by Noah McKay | Sep 12, 2022 | Lincoln-Douglas
Today, I want to discuss the role of real-world examples — known among LD debaters as “applications” — in debate rounds. Some coaches and competitors insist that every contention in an LD case requires an application; indeed, during rebuttals,...
by Noah McKay | Mar 23, 2022 | Lincoln-Douglas, Thinking Strategically
Many (probably most) Lincoln Douglas resolutions recommend “valuing” one of two things over the other. And most LD debaters don’t elaborate on what this means, despite its centrality to the round. The few who do typically appeal to a somewhat vague...
by Noah McKay | Mar 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
“Speaker points” is an appropriate but potentially misleading label for the individual scores debaters receive on their ballots. One widespread misconception (especially among LD debaters) is that the “speaker” in “speaker points” refers to the quality of a...
by Noah McKay | Feb 2, 2022 | Lincoln-Douglas
The Problem Definitional vagueness is par for the course in Lincoln Douglas debate; in fact, most resolutions are meant to be semantically malleable enough to admit of several interpretations. But this year’s NCFCA resolution is vague in an unusual way. The problem is...
