To better serve as a laboratory for argument, individual events competition should represent analogues of "real world" argumentation/communication situations. The individual events laboratory must fulfill a pedagogical function, and should also "create" knowledge about argumentation strategies, specific fields of argument, and argumentation theory. As currently practiced, individual events do not provide an effective laboratory for argument, because they lack a theoretical base and do not bear much resemblance to practical discourse situations outside the contest environment. They also do not incorporate intense interaction, nor do they provide a defined audience. Adapting the competitive individual events scene to a laboratory that attempts to model either everyday discourse situations or specialized discourse contexts would do a great deal to enhance the value of forensic competition. Individual events contexts that are analogous to everyday discourse situations are press conference speaking, news events reporting, situational interviewing, negotiation, and legal disputation. (HTH)