Why We Debate

(This is a draft.)

The founders put debate at the heart of our democratic process because they believed it was the best way to find the truth.

They didn't put debate there as merely an occasion for expressing eloquence, charm, cleverness, or dominance.

Eloquence serves debate's search for the truth.  We don't talk about America's challenges just to demonstrate our eloquence.

Searching for the truth requires engagement with the real world, and the proof that we're making that engagement is what we call evidence.

Without these smaller pieces of the truth, we can't assemble a larger truth on which we can act with confidence.

To me, respect for evidence is the single most important part of debate.  Without it, we might as well be doing Impromptu.  

Concretely, this means I'd prefer by a factor of one thousand that you look down at your legal pad and read a clean, fully-cited quotation than to try to dazzle me with confident eye-contact.  If you speak without a legal pad, you're expecting me to trust you more than I'm usually willing to.    

It's easy to guess how I feel about these loose "trust me they said this" paraphrases, citing daily newspapers by year only (if that).  Might as well not even bother.  And if it sounds illegit, welcome to the bottom half of the ballot.  

It's also easy to guess how I feel about the late "crystallization" speeches which nearly always substitute rapid-fire error-free delivery for actual insight or advancement of the debate.   Crystals are beautiful because their apparent complexity belies an elegant simplicity.  Those speeches are neither beautiful nor elegant.  Don't call it crystallization.  Call it a sugar buzz:  fun, quick, ultimately unsatisfying and at least a little bad for you.   

I confess I'm in the minority on this, but I'm not alone.  And every chance I get, I preach this to my colleagues, most of whom didn't sign on to watch our brightest kids dissemble prettily most weekends of the year.  

I do get a lot of chances.  

Sunvite RR Committee Notes

Here they are.  

I got progressively grumpier.

It is my way.

Glenbrooks Round Comments Posted

Here they are.  As always, take whatever's useful to you and ignore the rest.  

Congrats to everyone.

NSDA Presentation: Congress Up-Close

In lieu of a projector and screen, the please follow along on the prezi below.

https://prezi.com/-kunit5mmh_r/edit/#1

And here are the handouts, including the "raw" script (with find-and-replace codes instead of names).

What is Congressional Debate?

Choosing a Bill Topic

The Script (link updated)

Policy Analysis Chart

In-round Wi-Fi? Worth a Try-Fi

My reading of this year's big TOC innovation:  It's a tool you are supposed to use to detect and destroy BS in the round.

No other explanation for the rule change makes any sense.

Now will anyone use it?



Themed rounds are also an interesting wrinkle.  That really hurts the docket mafia.

Not sad to see the PO-as-separate-event go away.

Harvard 15 Prelims Chamber S

No Danby or Goldstein in finals?  I'm surprised.  Top two to finals is probably the most brutal break in recent Congress history.

Here they are.  My usual disclaimers apply.  I try to give you the kind of feedback I'd give my own debaters.  It's not constructive unless it's critical.

I also tend to get frownier and more restless as the day goes on, but I've had people look through to make sure I haven't said anything plainly mean.

And if we disagree about something, you're probably right.  I'm outnumbered and my attention is badly divided.  Still, I hope these comments will be helpful to you all.

Just generally, you have nothing to lose by citing each piece of evidence fully and quoting it cleanly rather than mangling a paraphrase.  Evidence isn't a condiment--it's the bones of what you're offering.

And flawless delivery in Congress now seems to be necessary but insufficient for success, even for debate-focused judges like myself.

My notes.

Balasquide was kind enough to point out that I hadn't shared these properly.  My bad.  Fixed.

Sunvitational RR Notes

Are here.  Congrats to all.

https://docs.google.com/a/lhprep.org/document/d/1h9i27hbb6kwsMMyg_E6hzGC1haE1X4o0EVfmhOgtDMU/edit