Last changed on
Fri June 24, 2022 at 12:57 AM CST
Hello! I am a full time speech and debate coach and have been for well over a decade. I'm likely to be familiar and comfortable with whatever style of argumentation you prefer, and will do my best to be generous in my interpretation of your speaking. I flow, and I will use my flow to make my decision. I'm impressed by creativity, clarity, and passion - show me these things and you'll be very happy with your speaker points. Here are a few general bits of advice that should apply across the board.
Description is more powerful than jargon. For example, "The contention's impact lacks uniqueness" is a very vague thing to say in a debate. "There is already a war in Europe now" is clearer and shows me you understand the content of the debate.
Speed is ideas communicated per minute, not words per minute. Speed is great! More arguments means more depth and complexity. That's all lost if you give up on the basics of speech to shave off a few seconds. Your spread should sound like your normal voice, just faster. Same rhythms, pauses, all that. If you slip into a monotone spew to get through your evidence, you may as well not read that evidence.
Win the debate before making them lose. You win the debate by being right about your points. You don't win the debate by proving the other side is wrong. Of course it's important to engage with the other side and show flaws in their reasoning, but defend your house first.
Be kind. Take turns in crossfire. Be considerate with evidence, timers, and so on. Don't make it personal, don't take it personal. At the end of the day, you're arguing against the other side's ideas, not against them as people. The best debaters know how to disagree without being disagreeable.
Good luck, have fun, and smile. You've got a lot to be proud of! Just showing up to a debate tournament takes a lot of preparation and courage, and I'm glad you're here!
One more thing...let's talk about evidence. There is a lot of confusion, stress, and bad behavior surrounding evidence. In general, you should be using cited evidence to give credibility to your arguments. "According to my research," "The experts say," and similar phrases mean the same thing as "In my opinion." In other words, not much.
When you use cited evidence, you need to make it available to all other participants in the debate. The judge might ask to see it after the round to help make their decision. Your opponents might ask to look at it more closely. If this happens, you have a minute to find it and give it to them. If you can't, that's a pretty big hit to your credibility, so try to stay organized.
These "evidence checks" are not opportunities to argue outside of speech time. If you ask for evidence and the other team doesn't give you what you're looking for, bring this up during your next speech. Explain the flaws in the evidence, or what its absence means for the debate. This procedure is a privilege, not a right. If you are bickering or making gratuitous evidence requests, I will stop allowing evidence checks.
Lacking cited evidence means a point is unproven, not untrue. If you don't provide evidence to the contrary, then we all just shrug and use our best judgement.
Being deliberately misleading about evidence is unethical. This applies to fabricating evidence and deceptive editing that changes the meaning of a text (like deleting "not" from the sentence "The EU is not beneficial"). If you think someone is being unethical, tell your coach. If you have proof of unethical behavior during the debate, the round stops and the judge determines whether or not a violation has occurred. It's a very serious accusation with serious consequences for everyone involved, so never do it lightly or to gain an advantage.
It's not unethical to misunderstand something, exaggerate, or simply not have cited evidence for one of your points. Mistakes happen, especially when you're just getting started. The correct thing to do when you think there's a problem with the other side's evidence is to explain what's wrong with it in your speech time. Let the coaches and judges worry about the "rules," and you focus on debating your very best.