Original Oratory - Definition

Original Oratory (often shortened to "OO") is an event in National Forensic League (and NFL-related) high school forensics competitions in which competitors deliver an original speech on a subject of their choosing, though the speech must be factual. Speeches must be written and memorized by the performer and should be no more than ten minutes in length.

In a typical round of OO, five to seven performers will each perform an original speech. After all of the competitors have performed, the judge (or judges) in the round will rank them from best to worst, and assign each of them a score.