by Noah Howard | Feb 7, 2018 | Negative, Strategy
Here at Ethos, most of our writers will advocate a shell and extend strategy for TP debaters. I’ve used it for the majority of my debate career myself, and it’s served me pretty well. Sometimes, though, I like to change things up and try out a new strategy, and...
by Harrison Durland | Jan 27, 2018 | Counterplans, From Advanced to National-Class, Negative, Strategy
Counterplans. I can’t think of a more divisive issue in policy debate. Recently, Joshua decided to brave these controversial waters, writing an article about some of the major generic counterplans you can run. In doing so, he prompts a very important follow up: how...
by Joshua Hu | Jan 24, 2018 | From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Technique
In my last post, I laid out a clear case concerning why rebuttals deserve more attention from debaters, and listed five key fundamentals of national-class rebuttals. This post will look at the uniqueness of the rebuttal speeches, particularly in Policy &...
by Thaddeus Tague | Jan 20, 2018 | Coaching a Club, Negative, Research Tips, Thinking Strategically
Every style of policy debate operates from different and sometimes competing preconceptions and assumptions. At Ethos Debate, we run off several well-worn and sometimes overused phrases. One of those, we proudly tout, is that we teach debaters how to think, not what...
by Joshua Anumolu | Jan 17, 2018 | Communication/Rhetoric, Speech Events, Strategy
In my last post, I covered Reciprocity, the first “principle of persuasion” examined by Dr. Cialdini in his book Influence. In this post, I will discuss the contrast principle, another essential point covered by Cialdini. The contrast principle says that perception is...
by Joshua Farquhar | Jan 6, 2018 | Counterplans, Strategy
When it comes to preparation for negative, one problem often arises: you don’t know what cases are going to pop up. Whether this is the first tournament of the year, halfway through the season, or right before nationals, there’s always that empty space on your case...
