by Harrison Durland | Mar 21, 2018 | Disadvantages, Negative, Strategy
Earlier this year, I ventured back out into the forbidding lands of public school policy debate, to help judge. Once again, I was sorely let down by what I saw. In all of the rounds I watched, there was excessive speed and spread, generic evidence, and, perhaps worst...
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 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...
by Joshua Hu | Jan 3, 2018 | Debate Rounds, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Strategy, Technique, Top Drills
There is no one right way to structure rebuttals, no special formula your speeches should follow so that the judge must vote for you. However, there are certain fundamental elements of great rebuttals. When well-developed, these elements will tremendously increase...
