by Patrick McDonald | Dec 3, 2020 | Extemporaneous
“Speaker 4, 5 minutes remaining.” I glance nervously down at my card. My card stares obstinately back up at me. Both of our expressions are blank. Distressed, I pick up my pen and scratch as many words as possible into the 3″ by 5″ piece of paper. Just as...
by Jeremiah Mosbey | Dec 1, 2020 | From Intermediate to Advanced, Judging/Judges, Strategy, Thinking Strategically
A critical aspect of marketing is understanding the consumer. While it may not seem like it at first glance, debate has everything to do with marketing. You present the judge with a case, and you must prove that your case, or “product,” is better than your opponent’s....
by Ben Brown | Nov 26, 2020 | Best Resources, From Intermediate to Advanced, Speaking
I completely understand people who hate 1AR’s. In a poll of over 150 Team Policy debaters of all experience levels, over sixty percent responded that they thought the 1AR was the hardest speech in the entire debate round. Not only is the 1AR speaker forced to spend...
by Kyle Lee | Nov 24, 2020 | Parliamentary
“Point of information.”*stops mid-sentence* “um I’ll uh take your point.” As I stuttered through my first ever answer to a point of information in parliamentary debate, I noticed that points of information are nothing like...
by Anthony Severin | Nov 13, 2020 | Communication/Rhetoric, Cross Examination, From Intermediate to Advanced, Strategy, Technique
Let’s suppose I’m a prosecutor trying to convince a jury to convict the defendant in a murder case. Let’s call the defendant “Albert” and the victim “Buddy.” Albert is on the stand and I’m cross-examining him. You might...
