Mid-season tournament preparation can be perplexing business, Coach Noah McKay will be starting his 2nd Semester LD Club in just a couple weeks. He will help you break down your cases, help analyze the best values, and come up with a strategy! Did you know you could also learn a ton from your ballots?
You have probably experienced the sinking feeling of going 1-5 after months of pre-season research and writing, along with attendant confusion about what, exactly, you are supposed to do to bring those numbers up the next go-round. After all, if you couldn’t find a winning argument anywhere in the thousands of pages you read between July and December, where can you find one?
The Problem – You Don’t Have to Defend Transhumanism This Year It has come to my attention that this year’s Lincoln Douglas resolution is breeding uneasiness among rank-and-file debaters and parents in the NCFCA. Of course, almost everyone is uneasy about new resolutions, because, well, they’re new. But the present distress goes beyond standard concerns about definitional vagueness or bias: some have questioned whether it is even morally permissible to defend the Affirmative position…
The season for contemplating speech topics is upon us, and as camps, clubs, and the start of a new year of Speech and Debate competition approaches, one dreaded question will swirl amongst them all.
“…It is for all these reasons I strongly but respectfully urge an affirmative ballot. Thank you, and I now stand open for cross-examination.”
In the silence that follows your opponent’s final words, you finish shuffling your papers around on your canary yellow legal pad, take one final swig from your trusty water bottle, and then with a deep breath, stand up and approach your adversary at the podium, being careful to avoid making eye contact.
You set your timepiece for three minutes, take one final glance around to check if your opponent and judges are ready, then with an earsplitting beep, you activate your timepiece and start the countdown, a wide smile appearing on your face.
“Hi, that was a great speech, but of course as always I’ve got a couple questions for you today, starting with…”
If you’ve ever participated in any form of debate that has cross-examination, this situation, or one very similar to it, should be familiar to you. Starting off cross-examination this way seems natural. After all, you want to appear friendly to the judge, and you’ve seen other experienced debaters follow this same pattern. What could possibly be wrong with this approach? Quite a bit, it turns out.
In this article, we will be examining some common cross-ex tactics and pressure-testing them with alternative options to see if they really deserve the spot they have secured in the hearts and minds of debaters.
Love it or hate it, this year’s resolution is one of the narrowest resolutions we’ve seen in a long time. Narrow resolutions make way to more topicality issues and more topicality arguments. Regardless of your position on when it is or isn’t appropriate to run topicality, it’ll likely happen a lot throughout the year, so let’s examine the topicality scene as it regards cases…
Amy Eichholz is part of the Lasting Impact! Teaching Team. She has graduated two sons and is teaching two daughters, still at home. Her journey in Speech and Debate started over a decade ago. She began as a novice parent, and is now preparing for her sixth year teaching Novice/Beginning Debate for the largest Homeschool Speech and Debate Club in Wisconsin. She is eager to see the transformation of another group of young students, both in person and online! Prior to homeschooling Amy taught fifth through twelfth grade. She will be teaching Debate Readiness for Lasting Impact! in the fall for ages 10-14. Sign up NOW or read her thoughts on why debate should be a part of your curriculum…
As we enter this next school year, it’s time to begin preparing for debate. I remember preparing for my first year of LD debate not too long ago. I found evidence, googled definitions, and printed many briefs. In fact, pretty much all of my preparation time went into writing cases and finding evidence. Generally, this is what we think of when we want to prepare. In the debate round, we need cases and evidence, so that’s what we should gather before competition starts. Right? Well, in my opinion, that’s only partially right. It’s certainly important to be prepared with these materials before your first tournament, but I don’t think cases and evidence represent the most important aspect of a debate round…
New to Apologetics? No problem. No Apol. Club? We have you covered! Do you belong to a Club, but you want to grow with believers from around the country? Lasting Impact! is where both Stoa and NCFCA students will be at Monday evenings. This will be a time of growing and encouraging one another in Him. Check out the details HERE or read on what makes Apologetics Club so wonderful…
If an unbeliever asks you, “Was Jesus a socialist?” how well could you answer? If an atheist makes you question your faith, could you give a logical defense? If a Muslim asks you to compare and contrast their religion with your own then defend it, could you?
We are excited to be part of your Lincoln Douglas Debate journey. If you know you want the 2021-22 NCFCA LD Guidebook fresh off the presses- click HERE!
Wondering why you might need the LD Guidebook this season? You may be reading our Guidebook for a multitude of purposes:
1. To learn how to do LD 2. To teach a club 3. To explore the LD resources 4. To get a head start on the season
No matter who you are or your level of experience, we hope this guide will be of tremendous benefit to you. This guide is different than most typical Sourcebooks. In addition to giving you LD cases, we wanted to help you understand the most important parts of Lincoln Douglas Debate and go through cases section by section.
There is no other Guidebook like it, specifically geared toward the NCFCA 2021-22 Season.
For new debaters or those teaching at a club:
We hope this will be your how-to guide for LD! Each section includes an explanation of that part of LD, why it is important and how to use it in a debate round. For instance, in the first section, definitions, there is an explanation of why definitions are important and how to argue them in a debate round. Following this summary is a brief of the most credible definitions we could find on the most important terms for this resolution. The same structure is used for the other sections, a summary of the topic and then a brief.
For experienced debaters:
In this resource, we have compiled a multitude of credible research and arguments for this resolution. The definitions brief has the most credible definitions for this resolution that we could find, the contentions briefs have scholarly evidence justifying and condemning each principle, the applications section has seventeen examples, more than you’ll use all year. In short, we want this resource to be beneficial and worthwhile. In addition to the summaries and descriptions, LD theory is also included.
Head to the SHOP, and go to BOOKS to purchase your LD Guide today!
We are excited to announce the release of the 2021-2022 Lasting Impact! Team Policy Sourcebook! If you know you want it – purchase it HERE. But perhaps you have questions – Why this Sourcebook? What does it cover? Why Lasting Impact? In order to introduce it, the authors will answer questions about why it was written, and what we hope you can gain from it…
