From Intermediate to Advanced
Isaiah on Winning Outrounds
Learn from Isaiah McPeak how to improve your outround performance.
Lindsay See on Rebuttals
Rebuttals have two basic points: 1. Why you’re winning the arguments you’re winning, and 2. Why those ones are the most important.
Three Common TP Questions
Isaiah answers 3 top questions Team Policy debaters have.
Pugh/Bozarth vs. Kintzing/Kintzing
Flow this round write down 3 things you should improve in your presentation style as a result.
Debate: Not Just a Mental Activity
Debate is not a sport. Debate is not a physical competition where the strength and stamina of your body is tested against that of someone else's body, rather, it is a test of your mind and communication skills. But with that being said, we need to remember that the...
Learning from Yourself: Using Outrounds as a Template for All Rounds
Looking back on my freshman year of highschool, I imagine that I and my partner were one of the most obnoxious teams in the region, perhaps the nation. We partner would run topicality almost every single negative round, not to mention starting virtually every single...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
How to Use Double Binds Effectively
Debate is like a game of chess. In chess, positioning is everything. You can be ahead in pieces and still be losing the game. Sometimes, it's even worth it to sacrifice a rook or even a queen for a better position. You need to know which pieces to develop and at which...
Clarifying Questions
What would you say is the ideal cross-examination? Ideas like "a cross-examination that makes your opponents admit their faults" or "asking questions that strengthen your case" may come to mind. However, there's a unique feature of cross-examination that often goes...
Turning a Good Speech Into a Winning Speech (Without Changing a Single Word)
My family and I adore soy sauce. We have soy sauce with our rice, soy sauce with our stir-fry, soy sauce in our noodle soup, and even soy sauce on our desert. Chinese food, (like most food out there) is terribly bland without some form of seasoning to enhance the...
It’s Time To Stop Losing Rounds As Affirmative
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...
In Defense of Topical Counterplans
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...
Why You Need to Rethink the Judging Philosophy
A critical aspect of marketing is understanding the consumer. While it may not seem like it at first glance, debate has everything to do with marketing. You present the judge with a case, and you must prove that your case, or “product,” is better than your opponent’s....
A Better Way to Give 1ARs
I completely understand people who hate 1AR’s. In a poll of over 150 Team Policy debaters of all experience levels, over sixty percent responded that they thought the 1AR was the hardest speech in the entire debate round. Not only is the 1AR speaker forced to spend...