Persuasion, Communication and Debate.
We exist to build people up as mature and powerful communicators. Communication is a discipline, not just a skill. Our training teaches students the discipline it takes to master communication. Ethos combines natural persuasion habits and methods, statistical data on communication techniques, and modern psychology. Join us in the timeless journey of rhetoric. We also teach collegiate and high school debate.
Latest posts
Purposes of Debate Part 4: Using Pragmatism as an Argument
This post is part of a series:See part 1 hereSee part 2 hereSee part 3 here Throughout this series, I’ve been setting the stage for and summarizing Pragmatism as an expansive paradigm/weighing mechanism for a judge to make decisions in debate (among other things, such...
Retaining Attention: A Prerequisite to Success
He’s asleep. He’s literally asleep. When that thought pierced into my mind, my initial reaction was one of astonishment. I was roughly halfway through my Persuasive speech, and five feet in front of me was the head judge, his head peacefully at rest on his chair,...
The Fallacious Fiat
If you’ve been in debate for any length of time, you’re probably well aware of the principle of fiat power. You’ve read about it in debate manuals, learned about it in camp, and probably even argued it in actual rounds. In fact, it’s even addressed in other Ethos...
How to Make Your Plan Text Fool-Proof (Literally)
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should add more seats to the supreme court. What are your first thoughts from reading this resolution? Well, if you think like me, you’re thinking about all the reasons why the supreme court needs more justices. My...
Revisiting the Burden of Proof, Part 2
In part 1, we looked at the argument for net benefits being the superior framing as compared to the burden of proof in Team Policy. The short version is that 9 times out of 10, the burden of proof boils down to net benefits anyway. That is, first, if there’s a net...
Learning New Events: A Four-Step Process
As I've spent more time in the speech and debate community, I've realized just how important experience is. Experience builds the background necessary to win rounds and persuade judges. I remember back in my novice year, everything in speech and debate seemed so...
Time Equals Importance
In my novice year of debate, I had a time distribution problem. Perhaps this was because I enjoyed hearing myself ramble on about irrelevant points or demolishing the applicability of my opponent’s introduction. More likely, it was because my brain had yet to come to...
Revisiting The Burden of Proof, Part 1
Fact: during at least one of your affirmative rounds at every tournament you go to, the Negative team starts the 1NC by going over the burden of proof, if they didn’t already cover it during the preceding cross-ex. I myself went through this phase, giving the...
Your Reading Speed is Holding You Back; Here’s Why
I’ve always believed that my childhood love for reading was a foundational building block for my debate career. As I became increasingly engrossed in debate, I began to realize that my ability to read quickly was invaluable. Recently I became curious to see if I was...
Applications to Illustrate Principles
One of the first logical fallacies I ever learned about was the “Part to Whole” fallacy, arguing that one part of a larger category represents the whole category. For instance: “This tire is made of rubber. Therefore the vehicle of which the tire is a part is also...
Case Philosophies, the Why and the How
In almost every single video game, there is an objective. Maybe it's to capture the point, defend the base, take their flag, or even score a goal or a touchdown. Throughout the course of the game, it doesn't really matter how many kills you get, how accurate you are,...
Purposes of Debate Part 3: What Pragmatism is (and is not)
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...
Why Debate Resolutions Are Getting Too Big… And What to Do about It
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...
Boosting Your Comprehension: The How and Why
There are many ideas on what the greatest way to succeed in debate is. Often, debaters turn towards having a huge stockpile of evidence, or an outstanding speaking style. These things are great, but the true answer to this question lies in an oft-overlooked area. The...
Intentional Impromptu Negative
Throughout my career in Team Policy Debate, I've always tried my hardest to brief every case I could and figure out all the cases at the tournament as soon as possible. I've spent late nights after tournament competition staying up to research cases and trading...
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