by Patrick McDonald | Feb 25, 2021 | Speaking, Strategy
Dear friends, not unfriendly acquaintances, others, I have a confession to make. Several days ago, I unearthed the script of the first full-length speech I ever wrote. On a hunch, I opened up the search function via Ctrl + F and punched in a solitary question mark....
by Patrick McDonald | Feb 11, 2021 | Speaking, Strategy
He’s asleep. He’s literally asleep. When that thought pierced into my mind, my initial reaction was one of astonishment. I was roughly halfway through my Persuasive speech, and five feet in front of me was the head judge, his head peacefully at rest on his chair,...
by Patrick McDonald | Jan 28, 2021 | Debate Blog, Strategy
In my novice year of debate, I had a time distribution problem. Perhaps this was because I enjoyed hearing myself ramble on about irrelevant points or demolishing the applicability of my opponent’s introduction. More likely, it was because my brain had yet to come to...
by Patrick McDonald | Dec 31, 2020 | Debate Blog, Speaking
“At the end of the day… Moving down the flow… The fact of the matter is…” What do all of these fragments have in common? For one, they operate as “crutch words,” phrases that serve no purpose apart from buying you time to think of what you are going to say...
by Patrick McDonald | Dec 17, 2020 | Debate Blog, Speaking
“In this rebuttal, I want to go down the flow and refute everything my opponent has said thus far and explain why, at the end of the day, you should vote for me.” This line, in all of its iterations, is useless. For one thing, it is outstanding only in its mediocrity....
