking (1)
  • Original Oratory (1)
  • Duo Interpretation (2)
  • Public Forum Debate (2)

Elementary School Events

  • Original Oratory (elementary school theme is shown below)
  • Storytelling (story is told by memory as if to a group of kindergarten students)

Original Oratory Theme for 2024 (elementary school): What is unique about the many regional cultures of North Carolina - food, music, slang, accent, style,
sports, etc., and how did these cultures develop? You may choose to focus on one regional culture in our state such as Appalachian, Outer Banks, or any other local or regional culture unique to North Carolina.

Each school may have a maximum of 3 entries per event. Each middle school may have a maximum of 12 total entries. Each elementary school may have a total of 6 entries.

Middle school sweepstakes points will be awarded to the top ten entries in each event with first place earning 10 points, second place 9 points, and so on to tenth place earning 1 point.