2012 Presidential Debate Contest

Thank you to all of the students who participated in the I Approve This Message Presidential Debate Contest. You have proven that National Forensic League members are well invested in our political process, and can share your voices openly and effectively. The League wishes to congratulate the following winners:

Congratulations to Winning Submissions!

Week One: Health Care

Winner: Nakul Makkad, Fairmont Preparatory Academy, CA

Week Two: Economy
and
Overall Top Speaker

Winner: Nishesh Chaubey, Southside High School, SC

Week Three: Education

Winner: Vidhaath Sripathi, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, NJ

The winners will also be recognized in the December issue of Rostrum. For more information about the 2012 contest, please see below.

Quick Links:

Topic Categories and Deadlines
Video Submission Guidelines
Judging and Awards
Contest Rules

Overview

The National Forensic League's I Approve This Message Presidential Debate Contest is a new contest to correspond with the 2012 Presidential Debates, allowing students to weigh in on some of the biggest issues facing our country right now. While many students who participate in this contest will not even be eligible to vote, we know that many speech and debate students under 18 are still well-invested in the political process, and wish to have their voices heard on important issues. This is an opportunity for students to tell the world what they think should be done about the economy, health care, and education.

Students choose which topic they would like to tackle, or all three, and submit a prepared persuasive speech that presents a plan that would solve the problem. Students will be judged on the content of their speech and the top students will receive awards from the National Forensic League.

Who can participate?
All student members of the National Forensic League.

How to participate?
Students will submit a five-minute video, giving a prepared speech that addresses one of the topic categories outlined below. These topics are some of the main issues that the Presidential Debates and Vice-Presidential Debate will focus on throughout the month of October.

The five-minute prepared speech should address a problem within the topic category, and propose a plan that will provide a solution to the issue. Students should research the chosen topic and cite the sources used in their speech. Speeches should not be based entirely on opinion, but should use studies, scholarly journal articles, news articles and more to support the plan of the speaker.

Students may only submit one video per category. Attempts to submit more than one video per category will disqualify students immediately. Students may resubmit a video prior to their chosen topic’s deadline if there are technical issues with the video file or upload process. All videos will be uploaded to the National Forensic League YouTube account, and will be publicly displayed. Please see the Contest Rules for more information.

Topic Categories and Deadlines

Week 1 Topic: Health Care
Video submission deadline: October 12, 2012, 12 a.m. CDT (midnight)

Week 2 Topic: Economy
Video submission deadline: October 19, 2012, 12 a.m. CDT (midnight)

Week 3 Topic: Education
Video submission deadline: October 26, 2012, 12 a.m. CDT (midnight)
 

Video Submission Guidelines

All entries must be posted as a video response to the National Forensic League video, posted on our YouTube channel.

Note: Each submission must be titled in the following way:

Last Name,First Name.State.Topic Category

Ex: Smith,John.KS.Economy


All videos must be submitted in one of the following formats in order to be uploaded easily to the League's YouTube account: WebM files, .MPEG4, 3GPP, MOV files, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV, or .FLV

If you are unfamiliar with creating a video for web placement, we recommend you submit your video as early as possible. For additional tips on encoding your video file to be uploaded to YouTube, please visit this website: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&guide=1728585&page=guide.cs

Judging and Awards

Experienced speech and debate coaches will judge each speech based on the following criteria:

1. Analysis and Reasoning: How the speech develops the nature of the arguments, and how it forms conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.
2. Advocacy: How the speech uses analytical tools to persuade the listener. This includes the cumulative force and effect of the speech.
3. Research: The quality of sources, depth of research, and how it is used throughout the speech. Sources should be clearly identified in the speech.
4. Organization/Clarity: The logical flow of the speech and the priority given to arguments. Consider the relationship between evidence and conclusions.

Each category will be rated 1-10 points based on adherence to, and successful implementation of, the criteria. Scores from all judges will be added together to create the final score. The student with the highest score for each weekly topic category will receive a commemorative plaque, complimentary Individual Resource Package ($18 value), and a National Forensic League T-shirt ($12 value).

An award will also be provided to the student with the overall highest score from all three weeks of video submissions on all topics. This student will receive a commemorative plaque and a complimentary Team Resource Package ($150 value) for their school for one year.

All award winners will also be featured on www.nationalforensicleague.org, the League's Facebook page, and in the December issue of Rostrum.

Winners in each topic category will be notified and announced on www.nationalforensicleague.org no later than one week after the submission deadline for each topic. Winners will also be announced on the National Forensic League’s social media sites.

The winner in the overall category will be notified and announced on www.nationalforensicleague.org one week after the final weekly topic submission deadline. The winner will also be announced on the National Forensic League’s social media sites.

Teachers wishing to use this opportunity to hold their own contest among the students in each of their classes will also have the opportunity to do so. The National Forensic League will provide a downloadable certificate for the student with the best speech, which can be customized with the student’s name and school.
 

Contest Rules

1. All submissions must be the original work of the student. All quoted material and sources of information must be properly cited within the speech. Failure to cite sources of quoted material may result in disqualification.
2. Each submission must only include one speech on one topic category.
3. Each video submission should include only one speaker and one speech.
4. No derogatory remarks or harassment of any kind in the video submissions will be tolerated, and will result in disqualification. No video containing any derogatory remarks or harassment will be uploaded to the National Forensic League YouTube account.
5. Each submission must be titled in the following way:
   1. Last Name,First Name.State.Topic Category
   2. Ex: Smith,John.KS.Economy
6. Do not include any links to websites in your video submission.
7. All videos must arrive in one of the following formats in order to be uploaded easily to the National Forensic League YouTube account: WebM files, .MPEG4, 3GPP, MOV files, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV, or .FLV
8. Students will be notified within one business day of the successful upload of their video submission, as long as it is for the current week’s topic.
9. Videos for future topics will only be uploaded once the previous topic’s deadline has passed.
10. Each weekly category topic will have one winner determined by experienced debate coaches that will rank the speeches between four and 40 points, using the criteria cited under Judging and Awards. The judges’ scores will be added together to determine the student’s final score. In the case of a tie, the Executive Director of the National Forensic League will score the tied speeches, and his score will determine the winner.
11. One overall winner will be chosen from all submissions. This student will be chosen based on overall highest point score. In the case of a tie, the Executive Director of the National Forensic League will score the tied speeches, and his score will determine the winner.
12. Winners in each topic category will be notified and announced on www.nationalforensicleague.org no later than one week after the submission deadline for each topic. Winners will also be announced on the National Forensic League’s social media sites.
13. The winner in the overall category will be notified and announced on www.nationalforensicleague.org one week after the final weekly topic submission deadline. The winner will also be announced on the National Forensic League’s social media sites.
     

Contest Release

All submissions as part of this contest become the property of the National Forensic League. By submitting a video response as part of this contest, you grant the National Forensic League an unrestricted and irrevocable right to to copyright, in its own name or otherwise, and use, re-use, publish, and re-publish the submission, in whole and in part, without restrictions as to changes or alterations.