by Noah Howard | Nov 1, 2017 | Debate Rounds, Strategy, Technique
It was 10:30 pm at NITOC 2016, and I was about to give the last speech of the last out round of the day. I had almost everything prepared. Almost. The problem was, Neg had run an argument that I just couldn’t come up with a response to. But it was okay, I had two...
by Harrison Durland | Oct 24, 2017 | Communication/Rhetoric, Technique
“Surely, surely you can’t be serious; that’s absurd—borderline conspiracy theorist!” Yet, sure enough, he was being serious. And as we got into a heated conversation, I soon regretted not taking him seriously. In this age of rapid information and opinion sharing,...
by Joshua Anumolu | Mar 14, 2017 | Debate Rounds, DebateSmart, Strategy, Technique
The Affirmative team gets up and says, “You should pass our plan because of X,Y, and Z principles.” Then the Negative team gets up and says, “You should reject their plan because it does not accomplish X, Y, and Z benefits.” Repeat ad nauseum. Believe it or not, this...
by Noah Howard | Mar 10, 2017 | Communication/Rhetoric, Technique
It was nationals 2016. Going into the tournament, I knew my partner and I had a relatively good chance at breaking. We had been here before, and this time we had strategies against almost every case out there. Almost every case. The only case we didn’t prep at all was...
by Noah Farley | Mar 3, 2017 | DebateSmart, Lincoln-Douglas, Technique, Thinking Strategically
We all know how hard it is to debate those who have trouble structuring arguments and organizing them. Points are scattered all across the map. In contrast to your claim that they never responded to your case, they insist that they did, and take the opportunity to...
by Anna Johansen | Feb 27, 2017 | Technique, Top Drills
I never thought Goethe and Bruce Lee would have too much in common. But apparently I was wrong. Despite their diverse origins—one hailing from 18th century Frankfurt; the other from 20th-century pop culture—somehow, they managed to agree on one key point: “Knowing is...
