Tags: UGA Debate


Theory of Intrinsicness

Recent discussions of intrinsicness highlight how effective these arguments can be, but don't thoroughly discuss the theoretical foundations for the argument. I seek to update older, more theoretical discussions of the argument, in the hopes that affirmatives will be able to more successfully deploy intrinsicness arguments. T.A. McKinney provides an enduring explanation of intrinsicness that, with some adjustment, provides a…
Tags:
Debate Theory


Dr. Panetta Wins Teaching Award!

I’m happy to congratulated Dr. Ed Panetta, Director of Debate, for being a winner of one of this year’s Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Awards. The award is given annually to faculty members who demonstrate excellence in teaching, a sustained commitment to high-quality instruction, and who are particularly engaged in undergraduate teaching. The award is prestigious (only five are awarded in the Franklin College) and comes with a…
Tags:
Press


Strategies for Success Against Paperless Teams

In the debate community, we are starting to see a substantial transition to paperless debate. Unfortunately, many people in the community think paperless wastes time, delays debates, and gives an unfair advantage to the paperless team. However, teams that debate with paper can easily use the advantages paperless debate offers to maximize their ability to win more debates. Since the transition to paperless is occurring so rapidly, it is necessary…
Tags:
Paperless Debate


The Debate Program: A Model Service Learning Unit for a University

Oscar Handlin proffered this challenge over a half a century ago:  Our troubled planet can no longer afford the luxury of pursuits confined to an ivory tower.  Scholarship has to prove its worth, not on its own terms, but by service to the nation and the world.  As we experience what some have labeled the third academic revolution in American higher education, universities look to meet the increasing demands of political relevance…
Tags:
Debate Pedagogy


Paperless Debate Ethics: What Norms Will Form?

Though we rarely discuss the norms that govern debate, there are many unwritten and seldom debated rules that vastly affect the practices of debate. We take it for granted that the affirmative team will disclose the arguments that they are reading before a debate, and it is an emerging norm to disclose many of the negative arguments that a team has read. These norms can be explained by the reciprocal competitive benefit that compliance with the…
Tags:
Debate Theory


Research Tool: Full List of Magazines on Google Books

I try to keep up with the ongoing digitization of offline research materials.  For debaters, this isn't such a big issue because of the premium placed on the recency of evidence.  But the dependence on Google News, regular search engines, and Lexis can cause debaters to miss important information.  Arguments that are less subject to recency issues, like the Kritik, performance, and the Project also widen the field…
Tags:
Research Techniques


The Project and Switch Side Debate

Neal Katyal In debates that take place between policy teams and project teams, one central sticking point tends to be over the merits of switch side debate in our activity. Proponents of switch side debate argue that doing so offers debaters an opportunity to take a new perspective by learning and advocating a position they might not agree with within a given debate round. Doing so enhances critical thinking skills and teaches debaters to…
Tags:
Debate Pedagogy


Card Cutting Tip: Researching With Locked PDFs

"Locked" PDFs, where security setting have disabled the copy-pasting of text, are an annoying and unnecessary obstacle in today's decentralized research-friendly web universe. Fortunately, they can be conquered without user OCRing or printing the document. Earlier this season, Austin Layton showed me this online tool for unlocking PDFs. It works flawlessly, so I figured that I'd pass it along. All you need to do is: save the…
Tags:
Paperless Debate


Not So Fast: An Open Question Regarding Reductions in the Size of the Nuclear Arsenal

Is it enough to argue that the US should reduce the size of its nuclear arsenal without addressing logistical questions about how this process should occur? An Independent Task Force Report sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired by former secretary of defense William J. Perry and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft points out, “Reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons means considerably more than transferring…


Awesome Tech Fix

Props to Adam Symonds for his paperless tech fix. UGA had been having issues where files transferred electronically (via Dropbox or email) were "losing" their macros -- the user on the recieving end couldn't "Send to Speech", etc. Well, there is a fix over at the Paperless Debate Wikispace. Enjoy! Problem: Someone from your team sends you a file made in your squad's template but when you open it all the macros aren't working. The toolbar is…
Tags:
Paperless Debate
Subscribe to UGA Debate

Support our Department

We greatly appreciate your generosity. Your gift enables us to offer our students and faculty opportunities for research, travel, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Support the efforts of the Department of Communication Studies by visiting our giving section.

Learn More 

EVERY DOLLAR CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEPARTMENT HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY.