Thousands of students and hundreds of institutions participate in intercollegiate forensics competitions each year. Previous research has discovered instances of plagiarism by competitors on multiple occasions, despite this being against the rules of competition and a violation of academic norms. The purpose of this pragmatic qualitative research study was to better understand the existence of plagiarism in intercollegiate forensics competition. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with coaches of national finalists and judges of national final rounds. These data were analyzed to identify themes which would close the gap between forensic theory and practice. Some of the themes that emerged were a noted emphasis on topic selection; concern over judge competence; judges' inability to check for plagiarism; and coaches' inability to know what is happening once competition begins. Missing from the findings was a common understanding of the most important criteria in either coaching or judging. The findings of this study suggest that the adoption of common learning outcomes across the competitive community may provide a foundation for addressing plagiarism while also facilitating assessment measurements other than competitive success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]