UW is extending the online practice debates for one final week, until 4/11.
UW is hosting online practice debates for area high school debaters while school is cancelled and while you are social distancing. Given increasing interest, we're extending timeslots for judging into next week, Monday 3/6 - Saturday 4/11. UW Debate will host debates in PF, LD, and policy 100% cost free and provide judges who will give you copious and quality feedback on your debating. If you are interested, please have a parent or a coach reach out for a parental permission form. Then you'll be given access to the scheduling forum where you'll be able to schedule your own debates. If you have any questions, please email me! Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate [email protected]
0 Comments
Hello all! With the presence of online debate growing, I will shortly be both publishing a WDR article on online debate and running a live webinar on how online debate works, the tech that makes the experience function best, and best practices for online debate.
The webinar will be held this Wednesday, April 1st, from 4pm-5pm. When I say a live webinar, what I mean is that I will run a Zoom meeting that y'all can join and ask questions while I am explaining things about online debate. Any Wyoming high school debate or speech coach is welcome to join. Students are also welcome to join, but must email me to obtain a parent/guardian permission slip first (the online debate permission slips are not sufficient as they do not authorize image sharing). If no one joins, that's fine too: I will spend about 30-45 minutes explaining online debate and publish the video so you can view it anytime. Why should you listen to us about online debate? The University of Wyoming not only ran the first online college policy tournament (last fall, before COVID-19), and put nearly 9 months of planning into that tournament, we've also held online scrimmages with other colleges in multiple events, hosted the Wyoming high school online debates since social distancing began, and acted as a consultant for the eTOC, the Michigan debate camp, and others. If you have any questions or are a student who would like a parental/guardian permission slip to participate, please email me at [email protected] Hope everyone is keeping safe and social distancing! Matt Liu -- University of Wyoming director of debate Author: Ki Radcliffe, University of Wyoming debater
Judge adaptation is an incredibly important skill to have no matter what style of debate you are doing. At the end of the round it is only up to one person to decide who wins. While you may think you are clearly winning an argument if you are unwilling to adapt to your judge’s preferences and philosophy then you may end up losing. Keep reading for a quick overview on how to best adapt to your judge. Author: Ryan Galloway, Director of Debate at Samford University
Editor’s note: in the comments of our CP 101 series, a student asked for an expanded take on the theoretical aspects of the states counterplan. I can think of no better starting point than this article, re-posted with the author’s permission. The original article was posted long ago to edebate and its availability there has been lost to the ravages of time. Every year about this time I begin to work on the Baylor Briefs for the high school topic as well as get ready for the upcoming Samford Debate Institute. As I began to delve into the poverty topic, I got excited about Affirmative possibilities. I found articles about: *Poverty and Immigration *Social Services in segregated areas with concentrations of poverty *Full Service Community Schools for Low-Income Children *Faith based legal services as bolstering legal benefits for those in poverty And then I quickly realized the obvious. None of this matters. None of these affs are strategic, no negative team will ever research any of them, nor will they learn about any of this literature, because all of it will be obsolete when the 1nc says: The 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all relevant territories should implement the mandates of the affirmative plan. It’s time to put the sacred cow out to pasture. The states counterplan devastates education and the benefits of in-depth, topic specific research. The arguments in favor of it are weak, shallow, and protected mainly by about a decade of presumed legitimacy and the negative’s ability to spew off 15 answers to protect it. [Below the fold are the arguments against the states counterplan.] UW is hosting online practice debates for area high school debaters while school is cancelled and while you are social distancing. Given increasing interest, we're extending timeslots for judging into next week, Monday 3/30 - Saturday 4/4.
UW Debate will host debates in PF, LD, and policy 100% cost free and provide judges who will give you copious and quality feedback on your debating. If you are interested, please have a parent or a coach reach out for a parental permission form. Then you'll be given access to the scheduling forum where you'll be able to schedule your own debates. If you have any questions, please email me! Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate [email protected] Author: Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate
Counterplans offer an alternative avenue to solve all or part of the affirmative, usually one that avoids a disadvantage you have read that links to the affirmative plan but not your counterplan. Let’s use a common real world example: your friend proposes going to McDonald’s because you’re both hungry, but you’ve heard the local McDonald’s is giving people food poisoning, so you counter with going to Chipotle. The Chipotle counterplan solves the hunger advantage, but avoids the food poisoning disadvantage. Game, set, match for the neg right? Maybe, maybe not. In this series, we’ll discuss counterplan strategy for both the neg and the aff, but we’ll also focus on breaking down some of the debate jargon and theory that can make counterplans seem imposing. This article is broken into 3 sections, and I suggest you read through the articles in this order: 1) The Status of Counterplans 2) Counterplan Competition & Perms 3) Types of Counterplans If you have any questions, as always, please feel free to comment on the articles. Go Pokes! Author: Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate
“What’s the status of the counterplan” is often one of the first questions you’ll hear in the cross-x of the 1NC. I’ve judged my fair share of debates where a bewildered debater turns to their partner for help after this question is asked. Fear no more, because after this primer you’ll know everything you need to confidently answer that question. Author: Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate
This section is going to provide a brief primer on permutations, perm theory, and perm jargon. Perm strategy will be discussed more in depth with specific examples in the next section, “Types of Counterplans.” Counterplans need to be competitive; they need to be mutually exclusive with the aff's plan. If doing the plan and the counterplan at the same time would obviate the advantage of the counterplan, it’s not a winner. The name of the affirmative argument that challenges the mutually exclusivity of the counterplan is the permutation, or perm. When the affirmative perms a counterplan, they are generally arguing that doing both the plan and the counterplan resolves the net benefit to the counterplan. To win, the neg needs to win that the counterplan alone is best. If the plan + the counterplan is as good as the counterplan, that’s not a reason to vote neg. Keep reading to learn more about perms... Author: Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate
In this section, we’ll discuss a few common types of counterplans. I’ll be bringing back the legitimacy meter to give you a general idea of how most judges feel about these arguments (and how I feel about them). Remember, the legitimacy meter is just about the theoretical legitimacy of an argument. You can refer back to the “status of counterplans” article if you need the key for the legitimacy meter. In addition to the legitimacy of each type of counterplan, we’ll explore how CP competition and perms work with each example, and I’ll discuss a general picture of what aff strategy should look like against common counterplans. A general strategy will only get you so far, having a specific 2AC strategy against each counterplan that makes sense against your aff is critical, but the following general discussion will help you start thinking through counterplan strategy. Next week, Monday 3/23 - Saturday 3/28, UW Debate will host online practice debates for area high schools during social distancing. While local schools are cancelled we would like to offer some temporary relief to beleaguered parents in the form of distracting your students with an educational opportunity.
UW Debate will host online sessions for intra- and inter-squad practice debates in Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, and Policy, and provide volunteer judges to evaluate these practice debates and provide feedback. If you are interested, please have a parent or a coach reach out for a parental permission form. Thank you and please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns! Matt Liu, University of Wyoming director of debate [email protected] |
MissionWyoming Debate Roundup is dedicated to providing quality debate content to Wyoming and Rocky Mountain area high school debaters. We’re a resource for Wyoming debaters by Wyoming debate coaches. Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|