POST-INVITATION NOTES:

• SPAR Debate was added as an event after the tournament invitation was sent. Please see email about event and/or event rules page.
• This tournament provides both NIETOC and TOC bids in speech.

Dear Colleagues:

It is my pleasure to invite you to attend the 52th annual Marshall University John Marshall Speech and Debate Tournament to be held on Friday, 9 February 2024, and Saturday, 10 February 2024, at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

This year we will offer competition in 17 different speech and debate events. The events are: Broadcasting, Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, Storytelling, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate.

Unique features of this tournament:

• We run two sessions of Congressional Debate on Friday morning before the remainder of the tournament starts. There is no judge obligation for Congressional Debate.
• We allow a lot of cross-entry possibilities, including entering up to six speech events and entering both Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum Debate.
• We include a special speech event each year. This year it will be an old favorite created by former Coach Danny Ray: Extemp Interpretation.
  
• We do provide lunch on Saturday and snacks throughout the tournament and include a hospitality fee to cover a portion of those costs.
• We present a Traveling Trophy each year that is now 45 years old.

Some changes:

• We are changing our speech-entry-to-speech-judge ratio from 6:1 to 8:1 to make meeting judge obligations easier on coaches.
  
• We may be bringing back one or two rounds of Broadcasting as the event was done at Marshall University in the 1970s and 1980s - in a TV studio.
• You may make changes to your entry through Thursday at 12:00 PM without charge.
• We have reverted to the tournament schedule used for many years but not last year.

The deadline for entries is Tuesday, 6 February, at 5:00 PM.

If you have any questions, please contact me. We look forward to seeing you this winter!

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Taylor

Director of Forensics

Marshall University

Email: taylor41@marshall.edu

Phone: +1 304.541.0332