"It is in the societies that oratory is cultivated. Here 'steel meets steel,' mind is brought into contact with mind, and the most powerful efforts of each are thus called forth. The rules of logic and rhetoric learned in the too often dry text-books, are put into practice in the literary societies. It is only by such exercises that they can ever be of any practical benefit to the possessor. In the department of oratorical training, the literary societies are simply of inestimable value."

February 1884, The Student

Rufus Weaver wrote an article about an alumnus of Wake Forest inquiring into the activities of the literary societies, specifically debate. It is noted that the debates have devolved into speeches that "were carefully written, memorized and then declaimed…The debate, once the liveliest and sharpest intellectual combat upon the college arena, has diminished into puerile declamation full of sophomoric eloquence."

March 1893, The Student