by Jala Boyer | May 26, 2023 | From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Strategy, Tournaments
Photo Credit: Chris Boland, https://unsplash.com/@londonweddingphotographer With the month of May coming to a close, final competitions like NITOC and the NCFCA Championship are right around the corner. Regionals was an exciting time to see people make well-earned...
by Patrick McDonald | May 9, 2023 | Lincoln-Douglas, Strategy, Theory
I will begin this article with a brief disclaimer: I have no definitive answer to this quandary. The purpose of this article is not to persuade you of a response to the question in the title but instead to raise the question. It is a topic of significant importance...
by Patrick McDonald | Apr 10, 2023 | Speech Events, Strategy
As I have previously noted, each speech category offers something unique—each has a defining aspect. Sometimes, it is fairly easy to determine what the defining aspect of a category is (e.g., Informative and Persuasive). Other times, it can be somewhat difficult to...
by Nathanael Morgan | Apr 3, 2023 | Debate Resources, Disadvantages, NCFCA, Stoa, Strategy, Team Policy, Uncategorized
Source: Pixabay In recent years, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Team Policy debate, both in Stoa and in NCFCA (although most of my experience has been within the Stoa sphere). As debaters progress in their skills, one idea I almost never hear brought up within...
by D. J. Mendenhall | Mar 23, 2023 | Ethics Bowl, Lincoln-Douglas, Research Tips, Strategy, Uncategorized
Back in 2013, before I had ever done any speech and debate, and when my family was first considering joining the NCFCA, we had a meeting with the founder of the club we were going to join. During this meeting she went over lots of things concerning how debate works,...
by Nathanael Morgan | Mar 7, 2023 | Concept Analysis, NCFCA, Negative, Speaking, Stoa, Strategy, Team Policy, Technique, Thinking Strategically
Source: Pixabay When I was just getting a good grip on how to debate well, I struggled with winning the judges over. Oftentimes the ballots blamed this on my aggressiveness, but looking back on it now, I realize that that was only one facet of the problem....
