Terminology and Definitions
Speech has a lot of abbreviations and terminology. Hopefully, the alphabetical list of definitions below will make things clearer.
Author's Intent - the original purpose and vision of the writer of any piece of literature. This must be respected and generally preserved when cutting your piece. Changing the overall intent of the author can result in disqualification at tournaments.
Awards - the awards assembly at the end of the day at any tournament. This is where the results of the tournament are announced and trophies are handed out.
Ballot - a (now electronic) form with the description of the event and space for the judge to write comments and rank the competitors. Ballots are sent to each judge before each round. They are tabulated by tournament staff and released to competitors at the end of the tournament so that students can use the comments to improve for the next tournament.
Break - to do well enough at a tournament to qualify for the next round of competition.
CFL - the Catholic Forensic League. It is one of the two national speech organizations that run a national tournament at the end of the year. It has slightly different events and rules than the other national organization (NSDA). The events at the CFL National Tournament are DP, OI, Duo, Extemp, OO, Dec, Congress and various kinds of debate.
Cut - to pare down and arrange a piece of literature for maximum impact and clarity (so that it fits into the time limit for a given event.)
Dec - Declamation (click here for event descriptions)
DEWR - "Double Entered, Will Return" Students write this on the whiteboard next to their student code and title in a round when they are competing in more than one event and have gone to the other event to compete first. A judge seeing this should always stay in the room until that student returns to perform.
Districts - the NSDA tournament where a student can qualify to attend NSDA Nationals. Generally, you have to place in the top two or three in your category to qualify. The District tournament is usually in February.
Doubled - Double-entered. When a student is competing in more than one event at one tournament. A few tournaments allow students to triple enter.
DP - Dramatic Performance (click here for event descriptions)
Drop - 1) When a student has to drop out of a tournament after the registration deadline has passed, or 2) When a student does not score high enough to advance to the next round of competition at a tournament.
Duo - Duo Interpretation (click here for event descriptions)
Environment - The imagined room or area around a character in an interp event. You want to show the audience what is in your environment through your interactions with it.
Event - Any of the 16 competition categories that a student may compete in at most MSDL tournaments.
Extemp - Extemporaneous Speaking (click here for event descriptions)
Finals - The last round of competition in each event at any tournament where the 6 students who have scored the best compete to determine the ranking of the top 6. All 6 students will get awards at the Awards Ceremony.
Focal Point - A consistent placement of the eyes in an interp event to indicated the location of another character. The performer may "place" the other characters they are speaking to through the use of focal points. In interp events, the performer may or may not be making eye-contact with the judge since the performer is playing a character and the judge is not present in the reality of that character.
Grace Period - A period of time beyond the time limit of any event where a student will not be penalized if they wrap up their performance. Usually 30 seconds. Most events have a 10 minute time limit with a 30 second grace period; in those cases, penalties for going over time start at 10:31.
Group - Group Discussion (click here for event descriptions)
Kiddie - Children's Literature (click here for event descriptions)
HI - Humorous Interpretation (click here for event descriptions)
Hit - To compete against somebody in a round. "I hit James in my last round."
Honorable Mention - An award given to those competitors who scored well enough to qualify for finals but who lost the tie-breakers used to determine the 6 finalists.
Imp - Impromptu Speaking (click here for event descriptions)
Interpretation Events - Those speech events most similar to competitive acting. DP, HI, DI, Duo, Multiple.
Judge Code/Competitor code - At the start of the tournament day, each judge and competitor will be given a code by the tournament. This is your identity for the day in the computer that runs the tournament. Students should put their number on the whiteboard in the rooms in which they compete. These codes will be posted to announce who made it to finals.
Judges' Meeting - A meeting at the beginning of the tournament day where the events and rules are described and where judges can ask questions.
Judge's Preference - A method of tie-breaking in rounds of three (or more) judges where the relative ranks of two competitors are used to see which competitor the majority of judges favored.
MFL - The Massachusetts Forensic League. The former name of our state speech and debate league. Still occasionally used in some contexts. (See MSDL below.)
MSDL - The Massachusetts Speech and Debate League. The official name of our state speech and debate league as of spring 2013.
Mult - Multiple Reading (click here for event descriptions)
NSDA - The National Speech and Debate Association. (Formerly the National Forensic League or NFL.) One of two national speech organizations that run a national tournament at the end of the year. It has slightly different events and rules than the other national organization (CFL). The events at the NSDA National Tournament are DI, HI, Duo, POI, Informative, International Extemp, Domestic Extemp, OO, Congress and various kinds of debate.
Nationals - Either of two huge tournaments at the end of the year that serve as the culmination of the speech season. CFL Nationals is over Memorial Day weekend in May; NFL Nationals is in June.
Novice - Either the event called Novice Reading (see below) or a student in their first year of high school speech competition
OI - Oral Interpretation of Literature. An event at many national tournaments where the competitor must prepare a prose piece and a poetry piece and present them both in alternating rounds. (click here for event description)
OO - Original Oratory (click here for event descriptions)
Outrounds - The rounds after the preliminary rounds at any tournament. Octofinals, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and/or Finals.
Piece - The literature or speech that a competitor uses in a round.
Play - Play Reading (click here for event descriptions)
POI - Program Oral Interpretation of Literature (click here for event description)
Popping - Changing quickly and smoothly from one character to another in an interpretation event.
Postings - The listings of which students are in which round with locations and times. The postings for all the preliminary rounds will go up early in the day. Postings for finals will go up in mid-afternoon after the results from prelims have been tabulated. Also known as "schematics".
Prelims - The rounds of competition before the finals. Generally 3 rounds of prelims at MSDL tournaments At national and university tournaments there may be more than three.
Prep Room - The room in which the extemporaneous and radio competitors prepare their speeches for 30 minutes before going to their rooms to speak. Often the host school's library.
Quality Points/Speaker Points - A score between 80 and 100 that the judge puts on a ballot along with the rank. It is a way to compare the speaker to how he/she could have done. A score of 100 indicates that the judge cannot think of ways the performance could have been done better. Most scores are above 85.
Quals - Either of the two tournaments that qualify students for the two National tournaments.
Radio - Radio Broadcasting (click here for event descriptions)
Rank – The number given to each student in a round ordering them from best to worst. 1 is the best. Competitors in one round cannot share ranks, i.e. there can be no ties.
Round - One room of competition consisting of 4-7 students and (usually) one judge.
Schematics - See "Postings" above.
Speaker Order - The order in which student competitors speak in any given round. Generally determined by the order they are listed on the judges ballot.
Sweepstakes - Awards given to the top teams based on the entire team's performance at a tournament.
Tab - The tab room. Short for tabulation room. Where the tournament organizers collect the ballots, enter the scores into the computer and generally oversee the tournament. Usually it is where judges return their ballots after each round. Also a good place to go if you have questions.
Time signals - Hand signals from the judge given to a competitor while they are speaking so that that student knows how much time has elapsed. See "Two down" below. Not generally used in online tournaments.
Top Novice - An award given to the best novice speaker in each category. Usually not given in Novice Reading or Novice Extemp.
"Two Down" - The most commonly requested time signal. This is a countdown to when time is expired. In this case, the student would like the judge to show them two fingers when there are two minutes remaining in the time limit, then one finger with one minute remaining, a half circle (i.e. "C" shape) with their hand with 30 seconds remaining, and a fist when they have reached their time limit. Extemporaneous speakers almost always want "five down".
Author's Intent - the original purpose and vision of the writer of any piece of literature. This must be respected and generally preserved when cutting your piece. Changing the overall intent of the author can result in disqualification at tournaments.
Awards - the awards assembly at the end of the day at any tournament. This is where the results of the tournament are announced and trophies are handed out.
Ballot - a (now electronic) form with the description of the event and space for the judge to write comments and rank the competitors. Ballots are sent to each judge before each round. They are tabulated by tournament staff and released to competitors at the end of the tournament so that students can use the comments to improve for the next tournament.
Break - to do well enough at a tournament to qualify for the next round of competition.
CFL - the Catholic Forensic League. It is one of the two national speech organizations that run a national tournament at the end of the year. It has slightly different events and rules than the other national organization (NSDA). The events at the CFL National Tournament are DP, OI, Duo, Extemp, OO, Dec, Congress and various kinds of debate.
Cut - to pare down and arrange a piece of literature for maximum impact and clarity (so that it fits into the time limit for a given event.)
Dec - Declamation (click here for event descriptions)
DEWR - "Double Entered, Will Return" Students write this on the whiteboard next to their student code and title in a round when they are competing in more than one event and have gone to the other event to compete first. A judge seeing this should always stay in the room until that student returns to perform.
Districts - the NSDA tournament where a student can qualify to attend NSDA Nationals. Generally, you have to place in the top two or three in your category to qualify. The District tournament is usually in February.
Doubled - Double-entered. When a student is competing in more than one event at one tournament. A few tournaments allow students to triple enter.
DP - Dramatic Performance (click here for event descriptions)
Drop - 1) When a student has to drop out of a tournament after the registration deadline has passed, or 2) When a student does not score high enough to advance to the next round of competition at a tournament.
Duo - Duo Interpretation (click here for event descriptions)
Environment - The imagined room or area around a character in an interp event. You want to show the audience what is in your environment through your interactions with it.
Event - Any of the 16 competition categories that a student may compete in at most MSDL tournaments.
Extemp - Extemporaneous Speaking (click here for event descriptions)
Finals - The last round of competition in each event at any tournament where the 6 students who have scored the best compete to determine the ranking of the top 6. All 6 students will get awards at the Awards Ceremony.
Focal Point - A consistent placement of the eyes in an interp event to indicated the location of another character. The performer may "place" the other characters they are speaking to through the use of focal points. In interp events, the performer may or may not be making eye-contact with the judge since the performer is playing a character and the judge is not present in the reality of that character.
Grace Period - A period of time beyond the time limit of any event where a student will not be penalized if they wrap up their performance. Usually 30 seconds. Most events have a 10 minute time limit with a 30 second grace period; in those cases, penalties for going over time start at 10:31.
Group - Group Discussion (click here for event descriptions)
Kiddie - Children's Literature (click here for event descriptions)
HI - Humorous Interpretation (click here for event descriptions)
Hit - To compete against somebody in a round. "I hit James in my last round."
Honorable Mention - An award given to those competitors who scored well enough to qualify for finals but who lost the tie-breakers used to determine the 6 finalists.
Imp - Impromptu Speaking (click here for event descriptions)
Interpretation Events - Those speech events most similar to competitive acting. DP, HI, DI, Duo, Multiple.
Judge Code/Competitor code - At the start of the tournament day, each judge and competitor will be given a code by the tournament. This is your identity for the day in the computer that runs the tournament. Students should put their number on the whiteboard in the rooms in which they compete. These codes will be posted to announce who made it to finals.
Judges' Meeting - A meeting at the beginning of the tournament day where the events and rules are described and where judges can ask questions.
Judge's Preference - A method of tie-breaking in rounds of three (or more) judges where the relative ranks of two competitors are used to see which competitor the majority of judges favored.
MFL - The Massachusetts Forensic League. The former name of our state speech and debate league. Still occasionally used in some contexts. (See MSDL below.)
MSDL - The Massachusetts Speech and Debate League. The official name of our state speech and debate league as of spring 2013.
Mult - Multiple Reading (click here for event descriptions)
NSDA - The National Speech and Debate Association. (Formerly the National Forensic League or NFL.) One of two national speech organizations that run a national tournament at the end of the year. It has slightly different events and rules than the other national organization (CFL). The events at the NSDA National Tournament are DI, HI, Duo, POI, Informative, International Extemp, Domestic Extemp, OO, Congress and various kinds of debate.
Nationals - Either of two huge tournaments at the end of the year that serve as the culmination of the speech season. CFL Nationals is over Memorial Day weekend in May; NFL Nationals is in June.
Novice - Either the event called Novice Reading (see below) or a student in their first year of high school speech competition
OI - Oral Interpretation of Literature. An event at many national tournaments where the competitor must prepare a prose piece and a poetry piece and present them both in alternating rounds. (click here for event description)
OO - Original Oratory (click here for event descriptions)
Outrounds - The rounds after the preliminary rounds at any tournament. Octofinals, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and/or Finals.
Piece - The literature or speech that a competitor uses in a round.
Play - Play Reading (click here for event descriptions)
POI - Program Oral Interpretation of Literature (click here for event description)
Popping - Changing quickly and smoothly from one character to another in an interpretation event.
Postings - The listings of which students are in which round with locations and times. The postings for all the preliminary rounds will go up early in the day. Postings for finals will go up in mid-afternoon after the results from prelims have been tabulated. Also known as "schematics".
Prelims - The rounds of competition before the finals. Generally 3 rounds of prelims at MSDL tournaments At national and university tournaments there may be more than three.
Prep Room - The room in which the extemporaneous and radio competitors prepare their speeches for 30 minutes before going to their rooms to speak. Often the host school's library.
Quality Points/Speaker Points - A score between 80 and 100 that the judge puts on a ballot along with the rank. It is a way to compare the speaker to how he/she could have done. A score of 100 indicates that the judge cannot think of ways the performance could have been done better. Most scores are above 85.
Quals - Either of the two tournaments that qualify students for the two National tournaments.
Radio - Radio Broadcasting (click here for event descriptions)
Rank – The number given to each student in a round ordering them from best to worst. 1 is the best. Competitors in one round cannot share ranks, i.e. there can be no ties.
Round - One room of competition consisting of 4-7 students and (usually) one judge.
Schematics - See "Postings" above.
Speaker Order - The order in which student competitors speak in any given round. Generally determined by the order they are listed on the judges ballot.
Sweepstakes - Awards given to the top teams based on the entire team's performance at a tournament.
Tab - The tab room. Short for tabulation room. Where the tournament organizers collect the ballots, enter the scores into the computer and generally oversee the tournament. Usually it is where judges return their ballots after each round. Also a good place to go if you have questions.
Time signals - Hand signals from the judge given to a competitor while they are speaking so that that student knows how much time has elapsed. See "Two down" below. Not generally used in online tournaments.
Top Novice - An award given to the best novice speaker in each category. Usually not given in Novice Reading or Novice Extemp.
"Two Down" - The most commonly requested time signal. This is a countdown to when time is expired. In this case, the student would like the judge to show them two fingers when there are two minutes remaining in the time limit, then one finger with one minute remaining, a half circle (i.e. "C" shape) with their hand with 30 seconds remaining, and a fist when they have reached their time limit. Extemporaneous speakers almost always want "five down".