Now that you have a good caselist and have your 1AC all put together, it is time to work on negative.
1. First step is to get with your partner and go through the caselist one by one. Set out your negative strategy for each of the affirmatives. The negative strategy will help you work as a team presenting cohesive arguments. A team that argues together will seem more prepared and ready for the meet.
2. When you have developed your negative strategy, read through your negative briefs. Set aside any evidence that doesn’t fit your negative strategy. Limit your arguments! Choose two or three of your best disadvantages. Then, choose two or three of your best on-case arguments.
3. Take those arguments and research them more deeply. If the 1NC reads a DA of public health, it would be nice if the 2NC was able to explode that DA by showing how harming public health harms productivity, harms our economy, etc. Don’t have all of your evidence repeat itself using different authors; instead, you should think like an iceberg. The 1NC is going to give me the tip of the iceberg. The 2NC is going to be showing me the depth and breadth of the iceberg.
4. Believability is key. Make sure your arguments are believable. While eco-feminism may sound intellectual, is it truly believable to your judges? If you ran the argument, check your ballots to see if any judge voted on that argument. Don’t waste your time, your breath, or your debate box space on an argument that sounds good in theory, but isn’t going to buy you that win in the round.