by Anthony Severin | Jul 11, 2021 | Advocacy, Basics, Counterplans, Fiat, From Advanced to National-Class, Negative, Theory, Uncategorized
What must an affirmative team do to win a policy debate round? The affirmative should win if they convince the judge that the audience and the debaters are better off if the judge votes affirmative. Conversely, the negative should win if they convince the judge that...
by Ellie Harris | May 1, 2021 | Advocacy, Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative
In Voting Issues Part I, we discussed three common problems surrounding voters and how to avoid them by not running voters at all. But this doesn’t mean you should never run voters! It’s important to understand how to debate without voters, but at the same time many...
by Ellie Harris | Mar 26, 2021 | Advocacy, Affirmatives, From Intermediate to Advanced
Carefully read a list of numbers, wait a minute or two, and then try to recall as many of those numbers as you can. It’ll probably be easiest to remember the first and last few numbers. That’s because your brain is wired to recall things in order of primacy and...
by Thaddeus Tague | Sep 29, 2018 | Advocacy, Fiat, Negative, Strategy, Technique
This is, hands down, the topic that I cover most as a coach. Every debater, new or experienced, has been in this situation. Listening to the first affirmative speaker (or PRO or GOV or PROP), and recognizing that not only do you NOT have any prepped material on what...
