Oratorical Interpretation

Oratorical Interpretation (often shortened to Oral Interp, Oratorical Interp, Oratorical, or abbreviated to OI) is an event in American competitive high school forensics (public speaking). In 2015 the category was officially renamed to Declamation. Similar to Original Oratory, Oratorical differs in that the speeches performed must be published material, not original material. The speeches given are speeches originally delivered in a public forum. Examples include the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr., and any college graduation speech. In a typical round of competition, five to seven competitors will declaim speeches before a judge. After the round, the judge will rank them from best to worst, and assign each competitor a score, which will be used to break ties when the tournament is tabulated.

Like Duet Acting, Oratorical is not a National Forensic League-sanctioned event. It is practiced by other speech leagues, including the Ohio High School Speech League, National Christian Forensics and Communications Association, National Catholic Forensic League, and California High School Speech Association.