Tags: Debate Theory

Edward Panetta, department chair and professor of communication studies at the University of Georgia, shares his thoughts on the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Great analysis from a great political communication scholar and debate coach! Go Dawgs! 

The official start to the 2014 Georgia Debate Institutes begins tomorrow afternoon as kids from around Georgia and around the country - from New Mexico to Maryland, from Illinois to Florida - come to Athens to register for the 2 week policy camp. The two labs at the camp are the Gibson/Malsin lab and the Grellinger/Watson lab.  Over the two week period, the kids will work on developing their debate skills through the combination of targeted…

The following is an email exchange between myself and Richard Lappin, one of the foremost authors on the subject of how to define democracy assistance. I want to thank him for providing a thorough response to the questions I raised. (He quotes the questions in his responses, but I would be happy to forward the full exchange to any interested parties.) William Mosley-Jensen   Email Text: Dear William, My thanks once again for contacting me…

Politics disads are awesome. They apply to most affirmatives on the topic. They change with the political winds, so it’s possible to read a new politics disad at every tournament. They are complex, which means you can find multiple link, internal link, and impact scenarios to keep it interesting. They have almost unlimited number of impact scenarios, making it really easy to turn or solve the case. Like I said, awesome. Now that you’ve decided…

Though sometimes writing the plan is almost an afterthought in the affirmative research process, how the plan is written and how the affirmative defends it are of central importance to affirmative strategy. There are three important considerations in writing the plan, and they offer competing ways to do so. The plan must be topical, it must implement a solvent mechanism, and it must be written with potential counterplans in mind. This post takes…

The affirmative gets infinite prep, first and last speech, and gets to choose the topic. So why does the aff ever lose?! Often, the aff loses debates because they have a poorly-built 1AC. Putting a lot of thought and research into your 1AC is key to winning on the aff. Getting the House in Order Your 1AC should be written with the 2AR in mind. Just as a 1NC is better if it includes multiple strategies, the 1AC needs to have several different…

To steal a phrase from one of the nation’s best judges, far too many teams approach to debating on the Aff with only “one note”. Cases typically fall into one of a few categories: The “big stick”: plan that is central to the topic. Strengths: easy to research, lots of advantage diversity, few topicality problems. Weakness: widely varied / unpredictable specific Neg strategies, requires most substantial time investment in terms of research…

With the growing use of wikis, debaters are sharing information more efficiently than ever. Most teams’ core positions – both aff and neg – are available online through easy to navigate, organized databases. For the most part, individuals post tags and citations, allowing opposing researchers to seek out the evidence themselves. However, this season has seen the introduction of open source practices, with the debate team at Wake Forest…

Casey Harrigan, head coach of the Georgia Debate Union, recently recorded a podcast with Bob Jordan of PFDebate.com covering recent controversy in Public Forum debate in high school over the merits of switch side debating. Check it out here.

Ronnie O'Sullivan Photo Credit: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/more-sport/2009/08/08/rocket-for-ronnie-115875-21581620/ The quarterfinals debate that I judged at West Georgia has brought up an interesting theoretical question. Namely, when does an argument have to be explicitly conceded in order for a team to make use of it later? There was a short discussion of this on The 3NR. I expand this discussion and provide a bit more background…