19
May
Many debaters are under the misguided notion that the resolution has some objective meaning. Either you are a policy debater and you think the topic provides a set of core arguments/cases to debate about implementation of a government policy, or you are a K debater and you think the topic is objectively nonsense. Few people [...]
18
May
For most of you all the debate season has come to its conclusion and with school winding down (or completed for seniors) you all have an abundance of free time on your hands. While taking a break is definitely important to keep you sane and avoid burning out from debate, this time off can also [...]
17
May
Policy debate is a specialized activity with a unique vocabulary and a rich history. Its evolution has been shaped in large part by the broader developments in argumentation and rhetoric that have taken place in the academic field of communication. For many years, this connection between contest round debating and the academy from whence it [...]
13
May
Some have brought up the need for formalized rules or regulations guiding the use and administration of emails, blog evidence etc. Unfortunately the notion of debate community rules seems much like the NPT, a good idea in general but a failure as a whole. I don’t think that most people disagree that use of most [...]
11
May
The discussion of new affirmatives and Scott’s most recent post about the SPS article controversy intersect at the issue of how we are teaching students to evaluate evidence. I will write more about this over the coming days, but I wanted to chime in with a few thoughts about this meta-issue before discussing more about [...]
11
May
There is a lot of chit chat about this, and I have some rather unconventional thoughts so I wanted to make a quick post here: To be clear I would not do this, and would discourage anyone I knew who was considering doing it. I guess I’m a K debater at heart because I don’t [...]
9
May
I think this is generally a pretty lame discussion. Every year at end of the year tournaments a lot of stupid affs are broken. During the year a lot of dumb affs are broken just as a lot of dumb disads, counterplans etc etc. Not really a big deal. A few points not directly addressed [...]
8
May
In the first post on his blog (which finally inspired the creation of The3NR.com, an idea that had been milling around for a while), Roy criticizes the recent trend toward breaking many poor-quality new affirmatives at the end-of-the-year national championships. He concludes: I … hope … everyone agrees that it is becoming increasingly more common [...]