Stanford National Forensic Institute

Public speaking is a crtically important skill for almost every profession in today's world, yet many people harbor a fear of speaking in front of others - in fact, speaking in front of others is often ranked near the top of many people's lists of most-feared activites.  It shouldn't be that way!

Public speaking doesn't have to be scary or intimidating, and like the common saying goes, practice does absolutely make perfect!  Our Public Speaking programs are designed to break down the barriers to speaking in front of others through a variety of structured activities that build baseline fundamental logical and rhetorical skills in addition to practicing speaking in a public setting.  Public Speaking sessions are designed to teach the same basic foundational logic, rhetoric and argument skills as our introductory debabte sessions without the focus on a specific competitive format or the adversarial nature inherent to formal debabte. where participants argue against one another.

SNFI is proud to share our speech & debate education expertise, accumulated since 1990, with students looking to learn the art of public speaking!  Our Public Speaking Camps are perfect for students looking to learn and practice many critical academic and professional skills, including:

• logical thinking and argumentative structure - which directly mimics the academic and professional writing process
• confidence when speaking in front of others - including eye contact, posture and poise
• thinking quickly on your feet - be prepared for the questions at the end of your presentation or pitch
• speaking extemporaneously on subjects that you have not yet thoroughly researched - take the initiative and impress someone with your ability to quickly break down and analyze a new problem or opportunity at a high level
• and many more highly transferrable academic and professional skills

Our Public Speaking programs teach many of the same skills as a traditional debate program, just without the focus on direct head-to-head competition, including:

• targeted research skills
• logical argument development
• organization of material into a methodical presentation
• classic Aristotelian logic through the "claim, warrant, impact" model
• how to think adversarially
• analytical responsiveness
• see our skills page for more information on the power of speech & debate-based education