With only two more tournaments left in the season, the forensics team prepare for the state tournament first which started yesterday and will continue until Sunday, team coaches said.

“I prepare by just trying to get as much knowledge as possible,” Joseph Evans, English major, said.

To prepare for the state tournament, Evans reads many newspapers, watches a lot of television news and researches issues on the Internet.

During the process of preparation for competitions, coaches also assist students by looking for areas of improvement.

“They are watching us, making sure we speak well, that we make a good argument and that we are correct on our facts,they check up on all of that,” Evans said.

Students study and find ideas to make speeches and strive to make them as concise and comprehensive as possible.

“If someone were to come in the room and listen to our argument they would be able to understand it, that is our goal,” Stirling McKenzie, 20, business major, said.

The team focuses on simplicity in order for their speeches to be understandable.

The state tournament brings about many different issues to be debated upon.

“It can be anything from green technology, the economic crisis, national security and civil liberties,” Robert Maxwell, 20, political science major, said.

Along with learning about current events, a member formulates a speech based on what they feel is wrong and then find evidence to support it, Maxwell said.

The state tournament has many events that require knowledge of a variety of topics and rehersal time varies.

One event is focused solely on evidence and it is rehearsed.

“I practiced extensively, did research and rehearsed my speech last night,” Lillian Cavalieri, 23, philosophy major and, said.

Often times, forensics team members have printing sessions, where they locate and print out any and all timely local and world news articles.

Many speeches are not rehearsed, such as in impromptu speaking events.

In an impromptu speech, a team member is given two minutes to prepare and in an extemporaneous speech they are given 30 minutes to prepare,Cavalieri said.

The team works together to prepare for the tournaments by giving constructive criticism.

“I think the team is fabulous and will be walking with out with many rewards and they deserve it,” Cavalieri said.