by Harrison Durland | Jan 8, 2021 | Debate, Soapbox, Theory
In the previous article in this series, I discussed some of the flaws with paradigms that rigidly rely on things such as traditions/norms and rules as the foundational metric for good theory arguments, judging philosophies, or other choices in debate (e.g., which...
by Harrison Durland | Dec 25, 2020 | Debate, Soapbox, Theory
In my previous article I discussed some of the “goals and anti-goals of debate.” It was partially a standalone topic, but it also served as a lead-in to this broader series on what I’ve decided to call Pragmatism Theory (or just “Pragmatism”). This article still won’t...
by Harrison Durland | Dec 11, 2020 | Debate, Soapbox, Theory
Government team: “The purpose of debate is to have civil discussions about the topics before us.” Opposition team: “No, the primary purpose of competitive debate should be fair competition.” And so I listened as the teams spent chunks of the debate trying to debate...
by Harrison Durland | Dec 31, 2019 | Debate, Soapbox, Speaking, Technique
When you are trying to teach or argue for something—whether in a debate, speech, lecture, or blog article—you should present the points as uncontroversial, perhaps even intuitive (so long as you aren’t being misleading); after all, you want the audience to believe...
by Harrison Durland | Nov 24, 2019 | Soapbox, Uncategorized
‘Tis the season for turkey, family, and all the conversations that come from families getting together to eat turkey. At least for me Thanksgiving tends to be a fun holiday and I enjoy visiting with family, but I also have seen how discussions can sometimes get a bit...
by Harrison Durland | Nov 6, 2019 | Debate, Soapbox, TP
When we were on the affirmative, my old high school partner and I would often live or die with The Block—that is, the negative block in team policy: If the negative delivered most of their strongest arguments in the 2NC speech (as opposed to in the 1NC), then we were...
