Novice Debate Rules and Expectations

We believe that all years, but especially this year, participation in novice debate is essential to building and growing the activity. As such, we have opened up the tournament to not only 1st years, but 2nd year students as well. It is our hope that students treat this as a learning opportunity to help encourage and grow novice participation in speech and debate, as such we will again implement some rules and regulations with respect to arguments so that we can help ensure that all novice competitors are prepared and have an educational experience centered around clash rather than confusing opponents with new arguments or sneaky strategies. We recognize that for many events, the nature of virtual debate has made many novice divisions basically non-existent and thus many students have not used the novice packet materials because of both late additions and/or they haven't attended tournaments yet. 

For CX, competitors will be limited to evidence in the NDCA Novice Packet, this helps ensure that all competitors have access to the same materials. These files were also added to the San Antonio Novice Packet folder that was shared with coaches last year. Teams ideally should have at least affirmative arguments disclosed on the CX wiki. 

For LD and PF, because files were added to the novice packet throughout the first two months of the year and due to the lack of novice-only divisions, students are not limited to the files located in the San Antonio Novice Packet, but may use these files if they wish. However, ALL competitors must disclose their affirmative and negative cases on the appropriate wiki by 11:59PM Tuesday, November 10 so that all competitors know which cases and arguments they should prepare for. 

If all debaters/teams from a school are reading the same arguments, it is acceptable to make an entry that covers "All Novices" affirmative and negative arguments rather than creating specific entries for each individual team/debater. 

Policy Wiki

LD Wiki

PF Wiki