by Ben Brown | Jan 7, 2021 | Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Research, Thinking Strategically, TP
Each year, my debate club requires every student to go through the NCFCA’s “Comprehensive Guide to Policy Debate” curriculum in the fall, regardless of experience level. Having read it multiple times before, I was skimming the week’s assigned chapter twenty or so...
by Jeremiah Mosbey | Dec 15, 2020 | Affirmatives, Debate, From Intermediate to Advanced, Research, TP
Affirmatives, you need to wake up. How did you divide your research time during the last few seasons? If you’re like most people, you wrote the 1AC early, gradually built your Aff Backup throughout the entire year, but dedicated every other waking moment to expanding...
by Ben Brown | Dec 10, 2020 | Counterplans, Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Theory, TP
A few months ago, for the first time in my Team Policy career, I wrote a Negative brief which centered around a topical counterplan. Having never attempted this before, I had to sit down for a good while and think through the theoretical justifications for such...
by Kyle Lee | Sep 2, 2020 | Basics, Concept Analysis, Debate, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Parliamentary, Speaking, Strategy, Technique, TP
“No way I should’ve lost that round; I won every argument on the flow.” “How did I lose? The judge ignored my most important argument!” “It’s not my fault I lost; my logic was perfect.” You’ve likely heard people...
by Thad Burson | Nov 19, 2019 | Research, TP
In my previous article, I talked about the benefits of writing general briefs and suggested that taking the time to explore the resolution and brief general ideas can be remarkably beneficial. So, perhaps you’ve decided to write a general brief. Great! But what comes...
by Harrison Durland | Nov 6, 2019 | Debate, Soapbox, TP
My old high school partner and I would often live or die with the block—specifically, the negative block in team policy—when we were affirmative: if the negative delivered most of their strongest arguments in the 2NC speech (as opposed to in the 1NC), then we were in...