by Amanda McPhetridge | Apr 25, 2022 | Affirmatives, Debate Rounds, From Advanced to National-Class, Negative, Technique
Have you ever witnessed a round where you can practically feel the mic-drop potential after the last speech? That’s what every single round should be like. You should be able to step away and say with a confident smile, “I rest my case.” The balance of defending...
by Jeremiah Mosbey | Nov 1, 2021 | Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced, Technique, TP
Everyone does the 2AR differently. Some people use the exact same voting issues and illustrations in every round, while others opt to not have any voting issues at all. Still others choose to opt for a middle ground, dividing their time between refutation and voters....
by Jeremiah Mosbey | Oct 13, 2021 | Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced, Technique
As I was writing my TP case this year, I hit a bit of a speed bump. Even though I had identified a way to provide a benefit over the status quo, my plan text was extremely unusual. Because the action was so odd, it didn’t work well with any case structure that I...
by Ellie Harris | Jun 14, 2021 | Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced, TP
The 1AR presents a unique challenge: responding to two speeches in one. It’s probably the most difficult speech to give in a debate round, but it can also be the most fun. I’ve been the 1AR for most of my time in debate, and it’s my favorite speech by far. Sure, I...
by Ben Brown | May 20, 2021 | Affirmatives, Debate Blog, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, TP
What makes a good affirmative case? Aside from one that wins, most debaters look for policies that they believe should be implemented in the real world, and more specifically, ones that create the most benefits. For instance, if one course of action would...
by Ellie Harris | May 1, 2021 | Advocacy, Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative
In Voting Issues Part I, we discussed three common problems surrounding voters and how to avoid them by not running voters at all. But this doesn’t mean you should never run voters! It’s important to understand how to debate without voters, but at the same time many...