in Interpretive Events

The use of questions in oral interpretation may offer a number of opportunities for moving forensics away from the performance paradigm. As competition in all interpretation events begins to sound the same, judges are left with only one criteria for judging--performance. While this may be considered an important criteria, it limits the educational emphasis of this activity. The benefits of questions are as follows. First, it seems that students, in the process of researching and choosing cuttings from interpretation, are more concerned about the ability of a piece to perform well than they are about its suitability to the context of the specific event. Second, as the cornerstone of forensics is argumentation, questions would be appropriate in forcing the participant to actively defend his or her choice for interpretation. Third, questions offer a judge additional criteria from which to mak