by Ben Brown | Apr 1, 2021 | Affirmatives, Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, Technique, TP
Anybody who’s been in TP or LD debate for any considerable amount of time understands the necessity of delivering a memorable 2AR. After all, being able to give the final speech of the round poses a significant rhetorical advantage to the affirmative–an...
by Ben Brown | Feb 4, 2021 | Concept Analysis, Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Strategy, TP, Uncategorized
In part 1, we looked at the argument for net benefits being the superior framing as compared to the burden of proof in Team Policy. The short version is that 9 times out of 10, the burden of proof boils down to net benefits anyway. That is, first, if there’s a net...
by Ben Brown | Jan 7, 2021 | Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Research, Thinking Strategically, TP
Each year, my debate club requires every student to go through the NCFCA’s “Comprehensive Guide to Policy Debate” curriculum in the fall, regardless of experience level. Having read it multiple times before, I was skimming the week’s assigned chapter twenty or...
by Ben Brown | Dec 10, 2020 | Counterplans, Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Theory, TP
A few months ago, for the first time in my Team Policy career, I wrote a Negative brief which centered around a topical counterplan. Having never attempted this before, I had to sit down for a good while and think through the theoretical justifications for such...
by Kyle Lee | Oct 20, 2020 | Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Thinking Strategically
In the previous article, we discussed how you should “Give Your Opponent the Benefit of the Doubt” when it comes to dropped arguments and treat your point being unrefuted as “Additional Support, Not Standalone Proof”. In this article,...
by Kyle Lee | Oct 6, 2020 | From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Strategy, Technique, Thinking Strategically, Uncategorized
In my second year of speech and debate, I had a favorite phrase: “My opponent dropped my argument.” Whenever my opponent ignored the slightest bit of my analysis, I harped on it and even made it a voting issue. I wrote an elaborate script that I’d...
