by Patrick McDonald | Feb 11, 2021 | Speaking, Strategy
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,...
by Patrick McDonald | Dec 17, 2020 | Debate, Speaking
“In this rebuttal, I want to go down the flow and refute everything my opponent has said thus far and explain why, at the end of the day, you should vote for me.” This line, in all of its iterations, is useless. For one thing, it is outstanding only in its mediocrity....
by Harrison Durland | Jan 18, 2020 | Communication/Rhetoric, Speaking, Technique
Recently, Thaddeus Tague dug up an old document that Ethos has used for coaching: a figures of speech handout. “Figure of speech” broadly refers to deliberate patterns or abnormalities in language with a goal of producing some effect in the audience; it includes...
by Harrison Durland | Dec 31, 2019 | Debate, Soapbox, Speaking, Technique
When you are trying to teach or argue for something—whether in a debate, speech, lecture, or blog article—you should present the points as uncontroversial, perhaps even intuitive (so long as you aren’t being misleading); after all, you want the audience to believe...
by Anna Johansen | Jun 27, 2019 | Basics, Communication/Rhetoric, From Novice to Intermediate, Speaking
Simpler is better. I don’t know why it took me five years to figure this out. After all, our nation was basically founded on the imperative “Never use two words when one will do.” Right? So why did I, an accomplished speaker, still stumble over phrases in my 1AC or...
