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.
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...
You’re Probably “Asking the Question Too Far”
Let's suppose I'm a prosecutor trying to convince a jury to convict the defendant in a murder case. Let's call the defendant "Albert" and the victim "Buddy." Albert is on the stand and I'm cross-examining him. You might imagine that it would go something like this:...
Guidelines to Dropped Arguments – Part 2
In the previous article, we discussed how you should "Give Your Opponent the Benefit of the Doubt" when it comes to dropped arguments and treat your point being unrefuted as "Additional Support, Not Standalone Proof". In this article, we'll be discussing three more...
Guidelines to Dropped Arguments – Part 1
In my second year of speech and debate, I had a favorite phrase: "My opponent dropped my argument." Whenever my opponent ignored the slightest bit of my analysis, I harped on it and even made it a voting issue. I wrote an elaborate script that I'd give every time my...
Make the Most Of Your Time in Speech and Debate – Diversify Events
"I wish I could come back just one more year." After Covid-19 cancelled the debate season, I heard that phrase countless times from my senior high school friends. "If only I had one more year." I've come to realize that the years you have in speech & debate are...
The Number One Way to Boost Consistency – Tagging
"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 justify their losses in these ways. Thoughts along...
Beyond the Briefs
We are in the brief season, and I absolutely love briefs. I don’t just like using them, I also (usually) like writing them; I like critiquing them; I like theorizing about what makes good brief structure and content; etc. At a broader level, I typically prefer debates...
When Your Life Is A Catchphrase
“Everybody here? Great. Anna, would you pray for us before we get started?” “Oh. Me? Oh. Yeah, sure! Um. Okay.” You know that moment when you’re handed something completely unexpected? When you’re strolling along a sunny lane and then a giant iguana shows up out of...
Adding Cross Ex To Your Briefs: The How And Why
Recently, we’ve written some articles that focus on cross examination. Those articles describe a few approaches to CX questioning, but now there’s another question to be answered: (how) do you put CX questions in briefs? As simple as this may seem, from experience I...
Spikes, Part 2: The 2AC
Last time, we introduced spikes and preemption, and saw what they look like in the 1AC. Today, we move to the 2AC, and next time we’ll talk about Neg. 2AC spikes exist to mitigate the Neg block by making the 1AR easier. This article does a wonderful job of outlining...
Going on Offense: Spikes, Part 1
If you’ve ever played volleyball, you know the terror of a spike. A player slams the ball over the net so hard you have no hope of returning it. In debate, a spike is a little different, but still a powerful offensive tactic. Referring broadly to preemption, a spike...
Resolved: In a democracy, the public’s right to know ought to be valued above the right to privacy of candidates for public office (Negative)
Resolved: In a democracy, the public’s right to know ought to be valued above the right to privacy of candidates for public office. This topic prep is meant to stimulate ideas (and give resources) rather than hand feed you contentions to run. Check the additional...
Why You Should Share Your 1AC – With Everyone
This is an adapted version of a lecture Isaiah McPeak gave in 2012 at debate camps nationwide. As Team Policy debaters prepare for the new debate season this coming fall, the time and thrill of researching new cases will also come full swing. With this time,...
How to Make Your Audience Laugh
Almost all of us have been there. Sitting, listening to a speaker or a debater, laughing blissfully. At that moment, the speaker has the audience practically in his or her palm. Later, we will try those same tactics we heard, only to be greeted with awkward moments....
Advanced Verbal Techniques – Get Inside your Audience’s Mind.
How do you take your speeches to the next level? How do you separate yourself from the rest of the room, and even the other speakers in the debate round? Focus on the key distinguishing factors that make all the difference. Most of the time you can just get good or...