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 | Jan 28, 2021 | Debate Blog, Strategy
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...
by Harrison Durland | Aug 27, 2019 | Best Resources, Featured, From Intermediate to Advanced, Research, Technique
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...
by Harrison Durland | Oct 18, 2018 | Ethics Bowl, Strategy, Technique
In my previous article, I described our usual presentation structure, while also partially discussing Case 1. In this article, I will be focusing on case preparation and research, as well as some communication and teamwork practices. How we prepare The right research...
by Toby Rivas | Oct 6, 2018 | Inherency, Negative, Strategy, Technique, Theory
This is the first post from one of our new team members, sixth-year debater Toby Rivas. Keep an eye out for more practical strategy tips from him coming soon! Debaters have lots of silly quirks–“debaterisms,” if you will. Things like always quoting Ronald...